Loves Animals (and Tolerates People -- Sometimes)

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Hello everyone ~

As you can tell by my user name, animals mean a lot to me!! As someone who is self-identified as having Aspergers, I'd welcome your input on the following two questions:

1) Do you relate better to animals than people?

2) Have animals played a strong role in your life? Why and how?

Driving is challenging for me (or being in a car driven by someone else) because I'm constantly searching for lost and injured animals. Since I was five years old I've been rescuing animals (multiple species) and for years now I've been carrying two leashes and collars with me almost where ever I go. Honestly, if a child and an animal were in a dire predicament together, side by side, my natural instincts would tell me to rescue the animal first. This is something I often think about, and I know that although I'm certain I would jump to the child's rescue first, I would have to really fight the urge to do otherwise. This sounds awful, I know, but this is the straight up honest truth about me.

What about you? What do you think about this?

Carla

I am a huge animal lover. Although I have difficulty relating to people and understanding their emotions, I do not seem to have that problem with animals. It appears to be an unspoken language that I have developed with my dog and two cats. They understand me and I undertand them. For example, a year and a half ago I had the flu. I was very sick with a high fever and vomiting. My dog sat with me 24/7 during that time and even vomited herself because she saw that I was in so much distress.

Yes. When people, even small kids, and dogs are both walking past I naturally look at the dogs. Also if a deer runs in the middle of the road I'm gonna stop whereas two family members have instinctively kept going but tried to swerve and hit and killed deer. I am always constantly thinking where it's most likely for an animal to run out in the middle of the road and I drive extra-slow there and I really don't care if people are honking behind me and then speeding up and passing me on the shoulder while giving me the middle finger. I mean I make sure I'm in a place where I couldn't cause an accident and it's only an inconvenience to other drivers. And so far I haven't hit an animal whereas everyone else I know has hit multiple. Just sayin'. People rule the world, getting held up by a really annoyingly slow driver won't kill them.

This sounds like my son. He loves and always has loved animals. Knowing anything and everything he can about them is his passion. He just blows me away with how smart he is and how caring he is towards them. Once when we were hiking I almost stepped on a snake but he saw it, stopped me, knew what it was and told me all the reasons why he thought it was poisonous and he was only four! He has though no interest in friends or other children and he is now eight. He always tells me other kids are annoying.

Animals were often my only friends or companions growing up. My parents were abusive, but they often just ignored me & left me to my own defenses. Had it not been for my dogs & cats, I wouldn't have had much of a reason to do anything or live. They taught me about love something humans couldn't or wouldn't teach me. I learned a lot about the different types & breeds of animals. I obsessed on dogs & horses for years. Even though I never had a horse or took riding lessons, I learned every bit of information I could about riding styles, training, breeds, feeding, etc. I just enver got to do anything with it.

I'm not going to lie & say it was everyone else's fault that I was abused. I was not an easy person to get along with. I had a difficlut personality & was shunned by just about everyone. Being that I did not have good human role models growing up probably had a profound affect on how I viewed myself & other people. I learned to dislike people (all ages) unless they could prove trustworthy-most didn't, while I developed a fondness for spending time around animals. I especially felt drawn to lost or neglected animals. My current dog came from a rescue organization after also endurring at least some physical abuse. He was living on the streets & was in pretty bad shape until he was rescued. Now he's very much loved & spoiled rotten. Great dog with a really nice personality. I don't know what he did to be abused. It still bugs me.

god bless you for saving stray animals. that goes for anyone here who saved abused, abandoned and neglected animals.
i always felt, ever since i could remember myself, that animals were more fun to be around than humans. they simply posses a magic humans lack. and then don't pretend to like you if they don't. and you can always win their love.
i've fed and took to the vet many sick feral cats. we have dozens of them and there's not much help available. i do what i can. i don't relate to humans, many times feel numb around them or just annoyed, but love to feel a dog's silky paws on my shoulders, love to have my cat sit on my lap, soft and warm and purring.
i do believe they're less voilent and selfish then us humans. i've seen the feral cats i fed let a blind kitten eat and my bigger cat always let the smaller cat eat first, and don't even get me started about dogs. anyway, you see the love in the animal's eyes and you just melt. i was never interested in friends as a kid but was fascinated by those fury creatures. ever since i've bought my cat i don't want to get married or have kids or friends. and i'm not interested in cute babies. someone brought her infant to work and all the women chased her around but i sat next to my computer and didnt care. if she brought a cat or a dog i'd never leave her alone.

Humans were always so cruel to me as a kid. I grew up to learn to be distrustful of all of them. Animals were my only friends. Even as a little kid, I remember hating other people. Human babies repulse me. I'm not that crazy about dogs or cats, I perfer reptiles and exotics. I was determined to get myself a pet tiger or lion when I grew up. Something that could protect me. People tell me all the time tigers and lions can't be trusted, but after my expirences with people, I'd trust an insane one with rabies before I ever trusted another human being again.

Pretty much my entire life revolves around animals. I've got gobs of stories involving my experiences with them, some hilarious and some ones I wish I could forget. Really animals are the bane of my existence. Whenever someone with a dog walks into where I work, I'm instantly enamored and distracted and feel agitated that I usually can't take the time to say hello. But I'm even more agitated that someone would bring an animal into an environment like that with all those people and sounds and chaos. They love their animal companions, no doubt, but that can be such an overwhelming experience for them.

