An unanticipated finding during research on the role that pets play in the health of older adults was that pets had protected some from suicide. Given that older people are more vulnerable to fatal first attempts, understanding protective factors in this population is vital. Twelve older adults interviewed about the role of pets on their health spoke overtly of suicide (n = 2), obliquely referred to suicidal ideation (n = 5), or reported high levels of distress and/or depression (n = 5). These participants were aged 60 to 83 years; five were male and seven were female. Interview transcripts were analyzed using a qualitative descriptive thematic approach in order to understand how they (collectively) identified pets as protecting them from suicide. Concepts of function, presence, known-ness, and reciprocity emerged as factors protective against suicide. These factors may counter those already identified as underpinning suicidal behavior: perceived burdensomeness and social alienation. For some older people, relationships with nonhuman others may be protective against suicide. Systemic responses that incorporate human–animal relationship awareness need to be explored to promote and protect some humans while also considering the impact on pets.

While there has been increasing interest in the human-animal leisure intersection in recent times, leisure still largely remains human-centric or focussed. Much remains to be explored in seeking to understand animal leisure, and the intersection of animal leisure with human leisure. Spring boarding from Franklin’s argument that understanding cross species involvement calls for intense, reflective analyses that can begin in our own human lives and experiences we use an ethnographic approach to explore the intersection of human and animal leisure’s. Use is made of Stebbins’ Serious Leisure Perspective (SLP) categorisation to present observations, analyses and learnings as to the leisure lives of the 5 dogs that share our (the authors) very different multi-species leisure lives. Our explorations demonstrate that multi-species leisure cannot be presumed; and that experiences of leisure per se intersect with individual animal preferences and personalities. We also identify the potential to see some animal leisure as Serious-Amateur and even Devotee Work when incorporating ‘instinct’ (the outcome of generational human control of some species fertility) into considerations, and briefly explore the extension of human parenting and leisure moralising to the rising profile of fur-parenting.

Objective The objectives of this study were to investigate children's physical activity patterns to gain comparisons between home and school and to determine whether the current physical activity guidelines of 60 min of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) daily were being met. Methods Participants were recruited from two New Zealand primary schools (60 children, mean age (SD) 8.3 (0.7) years). Physical activity was measured for seven consecutive days using Actigraph accelerometers. Total activity and average counts were determined for school playtime, after school and weekends. Differences between average counts for these intervals were compared using the t statistic. Time and percentage of time spent were categorised into the activity thresholds: sedentary (5200). Total activity for each day was also determined. Results No child met the recommended 60 min of MVPA daily during the investigation. Compared to school playtime, activity counts were lower by 36% (CI 25% to 45.5%, p<0.001, effect size (ES)=−1.29) after school, 50.1% (CI 37% to 60.5%, p<0.001, ES=−2.01) on Saturday and 57.4% (CI 46.3% to 66.3%, p<0.001, ES=−2.47) on Sunday. Mean results showed children spent 91–96% of their time engaged in light or sedentary activities. Even during school playtime, where the children were most active, only 8 of 80 min were spent engaged in MVPA. Conclusions This study found activity levels were considerably lower than the recommended guidelines, and children were more active during school playtime compared to after school and weekends.