Thanks for our "small-brained" friends

This concerns d-pets, but you can apply it to cats, too. Well, some of
it, anyway...

Joyce

-----------------------------------------
Thanks for our small-brained friends
Eileen Mitchell
San Francisco Chronicle
Saturday, November 13, 2004

Recently a few letters to the editor criticized the amount of canine
coverage in The Chronicle. One e-mail started with the subject line
"stupid dog freak." It was in response to one of my columns in which
I mention Golden State Greyhound Adoption and its unwavering
commitment to finding homes for retired ex-racer greyhounds.

"Saw the stupid article on you and your cause in Saturday's San Fran
Chronicle," it read. "It's freakish that you love an animal so much
your 'heart feels like bursting.' Here's some news for you: Dogs are
JUST ANIMALS. They are domesticated wolves with small brains. They
don't even know they are alive, nor can they appreciate a single
thing you're doing for them. You should be helping your fellow man,
instead of wasting your efforts on flash-in- the-pan lower species."

Let me get this straight: Because dogs are "just animals" they don't
deserve to be loved or cared for? Loving animals has never precluded
me from "helping my fellow man." I work at a nonprofit organization,
religiously recycle, donate to shelters and baby-sit, pet-sit and
house-sit for friends. I haven't yet found a cure for cancer, but
hey, there are only so many hours in a day. Still, I'm afraid my
humble efforts pale in comparison to those of our canine companions.
Because the fact is, many of these "domesticated wolves with small
brains" do more to help humankind daily than do most people in a
lifetime.

Throughout the country, children are learning to enjoy books by
reading to a nonjudgmental canine listener in programs such as Paws
to Read (Pleasanton), Read to the Dogs (Portland, Ore.), Dog Day
Afternoons (Salt Lake City) and Sit, Stay, Read (Birmingham, Ala.).
There are service dogs for the visually and hearing impaired; police
dogs; search-and-rescue dogs; and therapeutic companion dogs for
seniors, shut-ins, and the clinically depressed. There are dogs that
work as "medic alerts," predicting seizures, dangerously low blood
sugar levels and, now we're discovering, even cancer.

A canine's sense of smell is generally 10,000 to 100,000 times
superior to that of humans, as verified by a recent study in the
United Kingdom. It found that dogs sniffing urine detected "a
specific profile of aromas linked to the abnormal metabolic products
of cancer cells." As a result, a dog's sharp sense of smell may one
day prove to be a noninvasive way to detect bladder cancer. Hmmm.
Sure beats the current detection methods, which require inserting a
fiber-optic instrument into the bladder via the urethra.

Another article titled "Dogs in Training to Sniff Out Cancer"
(National Geographic News, Aug. 20) referenced studies that found a
canine's sense of smell may also be used to detect prostate cancer
from human urine. Not to mention several reports where guardians
discovered that they had a cancerous lesion (melanoma) because of
their dogs' persistent sniffing of the spot.

I contacted Marty Becker, the veterinarian correspondent for ABC-TV's
"Good Morning America." He told me about Dr. Edward T. Creagan, who
prescribes dogs for a third of his cancer patients because he is so
convinced of the ability of pets to ameliorate the emotional impact
of a cancer diagnosis. Creagan is the past president of the Mayo
Clinic and current oncology professor at the Mayo Medical School.

Becker knows firsthand about the therapeutic value of pets, having
spent 18 months researching the subject for his book, "The Healing
Power of Pets" (Hyperion Press, 2002). In our e-mail correspondence
he wrote:

"The late Dr. Robert Poresky was a human development and family
studies professor at Kansas State University. His studies showed a
small but significant increase in the IQ scores of children who cared
for animals in their home." Becker also mentioned Mark Smith, a
psychopharmacologist and National Institutes of Health researcher who
specializes in mood disorders.

"He talks about the ability of dogs to help people with manic
depression or bipolar disease. Dogs can detect people in the earliest
stages of mania, a time when people do things like spend their
savings in a single weekend on frivolous purchases or have a weekend
of sexual promiscuity." Becker also referenced a British study that
followed a woman accompanied by a yellow Labrador retriever while she
went about her daily routine for five days, and then for five more
days without the dog. With the dog, the woman spoke with 156 people,
or more than 30 people a day. Without the dog, she spoke with only 50
people, or 10 a day.