Carla

I relate to what you've said 100% . I've also my whole life noticed animals in distress, found lost animals, noticed when animals dont have water, or their collars are too tight, or they've ticks on them, whatever, these things leap out at me and others seem to not notice them, often. Ever since a small child if I saw a dog on a chain tied up or been aware of a dog alone in a house all day while their owner works, it causes me acute pain, thats what it feels like, I dont normally use phrases like that.
As an adult, if I'm aware of someone whose pet rabbit is without company (rabbits should not be on their own,) well I'll lose sleep over it, literally. It's funny you used the phrase "it's the bane of my existence", I've felt like that too at times, this compulsion to connect with every living creature, (and we're talking rats, slugs, everything, I feel love and compassion for them all. Not that I'm trying to make out like I'm Mother Theresa here.) But it's a good thing, you do realise that dont you, Loves Moose, this bane of your existence is actually a gift.

I've never really viewed my intense love and respect for animals (and the connection I feel) as a gift. But I'm grateful for what you wrote. That was very eye opening. Thank you. Every little scrap of paper and bumps on roads catch my attention and I have to look. Yesterday on my way to work I saw a young raccoon on the side of the road. (Sorry, I know it's difficult reading about this.) No one bothered to stop and see if he was still alive. But at the risk of being late for work (and running low on gas) I turned my car around and went back to take a look. Sadly he wasn't alive, but had he been breathing I would have scooped him up (pending any obvious signs of rabies), wrapped some towels around him, and gone back home to do what I can to help him. In my wallet I always carry phone numbers for emergency animal clinics and wildlife facilities.

I don't choose to be this way; it chose me. Every place I've been I've helped animals and have stopped multiple lanes of traffic (safely) to help them out. People have given me flowers and notes and homemade salsa, all left on my doorstep, as thank yous for having "inconvenienced" myself to protect and shelter a lost or hurting animal. Most people see these animals as they pass by, but do nothing about it. I have my own experiences of being frozen in place, wanting to help but doing nothing, and the consequences of that are things that will haunt me for the rest of my life. So I've learned to take action.

Growing up and throughout most of my 20s it was difficult making myself take action according to what I was feeling inside and wanting to do. But increasingly I learned to shove that aside and to assert myself and do right by how God created me. Yes, taking action is often inconvenient and aggravating and can make you late to work (once my employer was on the verge of letting me go because of a rescue that made me late). Conventional thinking and generic attitudes bore and frustrate me. The older I get the more I'm willing to risk what little I have to do what feels right and that will help ensure that I can rest easy at night.

Carla

Yes! Wow it's amazing to read all that to me because it's very much my experience. And that part about acting on it, yes, you have to, because it's what you were put on earth for and can't ignore , because to ignore it would be denying yourself and the reason you're here. I know people sometimes regard my attitude to animals as eccentric,and I have been accused of treating animals like humans, which I took exception to, because I don't, I just give them their dignity where I see it being taken away. I would never dress up a dog in clothes or anything daft like that, (sorry no offense meant to those of you whose chiuauas are wearing tutus as we speak) I have too much respect for their inner wildness and the fact that they ARE animals not humans.
Yes isn't it great getting older when you can just go ahead and do what you feel is right and be true to yourself, to have the confidence to know that it's the only thing that counts in that moment.

I just feel we are priviliged to share the earth with animals and birds, fish etc. But actually, if other people dont feel the same way, thats okay, they have a different thing thats important, or a gift, like maybe being great with teenagers, or whatever. This is your special connection, and mine, and others like us , to be on the side of the animals.
Actually my mother is very like me where animals are concerned, and I know she's happy I'm the way I am with animals.

I relate more to animals my cat doesn't judge me or pick on me and if I'm not feeling well like when I have a bad cold and I have to lie down she'll come and sit on my bed with me.

I think humans are too money hungry and selfish its me me me all the time with them they don't care if they hurt anyone its what they want.

I love animals too

I get on really well with all animals, and love physical contact with a dog or cat, for example, whilst I would shy away from a human.

I always say hello to the animal when I pass someone walking their pet down the street.
Humans don't always get recognition.

I've often come across stray dogs/escaped from their yards. I always "herd" them back home. Often making me late for something - but I'd rather be late and/or in trouble than worried about the puppy I left wandering two roads down from the highway (or wherever). I've also climbed trees after cats who were meowling. I have an instinctive urge to find and protect the cats that sometimes screech out in the middle of the night.

I once spotted a domestic bunny on my way home from the grocery store (at about 10pm at night) and put down my groceries and chased it around the neighborhood for nearly an hour (my ice cream melted) before I caught it. I kept it for a few days and posted notes in all the local petstores. Noone claimed her, so I had to eventually give her to the SPCA (I would have kept her - she was snuggly - but I already have an army of Chinchillas and they didn't seem impressed by the new animal). I have to add that I didn't have the space for her.

I could go on, but I'll stop here with: I've taken in a few rescues of various species over the years and often helped people (through pet store connections and/or noticing pets on balconies/in yards and trying to say hi, and noticing things like overgrown rabbit teeth, etc) trim nails or notice and solve minor health issues on the spot.

Yeah I'd say I have a thing for animals.
And Not only do I relate more to animals than to people,
I also think they relate to me a lot easier than most people do.

Though I have yet to understand making a connection with lizards.

I've never been a huge animal lover, although I have become quite fond of felids over the past few years.