Why petting may be good...

[sdalek]

Here's a good reason to hunker down with your animal buddy and spend some quality petting time. Read this article from Discovery for why. Apparently it does both the petter and petted good health-wise. Maybe you can even get your cows to relax when milked.

 

[Xander]

Maybe they should remove those signs from swimming pools then?
'No heavy petting.'

 

[logan235711]

cool, do you pet the parrot in your picture? : )

 

[Lookin4theBestNU]

The thread title was very misleading . I suppose I should have looked at the subforum it was in .

 

[Wolf]

I'm a mammal! Pet me!

 

[disregard]

i can't keep my hands of my baby shih tzu. i play with him alllll the time and he is the most affectionate loving dog. my step mom's shih tzu is not loving at all and... go figure... she isn't either.

 

[Eileen]

I've always socialized my cats to be used to people picking them up and petting them. (Um, this is because I'm a compulsive kitty snuggler.) As a result, they've always been exceptionally affectionate animals.

 

[Wolf]

Mine was a barn cat that didn't grow up being snuggled... She loved people naturally and would seek them out for petting and attention, which she still does with me.

 

[ptgatsby]

Mine was a barn cat that didn't grow up being snuggled... She loved people naturally and would seek them out for petting and attention, which she still does with me.

Funny, my barn cat would eat my hand if I tried petting it... but then again, that cat was nuts.

All of the other pets I've had liked being pet. As do I. And I mean that innocently too. I'm a little snuggler at heart.

 

[Wolf]

Funny, my barn cat would eat my hand if I tried petting it... but then again, that cat was nuts.

Oh, mine is nuts, only she likes people. She'll chew on your if you touch her in the right spot, and at night she sometimes freaks out and bounces off the walls.

[quote[All of the other pets I've had liked being pet. As do I. And I mean that innocently too. I'm a little snuggler at heart. [/QUOTE]
I am, too. Too bad I'm so thorny and nobody would want to snuggle/cuddle with me.

 

[ptgatsby]

Oh, mine is nuts, only she likes people. She'll chew on your if you touch her in the right spot, and at night she sometimes freaks out and bounces off the walls.

Hmm... my cat has been shot... twice... with a bb gun. It ran away and lived off fishing at the docks - fish that were bigger than her! She almost died once because she jumped off a 40ft building onto a greenhouse - which shattered the glass and trapped her inside it. The cat use to climb up our clothes when we walked by her. Skin was acceptable if we had shorts/tshirt on. She use to attack dogs, and when they became too big for her, she'd hide under something and wait for them to try to leave and pounce on their backs. The best was when she use to come up, curl up for 2 minutes, purring the whole time... then rip out the claws and attack you - all out too. She tought she could take you down, so she's often go for your neck or face.

I still remember all the dead birds in the house... and I remember her losing a fight with a rat that ripped her up. Twice. She seemed to learn not to do it again after that.

She eventually ran away and never came back. Last we heard, she was at the docks.

My family has had the strangest pets ever... but that kitty takes the cake. None of the snakes, spiders, snails, fish, birds or dogs had as much personality.

 

[wyrdsister]

Schnuggling is good. Science says so. But we all knew that anyway!

It's one of those things that scientists get paid shed loads to investigate.....

 

[Crabapple]

Ptgatsby, that was/is an exceptional cat.

The strangest cat I had was a black cat named Friday. He showed up at our apt. one Friday, and we took him in. He had polydactyl feet- no kidding, thirteen toes on his front paws. He would open doors, change tv channels, and talked non stop.

My cats now are Ben and Iris. Ben is the only fat cat I've ever owned, and the only one that ever woke me up in the middle of the night to feed him. He's a big cat anyway, and with the extra weight, he must be about 15-17lbs. He's not into snuggling; which is unfortunate, because his fur is somewhat long and feels like mink.

My nieces and nephews are pestering me. They want to get on MySpace. More later.

 

[niffer]

I hate being touched by other humans, unless I'm patted on the head...and even that makes me insecure. I'm only okay with animals touching me. I have a thing for petting horsies' noses....so soft :3 but otherwise horses are pretty boring.

 

[sdalek]

cool, do you pet the parrot in your picture? : )

Yes, I do. She likes to be cradled by her belly in one hand against my side and get a head scratch. She'll nibble my fingers while I'm at it.

I hate being touched by other humans, unless I'm patted on the head...and even that makes me insecure. I'm only okay with animals touching me. I have a thing for petting horsies' noses....so soft :3 but otherwise horses are pretty boring.

Ew, watch out for the noses. Last time I did that to a horse, it sneezed in my hand. I never knew a nose could have that much snot in it.

The thread title was very misleading . I suppose I should have looked at the subforum it was in .

Shoo, go back to the gutter where you came from....

 

[Ivy]

I've read that petting an animal can lower your blood pressure. I imagine it's because of that social feedback the article talked about, which I think is pretty fundamental to mammals. Even the intraverted ones.

 

[Wolf]

I hate being touched by other humans, unless I'm patted on the head...and even that makes me insecure.

That's very unusual for an extrovert. Usually they love human contact...

I like it only with a select few, and only rarely.

 

[ptgatsby]

That's very unusual for an extrovert. Usually they love human contact...

I like it only with a select few, and only rarely.

From what I know, physical touch is very much determined by attachment style... though the E part still applies (but that has to do with personal space, in that I's need it more).

I can't remember where I read this and I can't find it now so I can't confirm this, but I believe most of the touchy feely stuff has to do with the intimacy and the way we learnt to connect to others.

As a secure-secure type, I crave touching a whole hell of a lot, despite being a really strong introvert. The only difference is that they can't be strangers, though judging from how much I like massages anyway, even that is topical.

 

[niffer]

From what I know, physical touch is very much determined by attachment style... though the E part still applies (but that has to do with personal space, in that I's need it more).

I can't remember where I read this and I can't find it now so I can't confirm this, but I believe most of the touchy feely stuff has to do with the intimacy and the way we learnt to connect to others.

As a secure-secure type, I crave touching a whole hell of a lot, despite being a really strong introvert. The only difference is that they can't be strangers, though judging from how much I like massages anyway, even that is topical.

As a little girl, I didn't connect very well with my mother, who's always hugged and touched me a lot. I got along more with my father, who only hugged me when I needed it. Subsequently, I can only tolerate males hugging me. And I never initiate the hug with females. Sometimes, though, if my love for a female friend overflows and I cannot think of any other way to show it, I will initiate a hug.

 

[Lookin4theBestNU]

Shoo, go back to the gutter where you came from....

(Gutter)_________

(I sure hope Mike Rowe is waiting there for me *sniffles*)