As you know, we’re all about multiple pets in our household. With two dogs and four cats, there’s always something going on here, from dogs playing chase to cats curled up and napping together (and, sometimes, dogs and cats curled up napping together!)
To celebrate the special bond and joy of multiple pets in a household, Pets Add Life (PAL) officially designated November 19 as National Get a Pal For Your Pet Day!
Related: Annual Calendar of Pet Holidays and Awareness Days
Benefits of Multiple Pets
We know you’ve heard many of the benefits of having a pet–from lowering your blood pressure to reducing depression–but we wanted to tell you some of the benefits we’ve found not just of having a pet but also of sharing our home with multiple pets!
Having multiple pets helps prevent separation anxiety.
Yes, we get “the look” from our dogs when we leave the house but our dogs don’t show separation anxiety when we’re gone. They’re wonderful company for each other and Tiki is a calming force for Irie, who is more anxious.
Having multiple dogs can speed up training time.
We had Irie for six months before we adopted Tiki and had taken her to clicker training classes before Tiki’s arrival. When we got Tiki, her training was speedy, partly because she watched Irie for cues to what she should do.
Having multiple cats helps socialization.
We’ve often written about our cat Felix, who was a feral cat when we adopted him. To help bring him into the family, we soon adopted the most outgoing kitten we could find at the shelter–now named Linus. Soon Felix was watching Linus interact with us and his trust in us grew.
Having multiple pets brings some volume savings.
We have a discount at our veterinarian’s office for having more than one pet, and we’re able to take advantage of large size purchases–from large containers of cat litter to large pet food bags–because we know we’ll go through it quickly.
Having multiple pets takes some pressure off of us.
Although we’re home all day with our pets, we sometimes get busy writing…but, at the same time, we see our cats and dogs playing with one another. They’re not just waiting for us to stop work and play with them, which they know is coming, but in the meantime they amuse each other.
Having multiple pets is always a learning experience.
Watching our pets interact with each other is educational and entertaining. We’ve learned so much about body language of canines and felines from just watching the cats and dogs as they go through their daily routine.
Pin it to Remember National Get a Pal For Your Pet Day
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