You may find that you're allergic to something else and not your pet at all. If an allergy test shows that you're allergic to your pet, it's important to understand what causes your allergic reaction to them. Whether someone has an allergic reaction depends on both the individual person and the individual animal. A person with animal allergies may react less to dogs with soft, constantly growing hair, or a specific cat or dog may cause more or less of an allergic reaction than another animal of that same breed. If your or a family member's allergies are simply miserable, but not life-threatening, there are many ways to reduce indoor allergens and allergy symptoms so you and your pet can live together more comfortably. A combination of approaches—medical control of symptoms, good housecleaning methods and immunotherapy—is most likely to succeed in allowing an allergic person to live with pets. You'd be surprised to know how many people with allergies that aren't life-threatening are able to live happily with their pets. In many cases, the benefits of having a pet outweigh the drawbacks of pet allergies.