As we journey along the golden years of our lives, we've discovered a priceless gem - the companionship of our beloved cats. They've healed us, encouraged us, and filled our lives with joy and warmth. From bounding around with a ball of yarn to those serene moments of quiet comfort, they've proven to be more than just pets - they're family. In this poignant episode, we'll open up about our personal experiences of pet ownership - the thrills, the trials, and the bittersweet moments of saying goodbye.
We'll also explore the myriad ways pets can positively impact seniors, not just emotionally but physically as well. Walk with us as we delve into the latest research showing how caring for our four-legged friends can lead to decreased cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and faster recovery from health setbacks. However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows, pet ownership comes with its own set of challenges and costs. Listen in as we balance the scales, discussing the benefits and the potential hurdles. From our hearts to yours, this is an episode you won't want to miss.
As we journey along the golden years of our lives, we've discovered a priceless gem - the companionship of our beloved cats. They've healed us, encouraged us, and filled our lives with joy and warmth. From bounding around with a ball of yarn to those serene moments of quiet comfort, they've proven to be more than just pets - they're family. In this poignant episode, we'll open up about our personal experiences of pet ownership - the thrills, the trials, and the bittersweet moments of saying goodbye.
We'll also explore the myriad ways pets can positively impact seniors, not just emotionally but physically as well. Walk with us as we delve into the latest research showing how caring for our four-legged friends can lead to decreased cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and faster recovery from health setbacks. However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows, pet ownership comes with its own set of challenges and costs. Listen in as we balance the scales, discussing the benefits and the potential hurdles. From our hearts to yours, this is an episode you won't want to miss.
Hello and welcome to the Agenda for Sissy's podcast. My name is Marcy Beckett and I am your host. On today's episode we are going to talk about pets and seniors and senior pets. So we're going to just talk about the older we get having a pet, what it means for us and if you're thinking about it for maybe a senior in your life maybe you're younger and you're thinking you know mom or dad or aunt or uncle or somebody needs a pet. We're going to talk about the pros, the cons and try to help you make that decision.
Speaker 1:Also going to check in on my week and see what was up with me. So sit back, relax, grab some coffee. It's getting colder here in Chicago, so I'm just going to stick with coffee. If you're somewhere hot, well, you're going to have to find your drink of choice. You know it gets harder and harder sometimes to remember what I did during the week, but this was a phenomenal week here in Chicago. As you all know, I live downtown in a high-rise and this week the weather was in the 80s. It was gorgeous up until Thursday and then that record just flipped, but up until then the weather was gorgeous.
Speaker 1:I walked to the gym. I made it to the gym four times this week. I am doing great walking, great feeling, great down almost 35 pounds. For me, that's awesome. I finally feel like myself again. It's funny how the world, when you feel better, the world looks better. So I did a lot of walking down Michigan Avenue this week and the fall decorations are out, the fall plants are out, pumpkins are everywhere. It just feels like a glorious fall. Thursday night yeah, thursday night we went for a walk and I was still in, as my dad would call it, shirt sleeves. I was in a t-shirt and Friday morning woke up and, bam, cold.
Speaker 1:Today was Craig's 68th birthday. He ran six miles in the morning. I thought that was awesome. He does a great job with his running and keeps himself healthy and, as we know, as we're going into these senior years, healthy is the name of the game. And even last year, when I was making poor health choices, not the best eating choices, not working out enough, moved here, not moving enough, and I'm not going to lie, we're going into the winter here.
Speaker 1:It gets harder and harder to move, but by finding an exercise program that I actually like for the first time in my life 62 years other than when I skated when I was a kid. That's something I loved. But having something that you love doing and my gym is right here, I can either walk to it in the winter, I can drive to. It takes just a second to drive there. They have the indoor pool. I'm able to do water aerobics all year round, which is great because they are certainly my exercise of choice. I feel so good at it when I do it and that's half the battle, and I am excited to go. I even went Saturday this week. So you know, find something you love. I've always heard that I've never been able to find anything I like. So, and I do like riding my bike as well. We didn't get that done as much this year as we probably should have, but, man, I was gone a lot, so that was part of it.
