TEDtalks: Best Friends

Anyone who has spent time with animals of any kind knows that there is something so honest, so nurturing and calming about them. That’s why we have therapy dogs and horses, and emotional support animals of all species— animals have a healing spirit.

In fact, researchers find that being with animals increases levels of calming chemicals in the brain — serotonin and dopamine — even for people who say they don’t like animals.

Sigmund Freud knew this, and included his Chow, Jofi, in psychotherapy sessions. One of my favorite writers, E.B. White, preferred animals to most people. In “Charlotte’s Web,” when Charlotte tells Wilbur, “You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing,” it was White talking to all his animals (especially the beloved dachshunds).

Let’s not forget the more challenging but less accommodating cat. “What greater gift than the love of a cat?” asked Charles Dickens. And Albert Schweitzer believed, “There are two means of refuge from the misery of life — music and cats.”

But I’m with Mark Twain, who said, “The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.” Because, as Andy Rooney pointed out, “The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.”

In this month’s Senior News, we celebrate those best friends and life companions, from hedgehogs to goats, parrots, horses, dogs and cats and, more generally, all the creatures of the forest, land, air and sea. Because animals are people, too.

So many wanted to tell your animal tales that we couldn’t fit them all in — even though we bumped up to 28 pages this month from the usual 24. That enthusiasm alone is evidence of the importance of animals in our lives.

Here at Senior News World Headquarters, my crack editorial assistant, Stella, a hard-working 13-year-old black Lab mutt, offers her input from the sofa. Woof.

••• The editor deserves a dopeslap. Last month’s “Random Reflections” column on page 8 — which welcomes different voices each month — featured “108 Smiles” by Paul Modic of Garberville. We were delighted to have his SoHum perspective, even though the byline inexplicably calls him “Dan.” Paul was very gracious about the perils of proofreading, but the editor prescribed himself a sharp dopeslap.

This month, Susan Bennett of Freshwater offers her “Random Reflections” on a hedgehog. If you’d like to try your hand at writing a column, send your 450 beautifully sculpted insights on any topic to tpease@ humsenior.org.

Ted Pease, Senior News editor, accepts dopeslaps and Stella’s advice in Trinidad.