Longevity linked to little loved ones

On average, people with pets live 2 years longer than people without pets (keep in mind this is appropriate pets like cats or dogs. Having an inappropriate pet such as monkeys or big cats will probably shorten your life by a lot more than 2 years). Maybe it's just because I'm a pet person, but this seems like common sense to me. Some things are obvious, like a dog needs to be taken outside to go to the bathroom which requires you to get off your butt and go outside. Or seeing eye dogs keep their owners from crossing the street when a car is coming. But some of the research I've found is not quite so obvious. Here's a few examples:

A study done by the Minnesota Stroke Institute found that people who own cats are 30% less likely to suffer a heart attack. And psychologists have found reason to believe that owning a dog helps lower your blood pressure and cholesterol. Pets also help us to deal with stress, which can cause illness.

Zia- my miniature pinscher 

Apparently dogs can also smell bladder cancer in a patient's urine.  "Although the dogs were not accurate all the time, they identified the right patients at a rate much better than chance." 
Dogs have been used for years to help their owners during an epileptic seizure. They can get help by either finding another person or activating a pre-programmed phone, they pull potentially dangerous objects away from the persons body, they provide physical and emotional support and they carry information (usually in a backpack or a pouch on their collar) about the owners medical condition, instructions for first responders, emergency medication, etc.  Some of these dogs have developed the mysterious ability to warn their owner when he or she is about to have a seizure. Researchers can't explain it, but apparently these dogs start warning their owners approximately a year after living with them. 

Studies show that kids who grow up with furry friends are less likely to develop allergies or asthma. And they are better equipped to deal with emotional turmoil such as a death in the family.

Irma- my rat. 

Rats make remarkable pets. They are smart, easily trained and very affectionate.

 However, they are also very social, so if you are not willing to spend time

 with them everyday I'd suggest getting more than one. 

Alzheimer's patients have fewer "anxious outburts" if they are in a home with a pet. Interactions with animals helps to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system in elderly patients, which helps the body rest and digest properly (thank you Dr. Ackman for cramming that little chunk of knowledge into my brain). 
As part of it's medical screening process Midland Life Insurance Company asks clients over age 75 if they have a pet at home, a positive answer will usually tip the scale in their favor. 

I could go on and on about all of the reasons to go to your local shelter and find yourself a new friend, but who am I kidding? If you're the kind of person who's going to make a trip to the shelter, you don't need me to talk you into it... and, in my experience, a trip to the shelter NEVER ends with me going home alone. 

Winston (left) is my roommate's dachshund (he's also the only boy in our house), Leia (center) is my roommie's yellow lab & Suki (right) is my aussie/ border collie mix...

Yeah- we plan to live forever in this house. 

Among the Great Apes by Paul Raffaele

I'll be honest- I had a really hard time getting through this book. I just didn't like the author's attitude. He made snide remarks about the locals, made a point of stating only what the (extremely underfunded) sanctuaries were doing wrong, and bullied the real experts into saying what he wanted them to say & if they didn't he'd just say something along the lines of "this is what he/she said- but they're wrong" without giving the reader any reason to believe that the expert is wrong except that he says so. At one point he even makes a volunteer feel bad for spending $4000 to volunteer at an ape sanctuary because "she could have given them the money she spent on a plane ticket as well" as if physical labor isn't also needed at sanctuaries. Obviously this is a guy who's never actually had to spend a day hauling crates of food around, maintaining enclosures or shoveling shit- I know I speak for most sanctuary employees when I tell you that we LOVE our volunteers.
These examples are not constants in the book (each example only happened once or twice), but because they happened at all, I felt like they poisoned the entire book.

Paul Raffaele is no expert. He's a travel journalist by trade who's written two other books, Among the Cannibals (Apparently he's not very creative with book titles either) and The Last Tribes on Earth.
 I have a hard time believing someone who tries to prove he's comfortable with animals by putting this picture on the back of his book:

He may be comfortable with animals, but he's not very smart with them. 

I will give him this; he's passionate about saving these animals, and his book does have some heart-warming stories & a call to action at the end.