Speaker 1:We walked to dinner on Friday night and it felt good to bundle up. It wasn't so cold that you obviously couldn't be out. It was only, I think, like 48, 50. We had our coats on walking and talking as we're going to dinner. It just felt so city like to me and because I'm not in pain when I'm walking, I'm not thinking about the pain, I'm just enjoying the walk with friends, had a great dinner at Bistronomics, a French restaurant here. I had this beautiful green bean salad with goat cheese and caramelized hazelnuts, and then I had French onion soup for me, which was delicious. It was a great dinner and it was such a yummy soup on a cool evening. So that was that was fun.
Speaker 1:We went out to Craig's mom's house and we're looking for the original plans. Craig and I I don't know. I was out there a month or so ago when I was getting my fall decorations and I was in the house by myself and something told me we were supposed to buy the house from the family. The goal was to keep the house in the family. It's designed by Craig's dad. They built it in the 60s. It's gone. Five acres of beautiful forest land just gorgeous, gorgeous trees and a creek that runs through and everything you can think of and deers that live in the yard. I never wanted a house again, trust me. And then Craig is an architect. This was his dad's house. Now maintenance has been neglected and it needs. There's kitchen needs to be gutted, bathroom needs to be gutted.
Speaker 1:We wanna add another bedroom, but we spent the day out there walking around the house and talking about what it could be and what it should be. And it's a beautiful, modern design one-story home Very, very gorgeous, if you can picture it to completely redone with the views out into the forest and the snow coming down. I've been there when and the bedroom has these like ceiling windows that the master bedroom and I've watched the snow come down on the trees there or in the fall, the wind blow, the trees and I don't know. We may just pull the trigger and we may just do it and bring the house back to what it should be now, and that's exciting and scary all at the same time. So if you're my sister-in-laws and you're listening to this, we're thinking about it, we're really thinking about it. I think that it would be wonderful to have the home brought back to what it was and I hope it could be the heart of the family. That's what I'm looking at it as, hopefully a holiday or two there, with everyone and people coming to visit and seeing the house and having some dinners there and game nights. I have a lot of thoughts about that house and we'll see. So those are some of the things we did this week. I have a trip to California, leaving Tuesday. This will drop on Monday, october 9th.
Speaker 1:Today in Chicago is the anniversary the 153rd anniversary of the Great Fire. At our church we had a talk, learned a lot about that Great Fire and Mrs O'Leary's Cow did not start that fire people, so stop blaming that poor little Mrs O'Leary. Anyhow, our church is right in the middle of the city, had been finished for less than a month after 20 years of building, and burnt to the ground, with a wall or two left and the bell tower which still stands today, and you can see from my apartment, my condo complex, the charring on some of the parts. It's very interesting. So that was kind of an interesting morning learning about that. And then also today was the Chicago Marathon, so a lot of people in town, busy, busy, busy time here in the city, everybody looking forward to the holidays. And again, like I said, walking around the city this week was great Craig and I had to go to his audiologist and I don't mind going because across the street is Garrett's and if you've ever been to Chicago you've had Garrett's popcorn and I try not to go very often because their caramel pecan corn is my favorite, but you can order it online and I highly. It is the most buttery, delicious caramel corn. They also have it in the airports and every once in a while I'll get a tiny bag to take on the plane with me because it's so delicious. That was my week.
Speaker 1:I'm sitting here with my two lovey cats, my three-legged cat, patrick, and my sweet little pickles. I'll tell you their story in a minute about seniors owning animals. So sit back again, get ready, and we're gonna talk about pets Pets for us, pet seniors, pets in general. Well, while you're listening to this, I wonder do you have pets? We do.
