Talking to our pets and other critters

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I do this. No idea whether it is something AS people are more prone to do. I love interacting with animals and am a bit of a cat and dog whisperer - on a crowded beach they sidle up to me and give me little hugs, nudges and head rubs on my knee

https://iheartintelligence.com/talking- ... zy/?fb=iis

Well, that's always nice to know.

I talk to cats all the time. Sometimes I voice commentary like my cat is saying it. Or offer a reply to certain types of meows. Heck I've even been to known to meow myself when I'm looking for my cat. I can do a pretty convincing meow.

"Murr"

"Well, I don't know why you're annoyed"

"Mewww"

"Yes I know, I'm paying attention to you"

"MEOW"

"Hang on, I'm coming"

"*Yowling*"

"There's another cat in the garden, isn't there?"

My cat sometimes meows at me, leads me to her empty bowl and looks at it then at me then meows. I don't have to be an expert to know that's code for feed me.

However, I will say that I understand dogs a lot less than I understand cats. I like dogs, but sometimes I'm not sure if they are being friendly or aggressive. Especially if they jump up on me. Are you about to attack? Do you want me to pet you? What is this? I know how to read the body signals of cats. When it comes to dogs I am less knowledgeable about their language. I prefer interacting with calmer, older dogs.

A dog on the street once came running up to me, seemingly friendly with a wagging tail and then started growling and aggressively barking. Is this play aggression, or did the dog just not like me? Maybe it's the smell of cat. Hamsters fear me, dogs sometimes like me but others have taken issue. I almost got attacked by a German Shepherd once. Thankfully the owners put up a fence not long after. I remember a Springer Spaniel who took a liking to me, kept bringing me rocks.

This is kind of cute. I talk to animals but not baby talk--I just talk normally to them. Cats do not mind but I don't establish the same with dogs.

I talk to my cat, dog, and I talked to my crested gecko when he was still with me. I don't typically talk much to new animals until we get a chance to warm up to each other (unless it's a really excited dog or something, then I feel confident that they will like it), although sometimes once we've gotten past the initial hand-sniff I'll murmur softly to them. My NT mom also talks to animals, but my dad and my brother (both NT) don't do it very much.

I've encountered some NTs who think it is strange/weird to talk to animals, even our own pets, though no AS person I know IRL seems to have ever thought of it like that.

With my last dear departed cat, I was surprised by how many different sentences he came to understand, and responded accordingly to.

I don't have a cat now and can't bear facing the loss of a new one eventually, so today I have joined a cat coalition group that takes care of stray colonies, feeding and spaying them, providing vet visits as needed - there is a colony just five minutes drive away from me. I went to visit them with some food today the cliff face where they live in the bushes there, and talked to them in cat language, (punctuated by me blinking frequently as staring strangers can spook them).

I am always touched by the general AS love for animals, though there are of course some exceptions. There are always exceptions in life. Generally though, most AS people I have met are animal lovers.

Most NTs I know talk to their pets. It's actually good for the animals, and for the humans. I even read somewhere that it's healthy to do so.

I talk to my pet rats all the time.

I talk to all animals...I didn't realize how odd it was until I went to the zoo with some friends and they started laughing about how I said "hello" and chatted to every single animal...oops! Haha.

I am better at dog body language than human I think...and better at pre-verbal humans than older kids and adults. That whole words+tone+body language thing is tough!

Cats were tricky for me until I'd owned one for a while...now I understand them a bit better, but still not as well as dogs. I honestly feel a bit like "dog" is my first language. I had multiple dogs growing up who were my main friends/playmates as a small child. I'd talk to them, growl at them when they were pushing limits, etc...probably weird, but not much weirder than learning a few words of your human roommate's foreign language, right?

Ha ha I do that at zoos too, especially to animals that seem lonely or isolated or (even worse) kept in a enclosure all by themselves.

The only decent zoo I have ever personally visited and been reasonably impressed by in terms of thoughtfulness for their animal environments was the Audobon zoo in New Orleans. So many others just made me angry and upset. I was utterly appalled in Switzerland a few decades ago to see a bear kept in a barren pit in the centre of the city Berne. The poor thing had nothing but concrete walls and ignorant humans gawking at it over the top of the walls.

I make clicking sounds with my tongue at the wild bunnies and say little things to them when they are in the yard. It relaxes them and they go back to grazing. I love sitting and watching them they are so adorable.

Aw man, I wrote a long post and then it didn't actually post when I hit "submit."

Summary/what I recall:

1. I haven't been to many zoos, but I really like the ones that are more rescues/sanctuaries for animals that couldn't make it in the wild. People get to learn about the animals, and the animals get to live longer than they would have on their own.

2. Realised that part of what I "get" about animal communication is that most of it is visual AND their whole body (not facial expressions only). Then I realised that humans have "whole body" emotions too...we just aren't taught much beyond the face, expect in drama classes. So I am planning to look into body language feeling charts, since I think that will help me recognize my emotions better than ones with just faces.

3. I think most NTs mainly do baby talk and commands with their pets, not animal sounds or responses to the animal's body language. At least that's my observation.

That's what I recall from my post...? Frustrated it glitched. Probably my wifi.

I think you make a very good point about communicating with the whole animal. Understanding this enables us to talk soothingly to a frightened animal, encouragingly to a tired or sick animal, and so on. Thank you for that post.

sometimes i feel like only my doggy is willing to give me the time of day...

I say hello to most animals I meet. I talk to my dog in a mixture of simple adult language and baby talk, as she's a mature adult of a different species, but has aspects of being very childlike in human terms. I think they work out how to interpret the relevant bits of human language if it's used enough, so I can talk to her in plain English sentences, and she usually understands enough to act accordingly. I also use single words, like sit, down, come, etc., that have a precise meaning as she likes clarity (as we do).

If I'd like her to do something, but it's not important, I'll say something like "come on, lets go, if you want to", and she'll understand that well enough to make a decision to come, or wander off and do what she wants, which is OK with me. But if it's important for her to come immediately I'll say "come" quite firmly, and she'll come (but sometimes after I repeat it a couple of times!).

Of course I talked to my pets, all the time (not literally). So did my NT mother for that matter.
I couldn't care less if anyone finds that weird.

I've talked to other animals too.

I think of it as a way to communicate energy/intent, to help establish an understanding, to reinforce body language.
Though sometimes I wonder if it's like a verbal stim for me.

Cats and dogs developed meowing and barking respectively specifically to communicate with humans. Seems rude not to reciprocate.