the role of pets in reducing stress

Anderson was the most stressed guinea pig in the street. For months, he had been stuck in his cage. Mister Wilson was kind to him and left the cage door open for him to come out whenever he liked. But what Mister Wilson didn’t realise was that Anderson was too fat to fit through the door. Anderson longed to get out, even if only to roam around the garage floor. This clever guinea pig decided that to relieve his stress the only way to resolve the problem was to lose weight.

In Anderson’s cage was a running wheel with giant blades to step on and allow Anderson to spin the wheel around. Determined to become fitter, Anderson climbed into the running

wheel and started to sprint as fast as he could go. The wheel started spinning, but Anderson’s weight was too much for the axle, and it started to bend. The wheel turned sideways; instead of being vertical, it became horizontal. Anderson kept running like mad, the outward force keeping him in position. As the blades swirled faster and faster, a miraculous thing happened, the cage began to lift up. The blades were acting like a helicopter, duh, duh, duh. (helicopter sounds) Anderson saw the cage was lifting off and ran even faster. The cage rose up to the ceiling, with Anderson inside sprinting for all his worth. He loved it and found that by leaning to one side, he could guide the flying cage. He headed for the open door and headed into the kitchen. Duh, duh, duh. Mrs Wilson was in there cutting carrots. Seeing the elevated cage, she shrank in horror at this flying monster. She crashed into the pantry and slammed the door shut.

Anderson ignored her and cruised into the living room. Duh, duh, duh, The children, Billy and Sally were playing electronic games and couldn’t believe their eyes. They screamed in delight, believing something had escaped from the PlayStation. Anderson circled the living room twice, then proceeded through the door to the bathroom. The toilet was in the bathroom and Mister Wilson was sitting on it reading the newspaper. He froze in shock on seeing the flying cage with Anderson beavering away at the wheel. His evacuations proceeded at twice their normal rate.  Mister Anderson’s frantic call to provide him with privacy did not deter the determined guinea pig, but he found it difficult to manoeuvre out of the small bathroom. Eventually, by leaning both ways, he managed to navigate back into the living room to the kitchen and eventually into the garage, where he landed the cage safely onto his bench.

Anderson was delighted with his escapade. He loved flying about, and even though he had now lost weight, he never more wanted to squeeze through the cage door to only walk around on the floor. Whenever the family went out, he took to the wheel and had a good fly around; for the first time in years, he was completely relaxed. Now, Anderson’s stress was all gone. He was the top gun guinea pig in the street.