Autistic animals?

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Hehe...yeah! It's funny it hasn't been mentioned yet - it's usually the first thing to be posted on these threads - but there's a book called "All Cats have Asperger's Syndrome".

In my opinion, cats are ancestrally solitary creatures that we have, through the process of domestication, attempted to turn into social creatures, but haven't quite 100% succeeded. So now, when a cat shows what is probably really its natural behaviour, us humans are very quick to say there's something "wrong" with them, just because they don't fit our ideal of how social an animal should be.

I had a kitten and she was mentally behind with the other kittens in the litter. She didn't seem to understand some of the stuff were able to do already. But she wasn't autistic. The three of them were chassing each other around the room. She died at 6 months, she was hit by a vehicle. There was only a small scratch on her nose. She was very sweet and liked cuddling.

I think cats can have all sorts of personalities and perhaps also mental disabilities, but it is hard to say what is normal in the world of a cat because they have a different way of communicating. They use other parts of their brain most of us people don't use, like telephaty and they feel that something is about to happen.

I don't know if my cat has Asperger's, but her behavior is certainly reminiscent of it.

My kitten is an autie. If I pick her up she cries. She spends all day sitting on the windowsill. She used to keep going back to sleep on the stove top when we took her down. So glad she doesn't want to be up there anymore. She refuses to stay in any other room except for the kitchen. She often meows for no reason at all. Well there must be a reason I can't figure it out though.
I know she's not an actual autie. I just like to think of her as one.

My parents have a cocker spaniel who acts like an Aspie. She hates to be touched, does not like anyone besides my father, and is so deeply set in her own routines it is not funny. I know dogs are creatures of habit, but she gets visibly upset and behaves badly if her routine is changed. She is not comfortable around other dogs, and does not do normal dog things like chase balls or chew on bones. Her toys lie around the house ignored.