Welcome to the Light Keepers podcast. I'm Clayton
Vandiver, your Light Keeper, with a show dedicated
to everyone who wants to get the most quality
out of life that they can. My co -host as always,
Charlene, our licensed clinical social worker
certified in the state of Florida, joining the
conversation this week about puppies, kittens,
and pets. Oh my! And so much more, right here
on the Light Keepers podcast. Well, before we
start, please leave your questions or comments
below. We always love to hear from you. Questions
this week will be answered during our next show
that appears online every Wednesday evening at
7 p .m. Eastern. The Light Keepers podcast is
an exclusive production of A Guiding Light, and
we'll tell you more about A Guiding Light at
the end of the podcast. But since we don't have
much time, let's get right into this week's conversation
about puppies and kittens. Oh, my. Tell me, Charlene,
what do those have to do with the quality of
life that we normally discuss on this show? Well,
we talk about how to get the most out of life
and how to get the best quality of life that
we can. And for a lot of people, that includes
a pet or pets, plural. Yeah, I know. And we've
had one of our cats actually climb into this
podcast before. Yep, she's been right in there
in the middle. How does that benefit folks who
might be having health challenges? So pet ownership,
having a pet family member, I don't like to think
of them as objects. They're a member of the family,
be they furry, finned, or feathered. They're
a family member. Right, absolutely. And they
can benefit our health in a lot of different
ways. And in fact, I actually went online and
did some research just so that people didn't
think I was making this stuff up. And you can
look online and there's dozens, hundreds, thousands
of references and resources out there that tell
you about the benefits of pet ownership. But
the one that I found particularly interesting
was actually put up by the Health Direct website
in Australia. It's a government -sponsored website.
And based on their research, they came up with
this list of benefits of pet ownership. And among
those is stress reduction, which is true. It
has actually been scientifically proven that
spending time with a pet lowers your stress level.
Okay, so what happens when your stress level
goes down? Heart health. Lower blood pressure.
Makes perfect sense. Lower heart rate. So now
you have heart benefits. Okay. Okay, so mental
health. Pet ownership, spending time with your
pet, reduces loneliness, boosts mental health.
So that's important. Sense of purpose, you know,
having a sense of purpose in life because you
have someone that you're responsible for that
would die without you. I mean, they've got to
be fed, they've got to be watered, they've got
to be taken care of. So you have a sense of purpose
in life when you have a pet. Pets can provide
opportunities for social interactions. And I
can 1 ,000 % verify this because, funny story,
we actually have an outdoor cat in our neighborhood
that our family has actually gotten quite fond
of. And come to find out, he belongs to the house
on the street behind us. And these are neighbors
that we never would have met otherwise, but now
we kind of have this shared custody of this cat.
That is very true. And he's a very intelligent
cat that has lived out of doors in a naturally
long time. Yes. And I remember when we were doing
the Animals at Heart television show back in
the early 2000s for the Jacksonville Humane Society.
In five years, we did 450 unique episodes, a
30 -minute broadcast television show that we
had over 8 ,000 animals find new homes during
the course of that five years. We're very, very
proud of those statistics. But I learned during
that time a lot of things being the co -host
of the show with Sonia White, the executive director
of the shelter. Brilliant lady. Oh, my goodness.
And I remember she told me that indoor cats can
live. on average 18 to 20 years sometimes an
outdoor cat on average lives five years yeah
there are so many hazards so many threats so
many dangers whether it's a car stray dogs raccoons
other animals that can get into a fight with
a cat over food that's been put out for it and
There are just so many hazards that their average
lifespan is five years. This cat that wanders
through our neighborhood, generally just between
our house and the one behind us, is... Has lived
many, many, many years. He's 14. Yes, 14. But,
you know, there again, though, normally we encourage
people to always keep their cats indoors because
they are safer. They're not just safer from environmental
hazards, but you also have the health hazards.
You know, you have risk of being exposed to so
many diseases, feline leukemia, rabies, all these
things that your cat is not exposed to if you
keep them indoors. inside. So normally that's
what we would educate people to do. Keep your
cat indoors. This cat cannot be contained indoors.
