Roughly 70% of American households own at least one pet, a proportion that’s growing every year. Our fur babies are our family. We don’t know about you, but we at AquaTru couldn’t have made it through the pandemic without our furry friends. Did you know that pets can help out with just more than companionship? Here’s why they deserve some extra appreciation on February 20th, National Love Your Pet Day. 

Mental Health Benefits of Pets

“Pets” can come in all shapes and sizes and there are benefits to having dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, and even exotic animals in your home. 

We know how their companionship can put a smile on our face and their exercise needs help us get outside, too. Some may even notice how dogs react to tone of voice, gestures, and body language. And who hasn’t been comforted while crying by their fur baby?!

There are many other health and mood-boosting benefits of having pets in our lives:

• Pet owners are less likely than non-pet owners to have depression.
• Playing with a pet can lead to a release of serotonin and dopamine, helping someone feel calm and relaxed. Just touching them can reduce symptoms of stress or anxiety. 
• Lower blood pressure has been reported (especially during stressful situations) for those with pets in their home. 
• Compared with those that don’t have them, pet owners have lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels (indicators of heart disease). Heart attack patients tend to live longer when they have pets, too. 
• Pet owners older than 65 have roughly 30% less trips to the doctor than people of the same age without pets. 

Our Pets Deserve the Best 

For these reasons and more, fur babies deserve the best. This means regular pets and cuddles, a comfortable place to sleep, good-quality food, and lots of walks and play time! This is also why we only give our pets AquaTru water. We don’t want anyone in our family drinking contaminants that exceed safe water limits, and this goes for our furry friends, too. 

In fact, our pets have become quite the water snobs… now they even turn their noses up at tap water! Yours too? We’d love to see how they toast to cleaner water on #NationalLoveYourPetDay. Feel free to tag us in a photo (@aquatru)!