You want a cat for your sanity. 'Face thinks it will lower her blood pressure.
Hmm.
You two must have had really bad experiences with doctors.
The last time a saw a particular doctor, my BP was around 170/90. He decided he was going to keep me for a while to see if it would come down.
I had an appointment that morning in about an hour, and I had other things to do before I went. He came back in and the BP was 223/110. He wanted to give me a shot of something and I told him I was outta there. (Did I tell you I don't like this particular doctor?)
So this time when I went, it was down to 135/72. Gotta be lower, but it's better than it was.