do animals prefer you?

The loveable is strong with them.

They see me once or twice a week, maximum. Their natural diet is most important but occasional well-informed choice in supplemental ‘desert’ is entirely appropriate. They are a protected species, and supplemental food covers any natural variability.

Very precious interactions.

I mentioned the brushtail possums that I have dealings with in the trees around where we live. This is the first one that I mentioned, and what she is doing here is dining on some banana, almonds and sunflower seeds that I brought to her. We have named her ‘Mrs. Ferris’ and she’s a big personality - a very special possum. She is a cheeky diva of a girl, and utterly hilarious. There’s a lot going on behind those eyes.

She was a teenager when I met her, and had a bun in the oven (well, in her pouch) 4-5 months later, so she was just maturing into adulthood when she first introduced herself to me. There have been three joeys to date - she brings them for show and tell every time they grow old enough to ride around on her back, and by that time they have had me chatting away to her whilst they were pouch-bound, so I’m not a surprise - I just have another mouth to feed for a while.

….oh, and I agree. Ducks are superb! My wife and I purchased my deceased grandparents’ house from their estate, and it has a swimming pool - my grandfather was a keen swimmer, he loved the water, and by all accounts his father was a keen swimmer too (and here’s a relevant tangent… since I have resumed in the pool, and given my observation that my grandfather was almost certainly Autistic, I now appreciate why - it’s like a sensory and emotional return to factory settings).

Anyway, I digress.

Ducks love it too - and they’re loveable ratbags. I was standing in our front yard with a mate during the ‘non-swimming’ part of last year wwhen a breeding pair of native ducks waddled purposefully off the road and into the yard via the carport gate. We were clearly visible to them but that didn’t affect their mission - they just waddled past us, one of them making a series of quite low ‘quacky noises’, and they continued past our cars and down to the very back of the yard where they settled in looking for wriggly things to eat next to the pool. My friend just looked at me and asked ‘Do you know those two?’ to which I laughed and replied ‘Never seen them before in my life!’

Brilliant.

They returned frequently to feed and spend time in pooled rainwater on the winter swimming pool cover, including some nights roosting on it. There was much cuteness and much duck poo! My wife and popped up to speak to them over the pool fence every once in a while - us telling them how beautiful and handsome they are, and the ducks replying with the same, very low, very calm quacking noises (kind of a ‘sub-quack’).

Love them. They are the best looking bird I the air too… wings towards the back, neck out front. They cut a fine figure.

Indeed. The only metric by which animals can make a judgement regarding a human is how kind we are. It has taken humans to complicate and corrupt that

I find the same, I seem to get on with animals better than humans, they seem to understand me better and I understand them

Ducks, swans and geese in particular. Swans even let me handfeed their cygnets sometimes like they trust me and ducks come up to me and just eat out of my hand

I love ducks, they are such simple creatures, much nicer than people 

Nice to make your acquaintance too

Hello Michael.  It is always lovely when someone resurrects a thread from the past - and you've found a corker with this one = 9 years old.  I'll read through it later as this is "my type of subject."

Without going into too much detail (because I could write the 'War and Peace' about this subject) animals are, as a rule, significantly more intuitive, kind, understanding and accepting compared to most of the people that I meet.  There are exceptions - but few.

I would have gone bananas years ago if it were not for my interactions with animals.  They sustain me.

Nice to make your acquaintance.

Absolutely yes!

I have moved beyond simple interactions into relationships with some of the nocturnal possums that live in trees around our home in South Australia - there are two female Common Brushtail Possums in particular, one that immediately introduced herself to me and was tactile whilst feeding on what I brought her from the word go. She has played with the light that I wear on my head, turned and rubbed my face with her tail, she is content for me to stroke her fur, including her pouch (complete with juvenile ‘joey’ inside) and has even left me minding a previous joey whilst she finishes eating in an adjacent tree - all behaviours that one would typically only see in a captive possum that one has raised by hand, and not a wild ‘brushie’ like my wee friend.

The second girl was timid and healthily wary at first, but is now very content in my company and when presented with food that I have brought to her, some on the tree branch next to her and some being offered to her between my fingers… she chooses to accept the food from me, in an exceptionally gentle and confident manner - ie. she prefers the interaction with me. If I stroke her tail near the tip she gently wraps it around my finger, which understandably feels like a very special thing to receive. Utterly wonderful.

