Pet Doors Opening at Assisted Living Centers

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Shook recalls one dog, a black lab named Asher, who lived at the Newport Mesa community in Costa Mesa, Calif. One resident there wasn't eating or communicating and was losing weight.

"Asher sees this guy walking around with his hands hanging down," Shook said. "He goes over and puts his head under his hand. In 15 minutes' time, that man is down on one knee, petting Asher and talking to him."

"The staff jumped in and redirected the man from the dog to them," Shook said, adding that the man was soon eating regularly, talking and engaging with other residents.

Another woman with dementia had stopped communicating. So staffers put a cat in her lap. "She began talking to the cat in about a week," Shook said. Not long afterward, she was accompanying her daughter to the race track, cheering on her favorite horse.

Dennis Hunter, vice president of Brook Grove Retirement Village, said it's important to keep the environment in a retirement community as normal as possible. "For most people that includes pets," he said.

And when a resident passes away? "We make sure the pet is taken care of," Shook explained. If family members can't take the pet, a staff member may adopt it, or the pet may become a "pet in residence." Or, the facility will find a good home elsewhere, he said.

More information

To learn more about the benefits of pets, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.