Elderly woman with Alzheimer’s forgets almost everything — except that her cat loves her

Dementia is becoming the fastest-growing disease in the world. Each year, there are 57 million cases of dementia worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation. People battling the disease forget their loved ones, have seizures, and even act hostile if the injury is severe. In such cases, taking different kinds of measures and helping the diseased in any way possible can improve their health. One such measure is Animal Assisted Therapy. In an Instagram video shared by @cookiebutter1224, her mother, stricken with Alzheimer’s, was reconnected with her pet cat, Elvis.

The video showed Elvis strolling over the creator’s mother on the bed. And sits on her chest, very calmly, and then starts staring at her. With the new 10 million cases each year, studies have been done to improve the condition in many ways. Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) has shown success in behavioural and psychological symptoms for patients with different degrees of dementia severity, if AAT is targeted at their specific needs and interests, according to the National Library of Medicine, USA. "Mom has Alzheimer’s.. Elvis reminds her every day who he is and loves her unconditionally," @cookiebutter captioned the video. 

At present, when there is no cure for the disease, the patients are surrounded by informal carers, who spend their days affecting their own physical and mental well-being to provide for the diseased. According to the same research, in the year of 2016, about 16 million informal carers delivered 18 billion hours of care. This care not only impacts their physical and emotional being, but also their financial well-being since they usually must quit their job to take care of their loved ones. Therefore, dementia significantly influences not only patients, but also their carers.

For this reason, scientists worldwide are seeking non-pharmacological strategies that can help them in maintaining the quality of their lives and reducing the overall economic burden. These alternative approaches are non-invasive, with minimum side effects and less costly. One such non-pharmacological therapy is AAT. According to Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia, the United States reported over 6.7 million Americans aged 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s dementia, a number projected to double by 2060. Studies show that the memory gets selective, and it becomes harder by each passing day to remember the close ones.

In this scenario, patients only recognise what their brain allows. It could be their partner or it could be their pet. Depending upon the kind of relationship they had and the longer amount of time they had spent. In another success story, an elderly woman battling dementia got lost in the Utah mountains for three days, and her pet dog saved her. The rescue team set up by her family to find the woman, who wandered off in the valley, was tired of looking and was about to give up. Then suddenly, a bark approached them and following the sound of the dog, they traced her in the high terrains of Joe's Valley in Emery County. The woman was severely bruised and had scratches all over. She thought she had gone only 10 minutes, and if it wasn't for her Labrador barking, the search team would have never found her. 

The video garnered hundreds of comments. "It's going to make me cry, my mom and dad's cat sat on my dad like that until his last breath. He stayed there until the funeral home came to pick up his body," shared @larjeanhayes21659. "We don’t deserve them! All they want to do is love us! Thank you, every one of you lovely creatures on this earth! Just a beautiful moment," wrote @zuzuboy1999. "So precious. I’m sorry your mom has Alzheimer’s. My mother-in-law and my grandmother died from that. It’s a horrible way to exist. Thank God for Elvis,"@robin.wilson.106 lamented.