Touch is a powerful form of food. Our pets know this and often supply us with an unacknowledged but vital form of nutrition.

When we think about food we automatically go to the refrigerator of the mind: fruits, candies, vegetables, meat, all the usual abundance we so enjoy in North America.

Another kind of food or rather, many other kinds of food exist however and are just as important for our overall well-being: the food of touch, the food of emotion, the food necessary for spiritual growing, the food of listening, of sight…the list goes on.

For every activity, every thought and every sound we utter food sits right behind it. Consider: when we are greeted at the door by a beloved pet, and take the moment to bend down and pat the warm, living fur of our friend, we receive a blast of love. The blast may be small at the end of a long, difficult day, but it helps us to remember we are loved and belong in this world with those who love us. When we find a partner, our plate is full of touch: the touch of hands, the touch of bodies and the touch of sight, how our partner looks at us. We feel renewed, regenerated and brought to a greater sense of living because we have around us someone who feeds our need to be touched.

A famous study with animals reveal how important touch is to them and therefore to us. Baby chimps isolated from their mothers in wire cages had two kinds of surrogate mother. The first was a simple wire form, with no cushy padding and the second a wire form completely covered in padding for a soft, smooth comforting place to withdraw.

The baby chimps who chanced into cages with the padded mother forms did much better in their growth and activity, alertness and all levels of development when compared with the chimps who had the bare wire form.

Additionally it is becoming common knowledge having a pet reduces high blood pressure in those people who suffer from hypertension. The effects of touch and affection, of being held in the sight of an animal or person who loves you is good for your physical well-being, as good and as important as a complete nutritious diet.

Studies with children who are orphaned and left in hospital beds, fed and sheltered, but not cuddled or laughed with or spoken to, demonstrate the same result. For humans to thrive in life we need touch, the feeling of being embraced and hugged, and all the emotional support this conveys to every level of our body and soul.