Dear LPG, 

I have a friend who is recovering from a stroke.  It was not the worst one she could have had but it was not good either.  She is getting better now but even five months after it happened, she knows that it will be a while before she can get out of her home on her own again.   I know that she has some family living close by, but she spends a lot of time alone.  

I try to visit as often as I can but I cannot imagine what it is like to be happy and self-sufficient one day and unable to do anything for yourself the next.  Now that she can talk again, she has given me a really vivid idea of what it is like to, be relatively helpless; only having your carer’s and health professionals visits to be sure that you can really look forward to each day.  

She tells me that the days are long and she has too much time to think but there is always a silver lining to every cloud and hers is her cat.   Whenever I visit he is always there with her but I have to say that I worry about the fact that she lets him sleep, preen himself and generally share the bed that she is forced to spend so much of her sleeping and waking hours on.  

It occurs to me that the cat is out and about doing the things that cats do for a lot of the day and then, when he returns, he shares any germs and stuff that is trapped on his paws or in his fur with her whenever he comes back.  The irony is that I know how important having her cat close means to her, and she does not appear to be more ill in any way because of her cat.  She is obviously better for their close relationship so I have said nothing. 

But I was prompted to see what the internet has to say about how healthy it is for a person who is still recovering to be so close to a pet.  

I have to say that I don’t think that she would be better off without the animal because I know that I would be devastated without my two, they spend time on my lap and under my feet during the day and have their own cat beds but, in my home they know that the humans’ bedrooms are out of bounds and that those particular doors are closed to them.  Then again, I can get out and I am self-sufficient, so while their hairs will be all over my day clothes and the reception areas in my home, I know that my bed clothes are reasonably cat-free.  Perhaps the fact that I have a family member who is truly allergic to pet fur is also swaying my thoughts but I took a look on the internet to see what opinions are there and having found a few I felt them worth sharing…  

LA, Blackheath

LA shares her findings…

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