I pretty much have had animals as best friends instead of humans all my life. I can't say there's really any animal I don't like. Although the fast movements of roaches freak me out. Don't like it when they are sitting on the front porch to my apartment complex in the summers. I hate that. And then they dart and you don't know if they will run away from you or towards you. I think that is their plan: to confuse me, so that I won't try to squish them. I wouldn't try to squish them anyways, unless one was in my apartment (and I was aware of it).
I have several favorites if I must narrow it down. For instance, I have been in love with turtles ever since I could talk, and try to save every one I see at the side of the highway (not take it home but just get it away from the road). Actually, this could be because my first word was "turtle" for some odd and unknown reason. But when I did have turtles as pets when I was a kid, I realized I needed to let them go because I wasn't taking good enough care of them. I cried for a long time, because I had had one, his name was Tutor, for several years. But I wasn't responsible enough at the time to care for them properly, so I set them loose near where I'd found them. (I was prompted to do this because one turtle actually died... I am not proud of this.)
But I have always also loved cats and have had cats since the age of nine. Before, my family had always been dog people. My first cat died at the age of three of a kidney infection that wasn't caught soon enough (he was a very aloof cat, and we didn't realize there was something wrong until it was too late). I still have my second cat, JonJon, who I have had from the age of 10 (well, 9.5). I am now 23 and he is 14. He is my baby and as he ages I fear more and more the day he will no longer be with me. I insist to him that he will live till at LEAST 20, and I never allow anyone to refer to him as old (mind over matter, etc.). But currently I have three cats: JonJon, Sugar, and Sunny (I think Sunny has Aspergers even more than the average cat, lol).
I also have two mice atm: Socrates and Ben. Oddly, they are both female. Socrates is white and Ben is brown. They were named from the movies Willard and Ben and also the newer remake of Willard by the same title. Of course, mine are mice and not rats, but I do sort of have an affinity more for Socrates than Ben, just as in the movie. Ben is a Fancy Mouse and Socrates was supposed to be a feeder mouse but I saved her from that fate. I think once Socrates and Ben pass on, I will always have mice I save from the feeder tanks.
I am even very fond of bees too. I used to save them in gradeschool when they would be stuck inside banging against a window or something. I would take them in my hand and get the teacher's permission to put them outside. I did that with a few Yellow Jackets before I knew they were not bees. Yellow Jackets I don't mind either, even if they land on me. I just look at them and keep somewhat still. They are alright as long as they are not aggravated or I do something stupid to make them scared or angry. Even wasps aren't so bad. But I guess I would be more scared of bees, etc., if I were allergic to them as some people are. For the rest of the unallergic, they simply need to be more mindful and more CALM around them.
But as I said before: I like all animals. Best friends I have ever had.
19 Apr 2005, 11:11 am
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