Anyone prefer stuffed animals/real animals to people?

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Oh goodness, yes.

I do collect some odd stuffed animals. You won't find a single teddy bear, but you'll find an armadillo, a wombat, a couple of space aliens, a snake, a frog and an aardvark.

But real animals are where it's at. They are my friends and I understand them better than I do humans. I've tamed some feral ones too. I cannot exist without them. It's impossible to sleep without cats and / or dogs on the bed.

I'm a sucker for homeless critters and have 4 cats (1 pulled out of my car engine as a kitten and 3 shelter kitties). Also have 3 retired racing greyhounds. Retired racing greyhounds are the world's best kept secret. They are usually still young when retired, they are quiet, clean (no doggie odor and they groom themselves like cats), sweet and lazy. Really lazy. They have 2 speeds: run really fast and asleep. Run really fast doesn't last long, either and seems to be optional. They do have to always be kept on a leash or in a fenced yard when outdoors.

Also I breed tropical fish, ornamental shrimp and snakes. So many snakes. They are such maligned creatures but they are neither slimy nor evil. In fact most of mine just want to relax in some nice warm hands or better yet a comfy hiding spot until dinnertime rolls around. The fish (especially cichlids) exhibit far more personality than I had previously thought possible and are endlessly fascinating to watch.

It's not just that I love the fish and snakes, but they're a way for me to make a (minor) contribution to the household income when I cannot work a traditional job.

I prefer my service dog to people for sure. I might prefer most animals to most people.

Living animals yes. I can relate to my dogs when they get scared at motor bikes and such lol. They make sense, unlike humans.

I have two very special stuffed animals that I have had as comfort objects for years now, and my turtles, ^_^ I get a lot of soothing from cuddling up to something while I'm at home and just trying to unwind and I feel a very strong attachment to both my stuffies and my turtles.

Actually I prefer stuffed pork chops to people.

I fancy I once rather upset my primary school teacher with an essay, where we were given the title "My Best Friend" and I wrote about how our family cat was my best friend.

I did as a kid. I wasn't allowed to have the pets I wanted and other kids were boring and mean. My mom found it concerning that I didn't want friends because I had my stuffed animals. Well my stuffed animals aren't mean to me and maybe if you would let me have a pet of my own. I never wanted to play with dolls either or anything with a human face. I preferred real animals but was never very crazy about dogs. My mom thinks I'm a bad person because dogs are not my favorite animal and thinks there's something wrong with me because I perfer reptiles and exotics over dogs. She says all the people at the reptile shows were probably autistic or something because they all seemed "off".

In my case... Not really.
A stuffed toy is either just a mere object to me, or an object I end up giving more weight of a presence than I should as to the point of mistrusting their eyes on me like I would with humans.
Living animals even more so. Even I'd not want to impose things on them, like I don't like imposing things on humans.


I'd rather have my fingers drawn with faces, and let them talk to each other.
Or replay stuff from my inner world, and the only physical medium for it is either through drawing, writing or saying the dialogues out loud.

Overall? I'd prefer my virtual friends online.

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Generally yes

I have found I do require some amount of human interaction, but typically animals have been better companions overall.

People can be very tiring and stressful while animals, most anyway, are more calming and rejuvenating (some)

I consider it to be a pretty good thing that I like animals as much as I do because they have been kind of all I've had many times.

Absolutely! My niece has a stuffed octopus called kimid. She loves him beyond measure and cannot part from him. Sleep comes only when she is deeply engaged with and around him. She likes to keep her mother and aunts also at a little distance as she gets sleepy but wanted kimid to share the story with. I have been reading about the concept of safe and brave spaces and about respecting distance with children as one would with adults (very informative this book Introductory Psychology book is). Especially because she is autistic, i take these cues very seriously.

I am guilty on some level. Don't get me wrong, I do have human friends and wouldn't give them up.

When I was little I had more dog/animal friends and had trouble connecting to the people in my class because I was different. Animals are easy to talk to, and are one of my special interests. My cat is one of my best friends, and in approaching pets there isn't quite as much social anxiety. Humans are more judgmental.

I'm also very attached to my plushie collection. Stuffed animals can't judge you either. I have an armadillo plush, Meatlug, some beanie babies, Kif Kroker, Rotta the Huttlet, Lapis Lazuli, Amethyst, Dawn Bellwether, Grumpy Cat, Pumbaa, Steven, Flame Princess, Simba, a bighorned sheep, Kovu, Scar, Shenzi the hyena, three pink lions (one being the one from SU), and a bunch of others, Lotso Huggin' Bear. It may be weird for someone my age to have a plushie collection that's still growing but whatever. xD

As much as I love my old hound, I prefer being around my few human friends. We’re all weirdos in our own ways and get along great because of it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great having a dog who you can tell all your problems to without getting judged, but without my human friends I would be very lonely and depressed.

Yes. Animals... Oh we are so blessed that God gave us animals!

So true, Mountain Goat! Animals are truly a blessing, a comfort and an endless source of entertainment.

Stuffed animals were never my thing, just like toys in general. I've never been a fan of dolls and stuff.
I do prefer real animals over people though, and share an amazing bond with my dog, Skipper.
Besides that, I also used to have lots of imaginary friends whom I played with in my head.