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Do you sleep with a pig?
EVERY night for the last year, Kathy Ruttenberg has been taking a bath, putting on pajamas1, turning on CNN and getting into bed with a little pig named Trixie.
“She’s a great cuddler if you lie still,” said Ms. Ruttenberg, a 53-year-old artist who lives near Woodstock, N.Y. “But if you’re restless, she gets annoyed, and her hooves are very sharp.”
Ms. Ruttenberg has the black-and-blue marks to show for it. Still, of all the animals she has in her bed (there are also two kittens and three terriers, to be precise), Trixie, a 16-pound Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, is her favorite, because of the way she spoons.
“I have an Angora rabbit, too,” Ms. Ruttenberg said. “But he’s on the floor running around because the other animals don’t allow him up. We have a hierarchy2 in our bedroom.”
Ms. Ruttenberg’s habit of sleeping with pets mirrors that of Paris Hilton, who has slept with a pig — of the four-legged variety — and was once bitten at her home at 3 a.m. by a kinkajou, a tiny raccoon-related creature. Keeping that sort of menagerie may be unusual, but the habit of allowing animals in bed is not. Figures vary, but according to a recent study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14 to 62 percent of the 165 million dogs and cats in this country sleep in bed with humans, with other surveys skewing higher.
The reasons are well documented. First, touching3, human or otherwise, raises levels of oxytocin in the body, creating feelings of contentment. And, of course, the comfort that an unconditionally4 loving animal provides in bed is a emotional balm, especially for the depressed5, lonely or anxious.
“Animals are uncomplicated and keep us in the present tense,” said Mark Doty, the author of a memoir6 called “Dog Years,” which chronicles the death of a lover. “When Wally could barely move, I saw him lifting his hand to reach over and pet Beau, our young retriever, who was curled up next to him. He couldn’t even feed himself, but he had the strength and will to give comfort to a dog at his side. It was remarkable7.”
It’s no surprise that pet owners like Mr. Doty seem unconcerned about the study published earlier this month by the C.D.C., in which two California doctors warn that allowing pets to sleep in the bed can be dangerous and can spread zoonoses (pronounced zoh-AN-ee-sees), pathogens that go from animals to people. According to Bruno B. Chomel, a professor at the University of California at Davis, and Ben Sun of the California Department of Public Health, the risks are rare, but real. They cite instances of fleas9 from cats transmitting bubonic plague. Cat scratch fever is a danger, too, they say, as are various forms of meningitis, Pasturella pneumonia10 and other infections.
“We know these are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. Chomel, who said he has owned dogs and cats, but has never allowed them in the bedroom. “There are risks and precautions to take. But we aren’t telling people not to be close to their pets.”
That’s a good thing, because kicking pets out of bed isn’t likely to be an option for many people. First of all, it’s difficult to retrain animals once they have established a routine. Erica Lehrer and Richard Goldman of Houston learned that when they tried to keep their three cats out of the bedroom after installing an expensive black carpet.
“They staged a protest: cried all night, pounded with their cat paws on the door,” said Ms. Lehrer, 52, a writer. After three sleepless11 nights, she said: “They won and moved back in. We bought a really good vacuum cleaner.”
“Now we know that white carpet is better than black if you have cats,” added Mr. Goldman, a 54-year-old business consultant12 who disliked all cats before he married Ms. Lehrer, and finds himself in the guest room when the two in his home are too active in the bed. “Marriage is a journey, and this is part of it.”
At least their cats are indoor animals. That means there is less risk of having mice and other critters deposited in the bed. Staying indoors, like most city cats do, also reduces the risk of fleas, ticks and other potential disease carriers.
Which brings us to dogs. Could all that slush they walk through and bring into bed at this time of year be a risk to health as well as to housekeeping?
“I’d say, just wipe them down and you’ll be fine,” said Lucy O’Byrne, a veterinarian at the West Village Veterinary Hospital in Manhattan. “As long as you have good flea8 and tick control, and keep your pet healthy the way most people do, you don’t have to worry.”
DR. CHOMEL, author of the C.D.C. study, doesn’t disagree. There is far more risk, he warned, with pet licks and kisses. If you have a wound or if your immune system is compromised, licking should be avoided. (Meaning, don’t let the dog lick you — the hazards involved in the other way around have not been researched.) It’s also not good for babies. And there have been cases of animals spreading resistant14 strains of staph infections and other diseases by licking cuts and wounds after surgery, so it’s not recommended that pets be allowed in bed then.
On the other hand, what would Patricia Garcia-Gomez have done without a dog in bed after major surgery? Six months after falling in love with her boyfriend, but not his territorial15 Rhodesian ridgeback, Sylvie (who made it clear that she didn’t like her turf being invaded by urinating in his apartment while staring into Ms. Garcia-Gomez’s eyes), she was recuperating16 when the Great Dane-size dog surprised her by joining her in bed. It was a great comfort.
