Divorce, death, and demands on family members' time can isolate senior citizens, producing deep loneliness which then adversely affects their health. Increasingly, doctors are recommending that lonely older Americans acquire pets to help halt their slide into despair, which is debilitating physically as well as mentally. Dogs, cats, parakeets, and other sociable pets can provide seniors with companionship. And caring for their dependent pets gives senior citizens an appreciated and needed feeling-an important preventive to despondency. Both pets and their owners win in this relationship.