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An older man reads aloud from an open book on a couch while a tuxedo cat sits beside him, looking at the pages. 15 / 37

Grandpa Reads Aloud With Big Dramatic Voices. His Audience Is Very Serious About It.

AI imagetuxedo catreadingseniors and pets

Mid-sentence, eyebrows raised and mouth rounded around a dramatic word, Grandpa is giving this chapter everything he's got. The open book rests on his knee, its pages worn soft from use. Beside him on the cream-colored couch, Domino sits upright with his ears pricked and his gaze fixed on the pages, as if he's following the plot closely and has a few questions about the main character. A shelf of yarn baskets and a potted plant sits above them, and gray daylight drifts through the window.

Reading aloud to a pet might look silly, but it's a lovely habit. Cats often respond to a calm, familiar voice, and many will stay close when their person talks to them in a gentle tone. Some animal shelters and libraries even run programs where volunteers or children read to animals, partly because it helps nervous pets get used to people and partly because it gives young readers a patient, nonjudgmental audience. For older adults, reading aloud is a pleasant way to keep the voice and mind active, and having a furry listener makes it feel like a shared activity rather than talking to an empty room.

Domino may not grasp every twist in the story, but he clearly enjoys the sound of it, and the warm spot on the couch doesn't hurt either.

Every good reader deserves an audience. This one happens to have whiskers.

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