“She’s been in bed with us since,” said Ms. Garcia-Gomez, who works in branding and lives in Manhattan (and is happy to provide Sylvie’s age, 8 ?, but not her own). “It can also be tricky17, because when she stretches, she pushes us off. Humans only have two big legs, and she has four.”
Ms. Garcia-Gomez doesn’t worry about the dog’s giant licks, despite the fact that they present a real risk — just as the popular notion that dog saliva18 is cleaner than human saliva is a real myth.
“I’ll just continue to believe what I want to believe,” she said.
AND why not? Even if licking is risky19, the risks might well be offset20 by the benefits, given the evidence suggesting that pets can increase longevity21 and boost the immune system.
“If the dog starts licking the baby too much, we discourage it,” said Alexandra Horowitz, author of the bestselling “Inside of a Dog,” and a psychology22 professor at Barnard, who sleeps with her toddler, husband and dog without worry. “But in general, if you’re a dog person, you live with dirt and other things that come in benign23 and less benign forms. I think the health risks are overstated. I say that if it’s mutually agreeable, just as it is between two people, then sharing a bed with a dog is fine.”
Even Cesar Millan, the hard-nosed dog trainer known for his TV series “The Dog Whisperer,” agrees, although he believes the dog should be invited up each night, just to show it who’s the real leader of the pack.
“Then choose the portion of the bed where the dog sleeps,” he writes in his book “Cesar’s Way.” “Sweet dreams.”
Sometimes, however, sweet dreams are not an option, as Tracy Rudd, an illustrator in Manhattan, has discovered. One man she dated years ago picked up her growling25, nipping Chihuahua and tossed her out of the bedroom, later to find his clothes soaked in urine. When Ms. Rudd, 47, met her current husband, she said she knew he was the one because when he put his arm around her in bed during the night, causing her dog to growl24 and nip at him, he didn’t seem to mind.
“He just said he respected her for defending her space,” Ms. Rudd said.
Perhaps one day it will be the same for Ms. Ruttenberg with her upstate menagerie. “Although I’m starting to think it’s not likely,” she said.
Most gentlemen callers don’t even make it to the bedroom. One bolted when Ms. Ruttenberg, who has a total of 160 animals on her sprawling27 mountainside property, let a baby goat into the living room after Trixie, the pig, had already joined the visit.
“I thought he would find a little goat charming,” she said. “But after the pig, it was too much for him. Especially as the goat, Iris28, was leaving droppings on the floor.”
Another date fled, after some wine and a soak in the hot tub under the stars, when Oola, one of the resident pigs (black, 150 pounds) charged and tried to bite him.
“And then, the last guy I had in the bed was freaked out by the rabbit,” Ms. Ruttenberg said. “He’s huge, and he got territorial seeing this guy in the room, so he started thumping29 and picking up his dish in his mouth and tossing it in our direction.”
Bye-bye, boyfriend. Hello, love?
“The truth is, with all my animals around me, I feel loved here, and I always have someone to come home to and someone who misses me when I’m away,” said Ms. Ruttenberg, who grew up on the Upper East Side and got her first pet, a dog, 20 years ago, after a terrible romantic breakup.
Ms. Ruttenberg’s mother frets30 that her daughter has put herself in the permanent zone of marriage ineligibility31. But Ms. Ruttenberg is too busy making art, having fun and cooking for her animals (baked potatoes, squash, scrambled32 eggs with truffle oil for the pigs) to worry about it. As for the health risks of letting the animals sleep in her bed, she’s more concerned with making them sick than catching33 something from them.
The vet told her not to worry, she said.
If she called a dating coach, it might be another matter.
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1
pajamas
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| n.睡衣裤 | |
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hierarchy
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| n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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unconditionally
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| adv.无条件地 | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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memoir
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| n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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flea
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| n.跳蚤 | |
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fleas
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| n.跳蚤( flea的名词复数 )；爱财如命；没好气地（拒绝某人的要求） | |
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pneumonia
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| n.肺炎 | |
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sleepless
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| adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的 | |
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consultant
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| n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生 | |
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vet
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| n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查 | |
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resistant
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| adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的 | |
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territorial
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| adj.领土的，领地的 | |
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recuperating
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| v.恢复（健康、体力等），复原( recuperate的现在分词 ) | |
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tricky
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| adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的 | |
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saliva
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| n.唾液，口水 | |
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risky
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| adj.有风险的，冒险的 | |
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offset
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| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
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longevity
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| n.长命；长寿 | |
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psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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benign
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| adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的 | |
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growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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growling
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| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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iris
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| n.虹膜，彩虹 | |
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thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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frets
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| 基质间片； 品丝（吉他等指板上定音的）( fret的名词复数 ) | |
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ineligibility
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| n.无被选资格，不适任 | |
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scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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