Speaker 1:Craig and I have always had pets. When Craig met me, I was a cat person. I always loved dogs too, but growing up, my family always had cats and the minute I moved out of my parents' house, of course I had my own pets, my own cats. So when Craig met me, I had two cats and he did not like cats. However, a lot of reason and times you don't like cats is because your parents didn't like cats and they tell you they didn't like cats.
Speaker 1:I raise my cats like dogs, so they come when they're called, they're friendly, they're part of the family, they're with us. I've always had cats like that and it's not a coincidence, I think I raised them that way. If you get a cat that's skittish and you allow it to be skittish and you don't bring it into the family, it's going to be like that. Cats don't just bite you randomly and they don't scratch you randomly. As a general rule, I think there are some bad cats out there, just like there's bad dogs out there. Most of the time it comes from ownership or what happened to the animal before you got them. But how Craig and I came up with these two cats was we had two kitties, jingle and Belle, that we got one Christmas and then, probably about four years after owning them, we did get a dog Big Shen, french for dog and Big Shen.
Speaker 1:If there could ever be a perfect dog and it's going to choke me up it would be Big Shen. We got Big Shen from our friends that bred their Labrador. Big Shen was a black English lab. He was a big boy at his healthiest and when he was his muscleiest and everything. He was over 100 pounds but he never barked. He was sweet. He loved everyone and he loved the kitties and the kitties loved him. He was the easiest puppy.
Speaker 1:We picked him out when he was a day old. He had gone over and seen the puppies when they were born and Alec had held him and he had little folded up ears and the next day our friends called and said you've got to pick your puppy, because people are already coming to pick their puppies and you have first choice. So Alec said get the one with the folded up ears. So we made sure I went over and I picked out that puppy and they put a little silver bit of nail polish on the fur so that you know which puppy was which. So Shen was our first dog as a family and he was an amazing dog. He ran with Craig, he hiked and one day I got this email from a rescue place near us and they had these sweet, cute little puppies and they were named Bonsai and Mr Miyagi and they had the cutest little faces. And actually we were in Chicago on a vacation and I put it in an application and when we came home we went and picked out Bonsai and Bonsai was an amazing dog. He was as amazing as Shen, except for he had leash reactivity. But other than that, bonsai went to daycare. Bonsai was just an amazing dog.
Speaker 1:I loved him and the sad thing is is both the dogs got cancer. Bonsai was three years younger than Shen. Bonsai ended up with two cancer surgeries and Shen ended up with one. Shen passed away in the spring two years ago and Jingle, our kitty, had passed away a few years before. So Shen passed away in the spring of old age. He had just his hips were out. We made the choice for Shen that it was time, and you know, when you make that choice for your animals, they look to you to make that choice. It's a hard choice to make but they expect us to do right by them and we did right by Shen and not. But maybe a month or two out of the blue our kitty bell died, and within two months of that, bonsai, his cancer came back in aggressive way and he passed away too. So we lost everybody within, I want to say, four months of each other. That was a lot.
Speaker 1:And I went to the desert with my friend Lynn we always go there and I said I just don't think I can go. I was trying to go without an animal because at the time Craig and I were in flux. We knew we were probably going to have to move to a smaller home. We knew that that smaller home was probably going to be our Chicago condo. I put into rescue a lab and we wanted to get an older, senior lab and he ended up going to someone else and Kyle worked at. Well, she volunteered at a rescue said there was this three-legged cat named Patrick. So Craig and I went the night before after work and Craig met me there. We just wanted to see him and they were in cleaning the cages of the rescue cats. It was at PetSmart, so you can see them and Patrick happened to be playing with this little tiny gray kitten and they were just having the best time. So the next night when Craig and I went to rescue Patrick, we loved Patrick and Craig said can you let that little gray kitty out? And that little gray kitty came running and sat right with Patrick on the cat tree and we said we'll take them both. And it was the smartest thing we ever did. We did end up moving to Chicago.
