I found this article about whether owning a pet can help you live longer. Researchers have been studying the positive impacts of having a pet for decades: the walks, the lowered blood pressure, the sense of routine and purpose. The results, apparently, are fairly compelling.
I read this with the quiet satisfaction of someone who already knew.
I have been providing myriad benefits to this office for years. Every morning walk, every nudge toward the door at lunch, every well-timed placement of my chin on a stressed human’s knee. These are not accidents, they are interventions. You get up, move and breathe, and briefly remember that the world contains things beyond your inbox.
I don’t ask for much in return. Just acknowledgment that I am, in fact, the reason this team is thriving, and the occasional bit of cheese.
The research simply confirms what I have long suspected: I am not just a colleague. I am infrastructure.
— Louis, Culture Manager
