Pets and happiness

In an ABC mail which I receive daily, There was an news item about how pets help manage of mental stress. The reasons are quite simple. Unlike the humans who seek more and more from others, pets continue to have same needs, food, water, place to sleep and affection and of course medicine when sick. They give more than they take. So humans feel better. But this is not the panacea for the mental stress of people today because it has no boundaries and is manifested in the human activities day after day. Only solution which is a lasting one is Mindfulness Meditation.