Growing Up How Did You Treat Your Pets?

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I love animals, but as a child I always seemed too rough with them . I would love to hug my cats, and they would scream when I did it. I thought it was like a squeak toy, and it made cute noises when you squeezed them, after finally somebody started explaining I was hurting them. I still couldn't get myself to be gentle, and pet them nice and soft, I always had to squeeze them. It was almost like I got a kick out hearing that squeak noise that came out of their mouth. I knew I never ever wanted to hurt an animal, but it was like I couldn't control myself from picking up the animal and giving it a big bear hug . Today thankfully I'm not as rough as I use to be . What were you like with your pets growing up as a child, did you treat them gently or did you seem to always treat them too rough?

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Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

I was always very gentle with my pets and they adored me.

I admit I probably abused mine a few times.

When I was really little (5 - 6), I was rough with my cat, who was still a kitten at the time. No one ever told me how to treat an animal, so I would pick her up by her tail and hug her really tight. She would scratch and bite, but she also did that when I was being gentle.

Then she apparantly got fed up and she did something I've never seen a cat do again. Her posture stiffened. She arched her back. All the hair stood up on her body. She hopped around the floor like that, hissing and snarling at me with her mouth wide open and all her teeth showing. This went on for at least ten minutes.

That really scared me, so I was nice and gentle with her from then on.

I tried to be gentle with my pets, not hug them too hard or hurt them, but I was clumsy. I almost killed one puppy, picked him up over my head and dropped him on accident... I was only five or six at the time, but I still feel bad about it. I'll be sure to watch my son when he's around small animals...

I always wanted a dog. First a Saint Bernard, then a Siberian Huskie. Now also a beagle, a doberman with intact ears and tail and a Westie. I will probably go with a Westie SOMEDAY. Other than wanting a hairy dog, I didn't care about animals but weirdly, cats LOVE me. I think they sense that I care as little as they do.

Well it reminds me of the whole theory that people with Aspergers can't "feel" empathy for others and sometimes we illicit behavior from others in order to be able to feel someone's emotions.

I was completely enamored with animals when I was a kid. The only time I remember hurting an animal, I was about 3 and I did it inadvertently because I took something my Pop Pop said literally. He referred to my aunt's kitty tail as a "handle" and I thought he was serious, so I grabbed the kitty by her tail thinking that was her handle and that's how I was supposed to carry her.

The kitty disagreed. I learned quickly not to do that again.

I remember trying to force one of our cats to drink milk by pressing its head into the bowl when I was a toddler, but I learned to treat them better as I grew older.

I've treated my first dog, Taffy with love and tenderness.

My parents had a parakeet when I was 7-10, i was kinda rough with him, to the point where he would not trust me (sit on my finger). The day he died, i finally got to touch him after most of his life not being able to .

After that, my parents got 2 cockateels and an African grey when I was 10 and 11. They are alive and well today, the African grey I have been rough with but always been able to rub his head and get him to play with me, he likes me for some reason, and i dont even live their anymore, heh. The cockateels, well 1 is friendly to me, again, still a bit rough so their is no trust to this day, i cant hold them or pet them, but they will come to me.

I remember throwing a cat in the air at least once... I was at my granny's, and when she denied me from doing it, I got a bit angry. As if I had suddenly realised that the cat could get hurt.

I am super-gentle and loving with animals now, but when I was a little boy, probably two or three, I threw my dog down the stairs .

I was fine with my pets but I did try to kill my neighbours cat after it snuck into our yard and killed my puppy , it was a mean evil cat and would regularly attack neighbourhood kids and peoples pets. I didn't succeed in doing anything more then pissed it of all I did was throw it in the pond...I had no idea cats could swim. Eventually the cat was taken away from the neighbours as a dangerous animal for biting a baby. Their son was also taken from them mean people have mean pets.

Otherwise I have always been very gentle with animals and I love most cats.

I'm think I've always tried to be gentle. My b***h gets annoyed at me because I'm always making a fuse of her and it begins to fizz her off. lol

I played rough with my cats when I was a child. I lacked the empathy to see when enough was enough. I had a lot of scratches on my arms from this. Guess I loved them fiercely! My brother, who was lower on the Spectrum, once put the the pinching kind of clothes pegs all over a neighbor's cat, and then laughed hysterically as it raced around in agony. I was furious with him, and had to pull all the clothes pegs off, getting badly scratched in the process.