A ‘magical’ treatment for seniors with dementia: Horse therapy [washingtonpost.com]

Cats can also be quite therapeutic, at least for those people who truly appreciate the mammal's grace and beauty. Personally, while I like to listen to a cat's purring, I especially find soothing the feline's trilling; and a combined purr and trill is delightful, too.

Contrary to their oft misperceived worthlessness as pets by many people, cats can actually be very pleasant and amazingly attached to you if they sense enough genuine affection, including verbal attention, directed at them.

In regards to good companionship and health, I've found that pet cats, as with dogs, are often a case of owners basically receiving what they put into their pets — or fail to. ...

Whenever I observe anxiety in the facial expression of my aging mother, a typical senior, I can also witness how that stress suddenly drains and is replaced with joyful adoration upon her cat entering the room: “Hi, sweetheart,” she’ll say.

I know that countless other seniors with pets also experience the emotional benefits of their animals’ presence. Of course, the animals' qualities, especially an un-humanly innocence, makes losing that pet someday such a heartbreaking experience.

Many of us can appreciate the reciprocally healthy — perhaps even somewhat symbiotic — relationships that can exist between pet cats and their loving and appreciative human hosts, especially physically and/or mentally ill hosts. They have a beneficial influence over humanity that many people still cannot fathom; and this beautiful reality of their positive effect on their human hosts can also be beneficial to the animals themselves.