Speaker 1:I drove across country by myself with both the cats. It was awesome and we live now in a high rise. A lot of people do have big dogs here. I just think it would be really hard on the dogs and but I know they take them out and walk them, but you know the weather gets bad here. Anyways, two cats is perfect for us right now. We can travel, which we do. I have a robotic litter box because there's not a lot of room for a litter box. It is in our bedroom, but it's a robotic litter box, so it does all its thing, keeps everything contained. It's awesome. It was not cheap it was $700, but it was the best $700 I ever spent.
Speaker 1:Patrick and Pickles. As you know, cats adapt to their surroundings. They loved the big house we were in, but they do love this too, so for us that was the right thing. So that story, as long as it was sorry, it takes us into seniors, people as you're aging, and your pets. And it's funny.
Speaker 1:I was reading articles about this as I was preparing for our podcast and one of them said you know, after 70, don't get an active dog. Well, I laugh because my sister, devon, is 74 and she runs agility with her dogs and she runs the rocket dogs and she also has an agility course at her home and teaches it. So you know, when they put age limits on things, you have to look at the person. So that's the first thing I'm gonna say is the benefits of pet ownership for seniors are immense and we're gonna go over them. Sorry, I still have a tickly throat. I am over COVID, but still a tickly throat. The first thing what is great about owning a pet? As you're older? Physical health. Owning and caring for a pet can increase physical activity among seniors, from grooming and playing with the dogs to walking dogs. More exercise, interacting with a pet also lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, which helps prevent heart disease and other issues. That alone is a great thing, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure.
Speaker 1:Pets can also aid in the recovery process after an illness, injury or surgery. Many hospitals allow people to have their pets in their rooms, which can decrease anxiety and fear and help patients heal faster. I'll tell you what else will help you heal faster. Is you wanna get home to that pet? I've been in the hospital, sadly, a couple of times since. Actually, we got them in the beginning of September and I ended up that year in the hospital for two weeks in October and I had a dog cam for our dogs that shot treats and I told Craig to turn it back on and while I was in the hospital I taught our cats how to use it and how to come running and then I would shoot treats at them and I'd be able to see them and talk to them and in the hospital, that made me feel so much better. It also makes you wanna get out faster to be with your animals. You don't always wanna be out faster to be with people.
Speaker 1:How does it help your emotional health? Well, pets, like dogs, can provide company for those who live alone. Seniors who live alone are more likely to get lonely, depressed and anxious. When you have an animal that you can talk and interact with and, trust me, we talk to our animals just like their people. Having a pet is like having a friend and it doesn't need to be invited over for dinner because it's already there. So think about emotional health, think about those seniors or yourself.
Speaker 1:Pets can also help seniors relieve stress and feel a sense of purpose. Depression and loneliness can cause and we've talked about this depression and loneliness are the number two problems for seniors number one and number two problems. They feel worthless and helpless and an animal. You never feel that way with an animal. Having a pet to take care of gives seniors a reasons to feel a sense of self-worth as they receive love and affection from the pet and it relies on them for care. We have been caregivers most of our life and when we become a senior and you know and I'm talking when you know, either now I'm 62 or well into your 80s we still want to take care of people, and taking care of an animal feels that need Companionship.
Speaker 1:Pets are loyal companions who love unconditionally. They'll never forget about you or ignore you. When you come home at night. They will greet you every time you walk through the door and be excited to see you. Can you say that about any person you know? Are they always excited when you walk through the door? I can tell you a pet is pets. I mean Patrick comes or he he's too lazy, he's a talker cat and he'll just yell from the other room. He's pretty funny, but they're always happy to see you. So those are some of the good things about pet ownership the companionship, the love that you get from them, the unconditional love.
