Stress reduction through animals

As I type this I have a small gray kitten in my lap rubbing against my arms and trying to convince me to stop this foolishness of tapping on those little things and get back to the business of petting like a good human.

Shady has a purr that can be heard across the room and is determined that he is the center of everyone's attention. It is a trait that makes him lovable enough not to be pitched off my lap for the mass amount of gray fur I just had to blow off the keyboard and the even nastier mess of gray hairs that were extracted from under the keys earlier using a can of compressed air.

There is something soothing about cats, particularly kittens. It's like Tribbles - soft adorable little bundles of fur that just want to be loved and provide endless love in return (and like Tribbles, if you don't spay or neuter your cat you soon end up buried up to your ears in purring balls of fur).

Which is not all that bad. There is nothing quite like a bundle of kittens fast asleep all over your bed as you sleep. We just have the two cats, but I had several cats that had kittens when I was a little girl. Cats can calm you when you are feeling stressed just by doing what cats do - getting in your lap and purring away the depression. Batting a small toy around on the floor or getting in a losing battle with a chunk of Styrofoam that leaves tiny white pellets all over the gray fur. Easy to tell the Styrofoam won the battle.