How to Get the Plague

by Liz Colville

Letting your pets sleep in your bed or make out with you could kill you, according to new research. Your creatures could give you the plague, a staph infection, meningitis, or any number of other zoonoses (!), which are diseases or infections transmitted from animals to humans. According to the study, which is being published by the CDC next month, more women than men allow pets to sleep in their beds, and the diseases are most common in small dogs, but you’re also at risk if you’re very close with your cat (of any size), or medium or large (or extra-large?) dog. For example, “A 9-year-old boy from Arizona got the plague because he slept with his flea-infested cat.” Meow!