I'd have to say that right up front. We brought
him into the house when it was cold outside,
tried to do the right thing by him. Oh my goodness.
If he doesn't find any food sitting down, he'll
sample the other cat's food. He'll just say,
okay, it's time to go, and he'll go back to the
front door. And he'll sit at the door, and he'll
yowl and yowl and yowl, and then he'll start
scratching at the door. He's a smart fellow,
and he knows exactly how to get himself booted
out. He knows what he wants. But even with him,
he's a wonderful example of... why it's important
to keep cats indoors. Because we had that horrific
episode last December where in our own front
yard, he was attacked by two roaming pit bulls
that had broken out of their home. Quite regularly.
Quite regularly, unfortunately. And that's a
whole other episode talking about responsible
pet ownership. But anyway, he was severely mauled,
spent several weeks in the hospital, and almost
died. Had a large portion of his large... It's
a very round cat. And he had a very large portion
of himself almost removed. Yeah. And even today,
his pattern isn't even on one side where they
had to stitch him back up. Yeah, he's a tabby,
and his stripe down the back actually curves
a little bit because of how the scar tissue came
together. Yeah. Well, he lost a lot of flesh.
He did. He was opened almost down to the bone.
That is a sight I could... I would love to forget
and unfortunately can't. And our ring cameras
caught most of that. It caught the sound of the
attack and it caught the dogs just a moment earlier
actually threatening you. My wife went out the
front door. The dogs came at her and followed
her back to the front door and she simply turned
and walked in and had her back to them when they
literally lunged at her. It's all on camera.
Yeah. People, please keep your dogs in your yard
if you're not going to keep them in the house.
Yes. But we digress. I know there's going to
be comments. There always are. We're not picking
on pit bulls specifically. Any dog breed can
be dangerous. Because one was a pit mix. The
other was pure pit. But they are particularly.
dangerous animals, and they do tend to like to
hunt in packs. Any dog, any breed, when it gets
into that pack mentality, if there's an instigator
in the bunch, then they're all dangerous in that
group because of the pack mentality. That's absolutely
true. And I learned so much during the course
of doing those 450 episodes over five years that
many of the statistics from the American Humane
Association, they listed, now this was in around
2000, between 2000 and 2005, they listed the
most dangerous breeds by attacks on adults, attacks
on people under the age of 10. The most dangerous
animal across the board on all of their lists
was always the pit bull. Yeah. Mostly because,
and we actually started a program called, what
was the Pets and Children? PACT. The Pets and
Children Together Program. Yep. The PACT program
was an educational curriculum. To take into schools
and to teach children that all of those friendly,
fluffy, wonderful dogs that they see and think
they're just a very animated stuffed toy that
they walk up to isn't necessarily. And oftentimes
the dog can see that approach as a threat and
it does what comes natural. It defends itself
or it defends its food dish that has food in
it, thinks another animal is coming up to take
it, and it does what comes natural. And unfortunately,
many, many times that situation adds to the statistics
and two wonderful innocent lives are lost along
with a whole lot of anguish. The child that gets
mauled and the dog that gets put down because
of it. And the program was really a wonderful
program that we did not... teach children to
be afraid of dogs. What we taught them was how
to read the body language that would indicate
that they needed to give the dog some space.
Exactly. And also bite prevention. Basic bite
prevention. Don't approach with these five yummy
little things sticking out. Approach like this.
Do a little fist bump. Not a fist bump, but hold
your fist out because a dog understands this
shape. Back of the hand. It looks like a paw.
This looks like five yummy little You know, Oscar
Myers they're going to snack on. So there are
little tips like that. And also I remember a
tragic, tragic story that I edited one day at
the local television station. It was a national
story that came in about a family. The grandparents
were babysitting their brand new grandbaby. And
their little bitty, and I think it was like a...
