Everyone knows that you save a pet’s life when you adopt one. But it’s not all about the pet. Adopting a pet generally is good for the adopter, too.

Pet ownership provides all kinds of health, social, and emotional benefits for people. These benefits are my favorite blogging topic, and I’ve covered them in dozens of posts. You can read them if you check out the blog’s humanhealth tag.

This topic is special to me in part because my own life has been changed so greatly by pet adoption. I’m talking, of course, about my pal Buster. Denise was the one who adopted him from the SPCA. The next day she took him to the vet, and we hit it off. I had always been a cat person, but after I got to know Buster I found out what it was like to be a dog person as well. That has made me a better vet.

So, to reiterate, thanks to pet adoption I got the girl, I got the dog, and I’m better at my job.

Pet adoption doesn’t just benefit the pets.