Support can be found in variety of places, pets

However, ‘emotional support squirrel’ is an interesting concept

Pets can provide amazing support to their owners. It’s been scientifically proven that spending time with a pet can have a positive impact on one’s mood and health.

For example, animals are “stress soothers,” WebMD notes, and petting a cat or dog can help lower blood pressure, “helps your body release a relaxation hormone, and cuts down on levels of a stress hormone.”

The positive impact from a pet can be lifesaving, and people turn to service animals and emotional support animals to help meet a variety of needs.

USServiceAnimals.org notes that animals can help with health issues including anxiety, depression, bipolar/mood disorders, panic attacks, stress, posttraumatic stress disorders, personality disorders, fears and phobias. A service animal is limited to dogs, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

However, according to the US Service Animals website, any breed or animal can qualify as an emotional support animal (ESA) — but they do not qualify as service animals under the ADA, so they don’t have the same protections as a registered service animal.

And that’s where it gets interesting.

A woman in Florida was removed from a flight due to her “emotional support squirrel.” Frontier, the airline in question, does not allow rodents, including squirrels, on its flights.

The list of options on the website for ESA Registration of America includes cat, dog, bird, pig, hamster, iguana, guinea pig, rat, snake, chinchilla, miniature horse and “other.”

As for a squirrel, that would fall into the “other” category. Personally, I have never seen a squirrel that I thought would make a good pet. Of course, my experiences with squirrels are limited to the ones in Ohio who were rather brave, walking up to my lawn chair and stealing my cookies.

There was also the little fluffy guy who opened a pizza box on my patio table, helped himself to a slice, and scampered away, all while I watched, baffled, from just inside the back door. I thought that closing the pizza box would protect the pizza — but clearly, I underestimated the neighborhood squirrel.

When it comes to finding support structures, there is no “one size fits all” solution. So if a squirrel does the trick, then so be it.

But if that support animal is critical to one’s day, it would probably make sense to find something that can travel easily, or a dog that can qualify for service animal status. Then it doesn’t matter where one goes — the service dog can go, too.