"The study found dogs serve as a social lubricant and conversation
catalyst," Becker said. "The positive interactions stimulated by the
dog are key to a greater sense of psychological well-being for the
humans."

He concluded: "You never come home and find your dog's suitcases
packed or a note saying they don't love you anymore or they've found
someone else. Dogs don't take the day off from greeting you at the
door because they're mad at you or refuse to go for a walk because
they have something better to do. Dogs don't posture for personal
gain and have no hidden agendas. They just display unconditional love
and limitless affection and loyalty."

And dogs aren't just good for the heart and soul: They may very well
save your life. When I did a Google search on the words "dog saves,"
thousands of postings appeared. These included a toy poodle whose
barking alerted a sleeping Tennessee family to a house fire, a dog in
the Philippines whose barking warned of an approaching landslide, a
golden retriever in New York that alerted a mother to her choking
child, a pit bull in Alaska who saved a child from a burning home,
and an Australian blue heeler in Florida that protected his injured
guardian from an approaching alligator. Need I continue?

Dogs do great things for humans every day, even if it's just being
there for us when we get home. This is precisely why many people
would choose a dog with a small brain over a human with no heart any
day of the week. That, my friend, is a no-brainer.

wrote in message ...
This concerns d-pets, but you can apply it to cats, too. Well, some of
it, anyway...

Amen. I have clinical depression and even on those days when I
couldn't give a rat's @$$ what happens to /me/, I have never been so
bad as to not care what might happen to my cats without me around. I
would never leave DP and the cats in that situation.

Also when I feel I've never done anything that really matters, I have
Smokey curled up in my lap and the bitties around my feet to remind me
that without me, they would all be dead, instead of sleek and happy
and revelling in the sheer enjoyment of being alive. And some of that
enjoyment can't help but spread into me.

Gods bless our fellow creatures.

--Fil

wrote in message ...
This concerns d-pets, but you can apply it to cats, too. Well, some of
it, anyway...

Amen. I have clinical depression and even on those days when I
couldn't give a rat's @$$ what happens to /me/, I have never been so
bad as to not care what might happen to my cats without me around. I
would never leave DP and the cats in that situation.

Also when I feel I've never done anything that really matters, I have
Smokey curled up in my lap and the bitties around my feet to remind me
that without me, they would all be dead, instead of sleek and happy
and revelling in the sheer enjoyment of being alive. And some of that
enjoyment can't help but spread into me.

Gods bless our fellow creatures.

--Fil

"Enfilade" wrote in message
om...
wrote in message
...
This concerns d-pets, but you can apply it to cats, too. Well, some of
it, anyway...

Amen. I have clinical depression and even on those days when I
couldn't give a rat's @$$ what happens to /me/, I have never been so
bad as to not care what might happen to my cats without me around. I
would never leave DP and the cats in that situation.

I have it too, and it's the worst illness I ever had. I understand.


Also when I feel I've never done anything that really matters, I have
Smokey curled up in my lap and the bitties around my feet to remind me
that without me, they would all be dead, instead of sleek and happy
and revelling in the sheer enjoyment of being alive. And some of that
enjoyment can't help but spread into me.

Gods bless our fellow creatures.


God bless you, too, Fil, and may you get well soon. CD is the pits.

Tweed

"Enfilade" wrote in message
om...
wrote in message
...
This concerns d-pets, but you can apply it to cats, too. Well, some of
it, anyway...

Amen. I have clinical depression and even on those days when I
couldn't give a rat's @$$ what happens to /me/, I have never been so
bad as to not care what might happen to my cats without me around. I
would never leave DP and the cats in that situation.

I have it too, and it's the worst illness I ever had. I understand.


Also when I feel I've never done anything that really matters, I have
Smokey curled up in my lap and the bitties around my feet to remind me
that without me, they would all be dead, instead of sleek and happy
and revelling in the sheer enjoyment of being alive. And some of that
enjoyment can't help but spread into me.

Gods bless our fellow creatures.


God bless you, too, Fil, and may you get well soon. CD is the pits.

Tweed