Try talking to your pet like you would on Skype, animal communicator advises

Interaction between humans and animals is like a Skype chat conducted using words and emoticons that represent facial expressions, a veteran animal communicator says.

British-born Rosina Arquati may be dyslexic, but she has her own ways of talking to animals.

"You open up your Skype to the animal kingdom; they open theirs to you," she said. "I can send pictures to my animals … and I have to interpret [the replies they send to me]."

Arquati, the city's first publicly known instructor on animal communication, launched the Chinese edition of her book, , at the Book Fair yesterday.

Animal communication "depends on the animal, not on me", she said. "If the animal doesn't tell me the right information or it doesn't want to talk to me, I am not going to be any good."

Arquati has lived in Hong Kong since 1977, when a job opportunity came up for her husband, a veterinarian. She jumped on the idea of working in a "mysterious" foreign city and ended up staying for good.