The Ringtail Possums are almost painfully cautious and timid compared to the Brushtail Possums, but with consistent and persistent kindness in my gestures, actions and verbal communication, the two that live in our shed have accepted food and tactile interaction from me - exceptionally rare for wild ‘ringtails’. They will hold one of my fingers for stability whilst taking food from between my forefinger and thumb. It’s rather cute. In the daytime, whilst they are asleep they are content for me to bring them ‘snacks’ - a nut or two, which I offer after climbing up next to their elevated sleeping positions. With squinted, tired eyes they slowly open their mouths and let me put broken pieces of nut in. The height of luxurious room service.

Apparently I’m just not that much of a scary threat after all.

Dogs, well of course… dogs are the best people after all, but don’t get me started about dogs because I can talk for Australia. I will say that for a number of reasons I am firm that the best dogs for Autistic people are Staffordshire Bull Terriers. They are so intensely people focussed, and they reciprocate kindness, love and energy so beautifully. They are our guardian angels and they keep us tethered to this world because they would grieve us if we left it.

Oh, by the way - I’m ASD2 Autistic 

Ciao

Lobbying the Government I think is the only answer.  Media articles keep appearing about dog attacks and many respondents in comments below them feel strongly about dogs being licensed or the Government taking action.

More a suggestion than anything else. Don't think there's an easy answer to the dangerous dogs issue.

And then again, many people on the spectrum have a perfectly valid fear of dogs, which in the general public is valid enough considering the danger from dogs, but to someone on the spectrum can be as extreme as a phobia, and is therefore a perfectly valid talking point.  Are we to understand that a degree of gagging is again rearing it's head?

Hi all - I don't think dogs will be banned any time soon. There's plenty of talk out there about ASD and the benefits of dogs, so perhaps better to return focus to that? 

http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2014/04/25/toddler-attacked-by-dog-lip-sewn-back-on-after-attack-from-dog-stoke-on-trent/?ncid=webmail19

Dogs are different to people, that's a fact, and so we have different rules and regulations for dogs than we do for people. For a start, they belong to a completely different species, do not share our complex cognitive processing or developmental trajectory. Therefore, humans and dogs can never be treated the same.

I can see both sides of the fence because I grew up with a dog and formed a strong bond with her. I know how owning a dog can be really positive, and I would not want this to be taken away from people, but I do think the law should be stricter on potentially dangerous dogs. I think that owning a dog is a privilege and not a right, and that many people should never have a dog in their hands.

The dog licensing system should certainly be brought back into force.

humans can be punished but many re affend, dogs tend to be put down, I believe there is good and bad in everything 

Cocopops said:

This is true and very sad, but humans also attack when not prevoked, but doesn't mean we all cant be trusted, leaving any animal alone unsupervised with a child is not a great idea, but they can also be a great help to young people if treated correctly.

A human can be asked why they did it, given therapy or punishment (jail).  But a dog you will never know why or if it will do it again.  Dogs are carnivores and predators by nature, humans are omnivores and although predatory, it's pretty much bred out of us these days.

This is true and very sad, but humans also attack when not prevoked, but doesn't mean we all cant be trusted, leaving any animal alone unsupervised with a child is not a great idea, but they can also be a great help to young people if treated correctly.

Last year an American bulldog  savagely attacked a little girl on a scooter in an underpass near where I live. The dog was off the lead, the owner was no-where to be seen, and the dog would not leave the child alone. When the child (I think she was only 3) started to cry, the dog jumped at her and attacked her. She recovered, but her mum suffered bite wounds as well, as she tried to get the dog away. It took two brave school kids to kick the dog off the child. The dog was put down.

This goes to show that dogs can attack with very little provocation.

a year ago I brought my son a puppy as he doesnt leave the house and it was the best therapy for him, they are best freinds and although he still rearly goes further than around the block he does walk it and plays for hours with it, he also takes some responsibility for feeding it and grooming, best thing done in years .

NAS11521 said:

[quote]I am backing out of this debate which seems to be turning into an arguement of different perspectives. xxx[/quote]

Me too. 

(I have  to say I agree with whoever it was who said "The more I see of men the better I like dogs."  so I wouldn't want to live in a dog-free environment.)

And me.  It's a dog's life.