educe their stress and concern over what will happen to the animal when they are gone as they know it will continue to be well-cared for and loved.
According to Abrams (2000), several studies have shown that interacting with pets can profoundly reduce stress in diverse patient groups, many of them while not terminally ill, are suffering from conditions in which the possibility that they may die, at least during the time of initial treatment, is higher than average. In this regard, Abrams notes that a study of 92 patients with heart disease conditions that were very serious found that those who owned pets were more likely to be alive a year later than those who did not. Further, she reports that only six percent of patients who owned pets died within one year compared with 28 percent of those who did not own pets.
Even more directly related to terminal illness, Abrams (2000)reported that studies examining the therapeutic use of pets as companions for people with AIDS or cancer, the elderly, and the mentally ill, have observed that the animals provi
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