why do we have this connection with animals?

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I have noticed this too. Maybe that's why I can connect with reptiles, also. People usually describe a snake's eyes, for example, as "dead" or "flat", but I don't see that--I can look into them and see meaning and expression. At the zoo, I would always want to go into the Reptile House and spend at least half an hour (if not more) there, just standing by each enclosure and "communing" with them (that's how I thought of it). Same when we went to aquariums--I would even see something in the sharks and jellyfish (and yes, I know that the latter have no eyes/expression either, but, to me, their movements spoke volumes).



This happened with a neighbor's dog once. The first time he met me, he immediately came over and sat on my foot (he's medium-sized--it wasn't uncomfortable). The owners said that gesture = "I trust and like you", and he NEVER takes to strangers that easily.

this. they are simple to understand.

Almost the same event happened once to me too, except that the dog was a Rottweiler. She was fine with people, but she absolutely loved me. There was another dog there too, and the Rottweiler came and sat on my feet and glared at the other dog.

Aww...I love Rottweilers.

I think it's because animals and autistic people have better senses and thus live in a more physical and tangible world than NTs, who's experience of the world is narrowed down to the socially relevant stuff.

I'm not sure about that. As humans, we tend to anthromorphize animals. That is, we tend to attribute to animals human personalities, responses, and behavior.

Perhaps those of us who have more trouble understanding other humans might be somewhat less likely to wrongly attribute human behavior to animals and thus be a bit less likely to misunderstand animals even if we don't understand them any better than any other random person.

For example, when a cat is lying on its side and we reach over and scratch its belly and it responds by grabbing the hand and perhaps gently biting the fingers, we tend to think it wants to play. However, according to what I have read from people who have a much better knowledge of cat behavior, the cat isn't playing at all. By exposing its belly, the cat is basically showing that it doesn't see us as a threat and trusts us since, if it didn't trust us, it would never allow us access to its belly. When we reach over and scratch its belly, we are violating that trust and the cat responds to that action by defending itself even if that defense is somewhat muted.

Iv always view animals as equals to humans as humans are animals the diffidence is the way we have evolved and that is why most of the world sadly seek dominance and hence we are the strongest animal so we are Superior and that's is why most humans just see a dog as an animal. However I see them as equals and they have their own strengths in compassion to humans, unlike humans they are honest and don't judge simple also because we get that for intelligence, yes they judge their own kind in a way say the weakest in the pack but since we are seen as the Superior being this is why they respect us. They are defiantly more direct with the feelings and can love anybody and If anything I think that AS is more connected with animals because we act more like them in ways than NT humans do and we respect their honesty and unconditional love plus we know that their not lieing and our straight up telling us how they feel and honesty for me is a big thing.

I do however like to believe this of Humans but sadly we have the great intelligence of deception animals don't plus we don't reply on each other like animals rely on us to survive, we need to feed them etc and they like us AS people do find simple pleasure out of simpler things like say interest like my Dog has in anything that moves, you can put a pen on the floor and he will go up and investigate. When it boils down to it in my life now I'm lonely and want more human contact but one thing that has never been unstable in my life is my relation with animals and Iv made many long lasting animal friends and to me they are like a human friend we are all creatures and I would put it as far as to say that if for instance my house where on fire and my dog was trapped in a room I would not just stand back back his an animal, I would take the risk to rescue him and also I think animals would do that that for us to, look at all the animals that have saved people lives in the past. We and NT's get on well with animals in general but I think we have an extra layer of understanding as we view animals with more value than most NT's do but not all I know some people out there who love animals as much as they love anybody else. The last thing I will add is i do have one friend who is AS who could not really care about animals so its not all us either.

thats a well interesting idea.

anthropamorphisation (or however you spell it) comes to mind with almost any human with any animal.
wether the animal is actually pervaying an emotion or just an instinctive behaviour is entirely up to the viewer.

then because an animal cant definitively say "this is how i feel" we assume to know whats going on in its head.

i feel fear of rejection plays a large part in how we interact with someone/thing. with a human being you know they can defintively say "i dont like you, go away" but with an animal its less clear cut, unless a dog/cat is biting scratching or running away most people generally assume "he/she wants to be stroked".

saying that, most dogs and cats do want to be stroked so its quite a quick learning curve of how to get along with an animal.

i dunno if that all my jibberish or it resonates with people on here? let me know plz

on a tangent.....i was diagnosed as an aspie at 21, up untill then i spent my life thinking i was normal but knowing i was different.

i can remember in many situations.....school, scouts, work, random social events. being the one to, get along with the outcast, iron out a few of their problems, to intergrate them with others as so they see weirdness as individuality.

has anyone else had similar situations like mine?

THIS ! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! ! I sit with my stray cats in the street for hours and for the first time in my life I feel I belong to a family, rather than a boiling kettle of poisonous, unsaid politics, hierarchies, sycophancy and sick mind games.

Animals can sense when there is something different about someone. For instance, there are dogs who can detect seizures in humans. It could be that because AS is a neurological difference in the brain this causes animals to be more drawn to us. Animals are not as afraid of someone if they sense that the person is not going to hurt them. I grew up with many animals and I learned to communicate with them. My first really friend was a cat named Clarence when I was 5 years old.

because when you pet them and do nice things for them, our pets really DO like us!

A similar thing happend to me when I was a kid. I was out with a friend and her mother, and we went to her mother's friend's house. The friend had a pitbull and a rottweiler. When we got there, I was feeling a little lightheaded, and said that I needed to sit down. When I sat down, the pitbull came over and put his chin in my lap. The friend looked at me, a little amazed, and said "he never does that".
Animals just seem to be drawn to me. Whenever I'm walking past a dog on the sidewalk, they always want to come over to me. I even used to get squirrels to come to me and take peanuts out of my hand.

This is exactly how I feel when I'm with my dogs.

I don't really feel close to humans or animals, except the ones close to me.