When you adopt a pet, a funny thing happens. You don’t become a pet owner. You become a pet parent. It’s not as high-stakes as being an actual parent, of course, but the onus remains the same. This little bundle of joy?

You are now solely responsible for its health and wellbeing. But guess what? Your little furry friend is just as responsible for yours—and it goes beyond just greeting you like king when you come home from work. 

You’ll make more friends

The trope of a “crazy cat lady” is a pervasive one. But as it turns out, it’s entirely untrue. According to a study in PLoS One, pet parents are 40 percent more likely to form friendly human connections in their neighborhood than non-pet parents.

You’ll stand a better chance at surviving a heart attack

According to research in the American Journal of Cardiology, pet-owning victims of cardiac arrest are likely to survive at least an additional year after the heart attack. In fact, dog ownership may be the most helpful medicine for a post-heart attack life. Out of the the dog-owning group of heart attack survivors in the study, just a single study participant passed away.

Takes a load off parenting

For parents of kids with ADHD, there may be a solution to the “medicate or not to medicate” question. According to a study in the Journal of Attention Disorder, kids who undergo canine-assisted intervention (CAI) go on to have better social interaction—a bump in prosocial behaviors and a reduction in so-called “bad behavior”—than kids who undergo traditional cognitive behavioral interventions.

They strengthen your microbiome

Gluten. Nuts. Pollen. It seems everyone’s allergic to something. But, per a study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, growing up around pets alters your body on a microbial level, so you’re less likely to develop allergies as you age. As far as pet allergies, well, they’ll simply never develop in the first place. A subset of study participants grew up on farms—none of them had allergies to pets.

Dogs help keep blood pressure down

According to the American Heart Association, pet parents have a significantly lower risk of developing heart disease, especially if their fur child is a dog. Dog owners are apparently 54 percent more likely than non-owners to get the daily recommended amount of physical activity. This checks out; after all, dogs need to be walked—all the dang time.

In fact, dogs help with basically everything

But, despite how annoying walking Fido may be, going for a dog walk is immeasurably helpful. In addition to maintaining a healthy blood pressure level, 10 minutes of daily walking, according to the Mayo Clinic, can help prevent diabetes, can improve posture, and can strengthen your bones.

Pets are nature’s pain relief

Surgery is terrible. But there’s one a silver lining. According to a study in Anthrozoos, pet-owning patients recovering from surgery have a 28-percent less need for pain medication, like valium or Vicodin. So pet away. It’ll keep the doctor away.