Speaker 1:But, as we know, there are some challenges. So what are some of the challenges? Costs? It is not cheap to keep an animal. I will tell you the best thing we ever did for our animals, and I guess I'm gonna do it here in Chicago because I preached this. Petsmart has their own pet hospital inside it and I believe PetCo does as well now and they offer a health plan and I think it was $38 a month for each of the dogs and 22 for the cats, but that gave them two annual visits a year, all their shots, everything you can possibly do. So it more than covered itself. But I will tell you, because of those our dogs went in twice a year and our cats went in twice a year. They catch things. That's how they caught the cancer in our dogs at such an early stage Because I took them in twice a year.
Speaker 1:How many of you take in your animals twice a year for a physical? I bet you don't. But through the Banfield program you can do that. So there are programs out there. I know there's other programs. This is just one that I've had experience with. Make sure you, like the vet I loved our vet, dr Wu, was our vet for over 20 years and the other thing about the Banfield plan was you could, anytime you brought them in, like if you were worried about something, you can bring them in. You get no charge for that visit.
Speaker 1:So a lot of times you don't bring your animals in because you don't wanna pay for an office visit. You don't pay for an office visit when you're on that plan, so there is the cost. So it's not only that food litter, all those types of things. So you wanna be sure that that can fit into your budget because you never wanna short change an animal. But you can do it in an affordable way. You don't have to get the most expensive cat litter and, trust me, yes, there's a lot of good foods out there and they are reasonably priced. You don't have to get the most expensive raw food diet for your animal.
Speaker 1:I think an animal sitting at the pound or sitting at a rescue would be happy with just regular old dog food and a home rather than sit in a rescue and not be rescued because you don't think you can afford the most expensive food. So think about that. Sometimes they can be difficult to care for with pets with sickness or physical conditions and as they get older. We all know this and this is becoming a big problem at the shelters. Old pets are being dumped because they can't afford the care, which breaks my heart. So put a little money away for a rainy day if you can, so that those pets, as they get older, can be well taken care of. Or talk to your vet or, again, be on a plan. Be on a plan or get pet insurance. There's a lot of good ones now, so should seniors own pets. Whether you're a senior, a pet owner or thinking about becoming one, the information I gave you should prove useful. The last thing I want to talk about, before I talk about that, is arrangements for travel.
Speaker 1:Make sure I use Rover here. Rover is an app. I checked. The person had good reviews, everything like that. I've heard nightmare stories, but I've heard nightmare stories of people that aren't on an app. So Eva is our pet sitter and I got her through Rover. She loves my cats. She comes. You get a check-in time on the app They've checked in. She sends eight to 11 pictures every time of her playing with the cats and being with the cats and the cats. My home is always impeccable when I get home. She takes good care of the cats. I found a great cat sitter and I found it on Rover, which is an app, and there's a lot of apps out there. They can help you walk your dogs, take care of your pets. There's dog walking services.
Speaker 1:Look for a young person in your neighborhood. My nephew, chris, since he was very young, has taken care of all of the dogs. It seems like in their neighborhood If somebody's going to be out and their dog needs to get out, go potty and go for a walk, they call Chris. Chris goes over and does it. So look in your neighborhood for help.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about how to find the right pet for a senior. There's 10 questions I want you to ask yourself. Or ask the senior Is somebody, is there? Is the person set in their ways? If change isn't your loved one's cup of tea, then they may not be a good candidate for a pet. So you definitely want to talk this over with the senior. Or if the senior comes to you, you want to say well, you know what, mom or dad, you don't really like to go out and talk to the neighbors or go for a walk. You know the dog's going to need a walk or this.
Speaker 1:Or you know, maybe consider a cat versus a dog. The cats are self-sufficient and they don't need a walk, and that is something. If they think they have hate cats because they've been told they hate cats, you might want to go visit a cat or a rescue. Have they had a pet before? That's very important. If they hadn't, you know, maybe they need to volunteer at a rescue for a while and be around the animals. That's a great way to do it too. If they're looking for something to do, they can rescue, or they can foster. Maybe foster a set of kittens, and If you're fostering, those kittens are going to be finally put into the rescue and they are going to be rescued, but they might fall in love with one. So think about that as well.