It was a Pomeranian. Pomeranian. Pomeranian and
a Corgi. It was a Pomeranian. Pomeranian. Was
elderly. It was a six -week -old infant. And
it was a very young child, very old dog. They
didn't think anything of it. The dog had never
been aggressive in its life. Yeah. But they were
going to babysit for the day. They laid the baby
down in the bed. They stepped outside of the
house to say goodbye to the children who were
going off to spend their day away from the child.
And in that time, the dog did something that
was very, very natural. Natural dog behavior.
It walked up, said, hmm, there's a new animal
in the house. I have to show it who's dominant.
Took it by the neck, gave the infant a little
shake, which is a natural dog behavior to establish,
I'm the top in this dominance. You're going to
be subsidiary to me. Well, it broke the child's
neck and killed the infant. The dog was put down.
The children and the grandparents may have never
spoken. I don't know how that was resolved. But
I know that the story in the news was tragic.
And a little bit of education, a little bit of
pets and children together, education could have
prevented that, saved that child's life. When
a dog has never met a child, a person, an infant
before, you do not leave them unsupervised. You
just don't. And that was a terribly, horribly
tragic situation. It broke my heart. And it was
one of the things that caused us to create the
Pets and Children Together program. That's all
part of Animals at Heart. The name of the television
show, the name of the educational program. And
it was all inspired by the real world. And there
it is. It's on the backside of our marvelous
coffee mugs, by the way. I'll let you see that.
It's the Animals at Heart logo that opened every
show. And it says below it, because pets are
family too. And by the way, these great coffee
mugs that have the Guiding Light logo on one
side and the Animals at Heart logo on the other,
they are available. And we'll tell you more about
those in a future episode. We may do a merch.
show but but if you care for one send us a message
we'll make sure we can get one to you they're
they're not astronomical but getting back to
the getting back to the topic of the show so
um talking about how we have to wrap it up too
we're running out of time talking about how pets
can increase social interactions you know our
neighborhood cat has definitely introduced us
to neighbors that we never would have met otherwise
and they're lovely people and And we actually
text regularly now to make sure he makes it from
one house to the other safely, which I find just
absolutely hilarious. But pets also increase
fitness, because especially if you have a dog,
you have to take it for a walk. Yes, of course.
You're out several times a day, every day. Yeah.
Cats, not so much. And there are a really distinct
division between pet ownership. There are cat
lovers. There are dog lovers. And we've had both
in our household, in our family. Cats can help
get your exercise too. Cats can help you get
your exercise. Well, this is true. All you need
is a laser pointer and you're going to be all
over the house. Well, that wasn't what I was
thinking, but that would work too. Have you seen
how fast somebody moves when you hear the sound
of a cat about to throw up? You want to get it
off that special rug and put it on the tile floor.
Off the furniture. Yes. All right. A little bit
of cat humor. Well, that's true. But heart health.
But here's something I bet you didn't know. There
are many things I don't know. Did you know that
introducing a child to a pet at a young age lowers
their risk of developing allergies? Yes, I had
heard that. Because they're introduced to that
dander. It exposes them to more danders. Exactly.
And therefore they develop the antibodies. Antibodies.
So they don't develop those allergies. So it's
a good thing. Well, there you go. So there is
a benefit at every stage of life, including,
and we haven't talked about this yet. We've run
way out of time. But I wanted to talk about pet
therapy animals. And, of course, the animals,
not just guide dogs, but those who go into hospitals,
hospice units, that give people a little bit
of love and comfort. Oh, pet therapy animals,
they need their own show. We'll do that. Let's
do another show about animals then. Let's just
do a back -to -back. All right. So, of course,
all of this is a highly personal choice. No conversation
that we have on the Light Keepers podcast should
ever take the place of your own medical care
team, your own pet therapy animal, or other professional
advisor who should always be consulted by you
on your specific situational needs. And it's
always good to be willing to talk about quality
of life and about your pets, because every single
one of us faces some of these issues someday,
either not prepared at all, or really very well
prepared indeed, from joining us here on the
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Sincerely hope you'll join the conversation in
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Keeper. We'll see you next time.