Rattitude is in the outlook, sort of a glass half-full half-empty sort of thing -- It can be full-filling or destructive, depending.

From a former life, I have a good friend and colleague who has a bad outlook and is sometimes depressing to be around -- He was dubbed Captain Doom 'N Gloom, always seeing the dark side of things and believing in some conspiracies, like a lung cancer radiation cure that was suppressed by the AMA -- I sometimes have to limit contact with him when I am already in a dark mood myself.

However, studies have shown that having a pet is a really good thing, having a calming effect on the owner/caregiver (unless the pet is too much of a chore, of course, like an active terrier or something like that would be).

Senior citizens in group homes of various sorts show good results with placid pets like guinea pigs and bunnies, or even fish.

Actually, years ago after taking care of our college daughter's two guinea pigs while she was on a trip I was looking into getting some and that's when I stumbled across the rats -- I was very impressed at how tame and inquisitive they were in the pet stores, compared to other animals (including GPs; if they aren't introduced to humans early on, before they open their eyes, they remain somewhat shy).

Right now, the rats are especially interesting to me because they are still in the accelerated learning stages of the young, so we do new stuf almost daily.

But the pets are only part of the story -- It's just nice to be obviously healing and to know that I have at least one taste bud left (I can taste the salt in the saline rinse I'm using for my mouth) -- Next week I should be able to get started on outpatient physical therapy for lymphedema (which will end my visiting nurse visits per the Medicare rules).

I just packed up the 'misting' ventilating machine as I am getting along fine without it (and the cold air really chills me!) -- Still using the suction machine -- Getting rid of this trach tube will be a real treat, but I'm not really ready for that yet, however, I am getting much better sleep without waking up almost choking, hacking on gunk that's built up (Reminds me of waking up as a child in a household with three adult serious smokers -- For a long while, I accepted it as 'normal' that adults hacked and coughed and spat in the mornings).