She flinches back at first, but his words do calm her a bit. He seems genuine - being an animal, she was told, has the huge advantage that people will not lie around you with their words. They might with their tone and the emotions that they fake, but they will usually say things as they are, assuming that you don't understand them.

This guy is ...genuinely polite and friendly, too, and she tends to be more trusting of people's good intentions when she's in this form. When she's not really herself. So she allows herself to relax a bit, allowing him to come closer.