Speaker 1:Any disabilities are functional limits. That's something to look at. Would a therapeutic or emotional support animal be beneficial? Is that the route you need to go? Do they need an animal to help take care of them? So that's a thought right there. What age pet would be best? Well, as I told you, so many senior pets. If they have the financial means and if you're not so old that you can't lift a dog or something like that, I am telling you, if we get a dog again, I want to rescue a senior. I would rescue a senior and also get a young dog. If we get the house, we'll probably do that. I would continue to rescue seniors as they would come in and out of our life. That would be my goal, if we have the space to do that, because the rate that they're dumping seniors at these rescues and it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1:What temperament. Think about that. You don't want to get a guard dog or a dog that needs to be run a greyhound. You want a couch potato dog if you're older and you know that you're just not going to be out there all the time, and there's a lot of good couch potato dogs out there. You want to make sure, when you get the pet, that they're healthy. You want to think about do you want one or two? We got the two cats. They are very bonded, but they're also bonded to us. Sometimes they can bond to each other and not you, but I think that's if you're not active in their lives. So we're very active in these two Ding-a-ling's lives and they're active in ours, but they are certainly bonded together. Pickles and Patrick.
Speaker 1:We've talked about finances and then this is the last and final thing that I'm going to say about this is to make sure you have final arrangements for your pets. If you're alone right now, craig and I would take care of them. If something happened to Craig and I, I don't if we something happens to the both of us at the same time. I don't have a plan for the cats and I need to. I preach it and I don't have one at the moment. I do believe my son, alec, would take them right, alec, yeah, so I know he would actually. And you want to have a plan for your pets.
Speaker 1:My mom passed away with no plan for her cat. So my sister Cindy and I, when we were there trying to do everything else clean out the house, do all this, meet, you know, and my sister Cindy had to meet with the bankers and all these things we had to do. We also had to find somewhere for her beloved cat to go, and thank God, we found a woman in her church that held onto the cat and then found somebody that wanted her and it was a good home. So that was a great thing. So think about that. Think about that. You know this is not just pets for seniors, this is pets for everyone. So if you're thinking about a pet, these are all the same questions you should ask yourself.
Speaker 1:If you're one of my young listeners and you're thinking about it, the last thing I would tell you, if you're one of my young listeners. If you have young kids, not a great time to get a dog, dogs or dogs they can snap, nip and bite out of for no reason other than you know your kid pulls the ears. We didn't get a pet dog in our house until Alec was in junior high elementary school and Kyle was in junior high and I never alluded, deluded myself, that the kids were going to take care of it. I knew the minute I got that pet that it was my job. I never thought, oh, the kids are going to do it. Don't do that, it's a recipe for failure. So that's my last preach on this subject. I hope all is well with you. I don't have a senior moment today. I have to meet the week. No, I'm just kidding, but I want you to take care of yourself. If a pet is right, I'm excited.
Speaker 1:Share your pet stories with me at agingfastoneatgmailcom. I'd love to hear your pet stories Aging Fast One at gmailcom and my website that you can go and you can look for information and find things is aging ain't for sissy's podcastcom. Aging ain't for sissy's podcastcom. Please continue to share our podcast as our little audience is growing and growing. If you have subjects you want me to cover. I honestly, you guys. That's probably my hardest part. Craig's audiologist is coming on. I've had a couple more people contact me for interviews, which I'm going to do, but I need suggestions, because I can only think so much. I need your help. So agingfastoneatgmailcom. Shoot me an idea. I would love it. Today I had no idea of where I was going to go with my podcast and I came home from church and I said to Patrick what are we going to talk about today? And Patrick looked at me and I went oh, animals. So my ideas come from the strangest places. Remember what I always say aging ain't for sissy's. See you next week.