I occasionally come on photos and videos of people with "pet" owls or owl cafes.
Owls are beautiful and soft, but they aren't meant to be around us being cuddled or whatever. What is cuddling to us causes anxiety to them. It isn't owl behavior. They tolerate it sort of if they are imprinted, but it makes them more underdeveloped and under equipped to be themselves than it does to make them good company.
Handling birds of prey, a person will get nipped or cut, but these hands are seriously grabbed up and cut, yet in the video clip they still have the owl restrained and continue "playing" with it.
If this hand is any sign of how happy the owls are here, I feel bad for them. If they don't like their handler touching them, I can only imagine how upset they are being touched by strangers all day.
Dogs, cats, and farm type animals have been domesticated and are used to humans to a decent extent. Most animals though will never be domesticated. They want and need to be free.
Ugh I hate those owl café videos :( The owls always look miserable, they're solitary nocturnal animals forced to be awake during the day for people to interact with them
It's frustrating to me, because though I know it's wrong, I still wish so much that it wasn't. It's easy to picture myself interacting with some of these animals like in a storybook.
The last few years, I've struggled with my relationship with animals as a whole. I've had terrible luck with pets since I moved (dogs, cats, and fish) to the point where I question if there's some unknown biological hazard where I live. I've basically given up on even having a pet domestic animal and it makes me question a lot of the relationships between humans and animals.
I've taken more to being a friend to my backyard animals, trying to make my surroundings a better place for them. I leave them to do their own things and stay as an anonymous benefactor to them. The squirrels and jays are my closest to friends. They're smart enough to have learned I'm the one that leaves them treats, but they maintain safe distance and a healthy sense of danger though.
This month I started working at the wild animal rescue, and it is immediately unmistakable that these animals want nothing to do with us. Even when they aren't very healthy, they do all they can to escape, to keep from being held, to stay hidden, etc.
We are just not made to be compatible. It is sad to us, but it is for the safety and health of the animals that they can't be our buddies. If we do love them, we need to respect that innate biological boundary. We can admire them, care for them, advocate for them, and darn near anything else, we just can't live together happily.
I think animals are similar to humans, in a way that they have a diverse palette of personalities. There are assholes, maybe most are assholes, like humans.
Occasionally there are encounters that are different and the animal seems to understand and appreciate that you are a good human, a friend.
I live in the city and one night at 2am, i was at the window and a cat came by and sat at my window. I happened to have cat food at home, gave it some.
This became a small ritual, for the months to come, it came every night at 2am for a visit and, most importantly, the treats, obviously. I like to think they had a home and i was just a snack-stop during his nightly hunting.
Your backyard animals reminded me of the little guy, i mean ferocious hunting cat Furioso.
Doing animal rescue will mostly give you stressed animals, that are in full "oh shit, oh shit, oh shit" mode. "You're gonna touch me?" "Take your bloody hands off me"
Relationships with animals can only happen in other situations, like your safe backyard, where the approach is mutual.
They are all definitely unique as much as we are. I can tell more apart by their actions moreso than physical differences.
Different birds will be fine with me remaining outside, others will wait until they hear me lick the sliding door to take treats, and others don't like to see me at all.
The squirrels got to the point where they'd take a nut from my hand, but I decided that was a bit too comfortable for me once I started to feel how sharp their claws are and how big their teeth are.
The clinic squirrels are much stronger and agile than they appear. Most don't want any interaction from us until they see we're feeding them, and even then they act as if we're glacially slow at it. Some are clingy, but I think that's more a distrust of where we're moving them than it is a want for us to hold them.
It's been a real lesson in understanding consent, and nonverbal communication. I've been learning so much but about the animals themselves and from them.
I have the same impression, though when it's a bat, i really can't tell.... Because they really like to cling to basically everything and they look so happy doing it.
I'm going to have to get a rabies shot at some point. All these rabies vector animals (bats, coyotes, fox, groundhog, raccoon and skunk) are so cute. 🥰
I'd love to feed a bat!
Foxes are so pretty. Also, they're like a cat/dog hybrid with a few sprinkles of squirrel, not from the looks, the way they behave.
I think i would give the bat too much banana and watermelon.
I love watching snails munching on their food, which you can see, due to their translucency.
I wish the fixes smelled like a dog or cat! 🙃
We thankfully get clear instructions on how much food everyone gets, though last week someone mixed some fruit into the veggie mix that the head person said would be bad for some of the animals that get the veggie mix.
I liked the snails in our aquarium. They just go around tasting everything! I liked the ones that would trap an air bubble to float up and then let it out to come down. So smart for a little booger! 😝
Foxes smell that bad?
Cats are the best. You never have to worry about their hygiene, they autoclean. Sure there's gonna be a situation, where you may have to clean up the poo that got tangled in their fur or clean up the vomit, that's ok.
I love dogs, but they're such a mess :3
Edit: TIL
The tiny ones at work I haven't noticed a real smell from, but I'm not allowed to get too close to them very often.
The adult grey foxes at the park like to nap near the fence, and even from a guys distance, they are quite potent. The red ones sheep closer to the night of their area, and even if you can't see them, you can tell they're there. 😜
I had to teach my one cat to clean herself. She was just a teeny thing when we found her. I used the corner of a warm wet washcloth to make licky motions all over her a few times and then she got the hang of it!
Didn't know it was possible to teach a cat the cleaning process. Nice!
Please don't give up on having a pet! My adult child (34) had the most terrible luck with pets, they all died or had to be rehomed. After several years of settling down with their current live -in partner for five years, now, last year a stray kitten in poor condition wandered up to them at work. By the end of that week, that kitten was indoor, being fed, loved and scheduled for the vet. Two vet trips and a round of antibiotics later, that now-adult cat refuses to exit the house, sleeps in their bed with them, and is in the available lap of the moment when humans are available and the cat isn't playing, eating, or window-gazing.
I got all my cats in a similar fashion. I loved all my time with them.
Both of us are rarely home these days, and I don't feel we could give proper attention to a mammalian friend. We tried the fish as something that didn't need our personal time, but even with regular tank maintenance, we had nothing but problems.
I'm keeping having pets as an incentive to let me retire early and become the pet nanny, but I haven't quite sold the idea yet. 😁 She just wants to cuddle them, and I get all the work. That's how it's been every time we've dog sat.
Lol! Perhaps yin and yang tasks could be negotiated for more even distribution. I'm sure you'll find a balance, along the way. Pet nanny sounds great! 😃