# 14 questions to ask your child about pets and animals

People who will not talk about themselves will talk about a dog. These questions use the animals of a life to reach the houses, the family and the losses around them. Record the answers. A child's exact words at six are a thing you cannot get back.

1. If you could have any animal as a best friend, which one, and what would you do together on a Tuesday?
2. What does the animal you know best do when it thinks nobody is watching?
3. If you had to be an animal for a whole day, which one, and where would you go first?
4. Tell me about a time an animal surprised you.
5. What is the biggest animal you have ever touched? What did it feel like?
6. What animal are you scared of, and what would make you less scared of it?
7. If a dog could talk, what would it say to you first?
8. What animal lives near our house that most people never notice?
9. What would you name a pet dragon, and where would it sleep?
10. Have you ever looked after an animal? What did you have to do every day?
11. Which animal from a story or a film do you wish was real?
12. If you found a lost animal on the way home, what would you do first?
13. What is the funniest thing you have ever seen an animal do?
14. Which animal do you think is most like you? What do you both do?
   A child's self-portrait, in one animal.

## How to use these questions

Ask by voice, not by form. Record it. One or two questions a visit is enough; the follow-up ("who else was there?", "what did she say?", "what happened the day after?") matters more than the next question on the list. Tender questions are marked; ask them once, late, and with "or would you rather leave that?" in the question itself.

## About Tellforth

Tellforth asks questions like these by voice, remembers every answer, asks the next question a good listener would, and writes a finished book from what was said: a memoir in the person's own words, or a novel built on the true story. You own every recording. https://tellforth.com