Both research and practice now show that animal interaction can have undeniable benefits for people, especially older folks. To talk about it are: Dr. Natalie Sachs-Erickson with the FSU Dept. of Psychology who, along with the Dept. of Sociology’s Dr. Dawn Carr, studied the impact of companion animals on an aging population through the Health and Retirement Survey; and from the Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare Animal Therapy Program, Stephanie Perkins and Heather Gainey. In their study of