People can feel so bombarded with messages about their health that they stop listening. But they might listen to a message about their pet’s health. That’s the “back door” to teaching people about their own health, says the director of Upstate’s Health Sciences Library, Cristina Pope, who has started The Healthy Pet Project with funding from the National Institutes of Health. Through seminars at local libraries, people learn how to care for their cats and dogs, but also how closely their pets’ needs and diseases parallel their own.