Are Pets Good for Your Mental Health? Things to Consider Before Bringing a Pet Home

Taking on a pet can be a massive responsibility and can absorb a lot of your time and money. People should not knee jerk to a taking on this responsibility based on how cute it is or because of the background story, they should think it through logically. If this is not complete, the pet could end up homeless or even worse, put to sleep. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, there was a massive upsurge in people getting pets as they seen this as good company as they were not allowed to leave the home (unless it was for essential reasons). Although this was good for pets, unfortunately after lockdown was eased, many of these pets became unwanted. The preparation and planning for a pet are essential and below are some of the things to consider.

Pet Costs

A pet is not a cheap investment. Pets will need food, potentially a bed or place to go and money spent on its healthcare. Depending on what type of pet you get, it could be quite a large offset in terms of costs. Times are tough for a lot of people at the moment whilst the economy is weak and inflation soaring therefore the additional outgoing costs of a pet could take its toll. It would be a wise idea to insure your pet so that if it becomes unwell you do not need to worry about the costs. People underestimate the cost of health support for a pet with it reaching several hundreds or even several thousands depending on the support needed. Health insurance quotes will be based around, the type of pet, age of the pet and the level of cover it is you are going for. You can choose extremely basic cover that will cover the essentials, or you can go all out and get the extended cover that will account for almost any eventuality. You do not need to pay for the policy all up front, you can make the choice to spread the costs over the year making it more affordable from your monthly outgoings.

Other Pets

Do you have any other pets? If so, it is important that you think of the interaction this new pet may have with the new one. For example, if you have a dog and you a buying a cat, this could go one of two ways. They may love each other and have a great bond, or it could end up in a fight with one of them getting seriously injured. Usually, multiple dogs will learn to get on with each other however if you already have just the one dog and you bring another into the equation, the original dog may be territorial over not only the property but over the owner and this could end badly. It would be good to allow socialisation of the pets in advance to make sure they are ok in each other’s company.

Time to be Spent

Pets cannot be purchased and then ignored. Most pets will rely on you for food, drink and your company. Pets can become very loyal to their owners also and if you are not around, they could get anxious. Consider, how much time you can commit to being with a pet. If you get a dog, bear in mind, they need exercise several times a day and if you do not have this time, you may wish to consider a dog walker (which also comes with a cost to account for).