Asperger's and Animals

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While I've always had trouble dealing with people, I seem to have a gift for communicating with animals. Maybe not communicating per se, but socializing with them and developing a positive rapport. While I'm completely inept at socializing with humans, animals, especially cats, just seem to take to me. I volunteer at a shelter for homeless cats and the ones who have been abused and don't trust people always come right up to me for petting and attention. There's another volunteer with AS at the shelter as well and the cats react to her in the same way. Does anyone else out there have experiences like this or feel that as Aspies, we have a special connection with cats?

I feel closer to animals more so than any human I've met. I'm sure my own fondness has something to do with their inability to speak and (to my knowledge) non-judgmental nature. The people that I've met have an annoying habit of filling in silences, and there's something comforting about the silent companionship of an animal. That's just my feelings, anyway.

I think that's a part of it. I think I enjoy having friends who don't judge me and can't understand when I do something socially inept/inappropriate. It eliminates the stress that causes me to make so many mistakes in the first place

I tend to feel comfortable around animals I grew up having a cat named peppermint and I used to spend most of my time talking to her then I moved out of home and I started looking after my landlords cat named littleboy he was so funny. Now I cannot have a pet where I am and I really miss having a pet. I really would love a dog a beagle I love beagles or a siamese cat a chocolate one. I find having an animal relaxes me and I find my anxiety goes away.

Animals and kids always like me... unlike some adults.
Animals are never deceptive (though they do pretend to do whatever you want to get rewards)... I understand animals usually; I don't get people though sometimes.

My wife makes fun of me that I talk to our dogs like little people... then is amazed when they do what I ask them to (I'm amazed too sometimes). The funniest one is when they don't want to come in and I start counting down. My wife says.. they can't understand you.. but I hit 1 and they come in. Too funny.

I am also very good with animals. I think it's because I am approaching my interactions with them critically and logically and have learned what certain behaviours usually mean. I think I'm probably better at empathising with animals than with people, lol. I have seen most approach a strange cat to try pet it. They just walk right up not giving any thought to the kinds of things which scare cats e.g. large noisy animals (in this case the person) walking toward them. On the other hand I'll crouch, extend my hand, make a "puss puss" noise to get its attention and, if the cat is in any way interested in human interaction, it will eventually come if I am patient enough.

If aspies *are* more often good with animals then I think the reason is something along those lines. Meeting and petting with a cat or dog is a social interaction of a sort and most people are on autopilot for most social interactions whereas most aspies are making conscious effort and having to use their intellect to figure out many social situations. This doesn't work so well with other people but it is just the ticket for animals

I too am amazed at how much my cats understand of what I say to them. Against all logic, because there's no logical explanation to this understanding.

Me too! I was a cat socializer at the city shelter until my parents made us move.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociologic ... th_animals

"Autistic people can easily "think the way that animals think."According to Grandin, animals do not have "complex emotions such as shame or guilt" and they do not think in language. She says that, although not everything about animals is like a person with autism, the similarity is that they think visually and without language."

Most people in western society relate to animals as they do to humans- tone, body language, space, etc,. Many of the things people do with other people to show friendliness or non aggression have the opposite meaning with many kinds of animals. For example a smile can be taken as aggression by an animal, so can eye contact. For a cat, slowly partially closing your eyes is a sign of non aggression, while it has different meanings for humans. Cats and dogs have been with us for many thousands of years. It has been proven that dogs read human body language but wolfs do not. I haven't seen a study to prove this to be true of cats, but I suspect the same would be found in domestic cats. You and many other people on the spectrum present as non aggressive to animal because of body language primarily.

my ability to socialise with animals (indeed cats in particular) have earned me the nickname 'cat-whisperer' among some of my housemates; within the first few weeks i lived with them, i managed to tame and befriend the cat that lived there for years, not paying attention to anything or anyone aside from the foodbowl, i quickly became able to call her over from the other side of the garden for a little petting.

another story that happened just last week.
with the orchestra i'm in, we were invited to play at some persons birthday party, so we went there with a small delegation of some 10 musicians.
when we arrived, it appeared that the family we were visiting had 4 dogs, none of them liking strangers; naturally, they all got scared of the large group of unknown people entering the house.
however, as soon as i went in, they came up to me for attention, comfort around strangers, and petting; even though i was one of the strangers; this even stunned the host family, they never saw the dogs do that...

I love animals, especially dogs. They are just so happy and hyper and I can spend hours playing with them. Dogs immediately greet me when I walk past them, even if they don't greet other people.

They often life me/are okay with me, but I cannot stand them. I really do not get this Autistic, animals thing.

I have a LOT of cats. They treat me a like a mother cat. We have our own special language. Yes I'm definitely one of the animal Aspies. I also have dogs, who I love, though I have a harder time communicating with them.

Have you read the book "All Cats have asperger's syndrome"? Its super cute and very true.

I used to play a lot with dogs.


But then...I met that dog on the street. He had broken ribs and was very dirty. Probably homeless. He started following me. Didn't have heart to reject him. I cried a lot. Brought him in. Cried some more. Parents agreed to keep him. I was happy.
Few weeks later my mother tried to force me to go to yet another private tutor since my grades weren't as high as she wanted them to be. but of course, I was smarter, right? So I run away from home about an hour before scheduled lesson, so it wouldn't happen and, hopefully, she'd give up on the idea
what I didn't know was that my mother is my mother. And so, I foolishly called her when I ran away to tell her what I did and therefore, persuade her that "no matter what happens"* I won't come back and she should notify the tutor of this since it would stil be a little wrong to have him wait like that. Good plan, right?
*Yeah, wrong. After generic hysteria attack and threats she started blackmailing me that she'll kill the dog if I won't come back AT ONCE. She was in such a state that I believed her, cried and then apologized for the sake of the dog.

It has not been the same ever since. It may be that I lost the heart to animals from there on or something. Well, as proven by the example above, in a way, it is a weakness, to get attached to animal like that.

My cats are my life. I have always loved animals, especially cats. I do think cats bond with me more than with other people.