I'm not sure how I missed reports earlier this year of a University of Minnesota's Stroke Research Center study that found cat owners may be "less likely to die from heart attack, stroke or other types of cardiovascular disease."

Although many people in traditional medicine hesitate to embrace the notion of cat and dog healers, for those of us who share our homes with companion animals and/or volunteer in animal-assisted therapy these results only reconfirm what we know from experience.

While heart-health is not exactly a reason to commit to a cat for its lifetime, it's certainly an argument in the pro-cat column. Another argument is that cats routinely outnumber dogs in animal shelters and are euthanized at higher rates. Finding homes is especially challenging for black cats.

Fabulous Felines offers fur-ific opportunities for learning about cat adoption and meeting tabbys and tomcats currently in foster homes. Seattle Animal Shelter volunteers host cat adoption events at community centers in different neighborhoods one Saturday each month. Upcoming adoptathons are scheduled for Yesler Community Center in the Central District, July 12; Loyal Heights Community Center in Ballard, August 9; and Miller Community Center on Capitol Hill, September 6 -- from noon to 3 p.m.

If I was lucky enough to share my home with a cat (and not an allergic husband), I'd take this good health news as a cue to celebrate my furry health helper with a bit of the bubbly. Not champagne but Crazy Cat Chase-A-Bubble, catnip-scented bubbles in a fish-shaped bottle ($5.95 at Mes Amis on Queen Anne). I've been looking for an excuse to gush about this brilliant, ephemeral cat toy for months now.

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