Letters: Caring for a dog is a great prescription for what ails us – Chicago Tribune

“Walk the dog,” U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and the Tribune Editorial Board concluded in Sunday’s edition (“We heard from the nation’s top doctor on loneliness, isolation and what to do if you catch COVID”).
I agree. Taking your pet for a stroll can ease isolation, loneliness and other health problems. Alas, one has to own a dog to walk it.
The surgeon general and the editorial board have identified the health crisis. Now they should press for funds to help people care for the scores of dogs confined to shelters.
When the pandemic pulled people home, many Americans self-medicated by adopting a dog. When offices reopened, many pets were returned. These dogs could still be waiting, along with others delivered from other states.
“Shelter dog” on a prescription pad can substitute for many of the drugs now written for depression or anxiety. As a dog owner, I can attest to the healing power of my dog.
I adopted Doris, a Jack Russell terrier mix from PAWS Chicago in 2019, just before the pandemic. She was 1 1/2 years old when we met and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
While I have no idea what she endured before I rescued her, I do know that focusing on her and her recovery dissolved my psychological woes.
I am a gregarious 84-year-old, but I know I, too, would have been infected with the ailments predicted. Her 24-hour companionship, the exercise gained on our four daily walks, and the folks and pets we met at our neighborhood dog park have enriched our physical and emotional health.
Fortunately, I have been able to fit Doris’ care and comfort into my budget. But for many, the cost of food, vet appointments, gear, treats and toys is overwhelming. Surely there are funds somewhere in the U.S. health budget to ease this financial burden for those most in need of a dog.
I realize that many shelters waive adoption fees for seniors or low-income people. But that fee is a very small part of the funds needed to keep a dog fed and happy.
Murthy should talk to his bosses and tell them he has discovered the remedy for isolation and loneliness, and it skips all of the side effects of many pills.
All we need is a generous U.S. fund that will encourage sufferers to bypass the drugstore and head for an animal shelter.
— Elaine Soloway, Chicago
The holiday and winter are here. Not coincidentally, very likely so is another seasonal surge in COVID-19 infections. While President Joe Biden and much of the American public have declared that the pandemic is over, nobody told the virus. This mindless, but not purposeless, viral pathogen has one goal, and that goal is to survive and propagate. To do this, it requires suitable hosts, and the less vaccinated you are, the more suitable a host you are for the virus to infect and wreak internal bodily havoc on.
Like the annual influenza virus, the COVID-19 virus may not be extinguishable; it may be with us forever or at least for the foreseeable future. But it does not have to have lethal consequences, nor for most infected, even severe consequences.
There is only one logical and prudent action. First, remember that not having been infected yet by COVID-19 is no real assurance that you will not be in the future. Second, and most importantly, get vaccinated.
— Ken Derow, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
How telling that Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents, Stanford Law School professors, pity themselves, not the thousands of people who lost more than a billion dollars through FTX. His father, Joseph Bankman, who worked with his son at FTX as a paid employee, said: “We hope this gives us some wisdom. Otherwise, it would be too hard to take.”
They hid out with him in the Bahamas, and they lamented that their son’s legal bills might wipe them out, but they said it through a spokesperson. What they didn’t say is whether they are troubled by their son’s actions and inactions.
They reflect the problem with much of modern life in which everyone — even the perps — are somehow victims who seek pity, and parents perpetuate a nanny state of enablement.
Call me old-school, but where I come from, they all only warrant disdain.
— William Choslovsky, Chicago
Youths many, many years ago, before video games, cellphones and even colored television, had a unique form of Christmas entertainment that would be unimaginable in today’s world. We tuned in for 26 evenings starting shortly after Thanksgiving and ending on Christmas Eve to a radio program called “The Cinnamon Bear.”
Broadcast on AM radio (FM was unheard of), we followed the adventures of Jimmy and Judy who are sent to retrieve the Silver Star in their attic to place on top of their Christmas tree. While there, they notice the tiny Cinnamon Bear, who informs them that the star was taken by the Crazy Quilt Dragon.
The program took the children through a series of adventures in Maybeland, meeting with characters good and bad in their quest for that Silver Star.
Originally airing in 1937, the program ran annually and even became a television puppet show in 1951. But it was the radio setting that was most fascinating as youths honed their imaginations.
When our boys were born, I discovered that “The Cinnamon Bear” was available on CD. So the tradition was handed down as we listened nightly to the journey of Jimmy, Judy and Paddy O’Cinnamon.
The years have passed all too rapidly, but the disc has been maintained. So each night, one of the 26 episodes is played and relived in our minds. Along the way, we acquired our very own Silver Star.
And yes, the Silver Star is the last ornament placed on our tree on Christmas Eve.
— Bob Paszczyk, Tinley Park
I love Irish soda bread. Years ago, I bought a loaf from Jewel, Mariano’s, Whole Foods and a small market in the suburbs owned by a family of Irish heritage.
You can guess the best. Jewel! The one from the Irish deli came in second.
— Susan Ohde, Chicago
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