Bonding with animals
Hylian
Citizen, Mentor
in General ASD
Is it easier for you to bond with other animals than with people? Do you also have an easier time deciphering their body language and what they're communicating?
It's always been easier for me to get along with animals than other people, and to figure out what they're thinking and feeling. Analyzing the behaviour of other animals is actually what helped me get better at recognizing the body language and communication tactics humans have, but without that I definitely wouldn't be as good as that as I am now. I also often find my relationships and time spent with other animals to be more emotionally fulfilling.
Comments
Even as an adult I've learned about human nature through my dogs.
There is a simplicity and an almost mindfulness to the interactions with them and I feel fortunate to have this experience
Those on the spectrum are known for having a great affinity with animals.
More so than the naked ape variety, who enjoy sanctimony and self-righteousness, all too often.
"Animals are better than people," as the saying goes.
For sure! I grew up with cats and know their language. My husband is even amused sometimes at how often my affection signals coincide with those of the cats we have. I can understand cats moreso than most human females, so I imitate cats a lot.
I also unintentionally imitate dogs and cats a lot because I have been around them most of my life and get along with them very well. A lot of my family finds it funny that I can communicate with them so well but have issues with communicating with people.
Zum Zum was a great nurse to me when I had the flu.
Oh my god yes. I'm not 100% certain I've ever fully bonded with another person. But with cats, they get right into my very soul.
Sigh. I don't bond well with people. But neither do I bond well with cats or any other animal. I do have cats. And I like it when they climb on my lap, etc. but I wouldn't say I am bonded with them. I wish I could bond with someone, something, anything. The closest thing I feel really bonded to are trees.
I hope the trees feel how you care about them.
I really don't know. I don't know if any of the things or people or animals or plants I care about know and/or understand it.
I know you care about me.
Cats are honestly very expressive and easy to understand. People say they aren't, but that's not true. I know exactly what my cats are feeling most of the time, and when they show you affection you know they mean it.
I have had some issues with bonding with animals, less than with humans, but overall my bonding issues with animals are from alexithmyia as it's hard to recognize my feelings towards things. Taking care of my dog while she was sick was helpful for that and helped me gain a better appreciation for animals and my relationships with them.
I also think being able to be closer to plants is good, they're still living organisms like humans and other animals are, even if they aren't as aware and can't reciprocate relationships as well as them.
Yes, I much prefer my spaniels to human beings! Not really a cat person though.
I like dogs most of the time when I've had to deal with them, but I haven't been around them anywhere near as much as I have cats, so I don't know their language and care as well as I do cats. My older half sister loves both and has usually had both around her homes. I prefer cats because I know them so well, have years of experience in dealing with them and reading their behaviors, and because they're fairly low maintenance to take care of. You really just have to feed them and take care of the litter box, and that's about it.
I don't bond exactly as well with cats like I do with dogs, but that's probably more because dogs are "mans best friend" and it's maybe just biologically easier for me to bond with them. Cats haven't been domesticated for as long and haven't affected us as much. Cats are still definitely easier to take care of than dogs though, and I'm still not fully comfortable in my ability to carry out every aspect of care a dog needs, especially larger dogs.
I'm not really a person person.
I've always been more comfortable with animals, and can intuit their needs and feelings better than I can humans. There's much less nuance. I grew up with cats and several other animals but not dogs. I've had dogs and cats together since I moved away from my parents, and I can't imagine living without an animal in the house.
There is a skunk on the other website that might be interested in bonding with you.
I luv cats,
I'm so desperate for human companionship, in real life, that I will literally walk on the other side of the street if I see them coming my way.
"A stranger is a friend gang-stalker you haven't met yet."
Couldn't agree more, I was always confused when people say cat body language is hard to read, it seems very straight forward to me and much less ambiguous. The same goes for dogs, that I also like a lot.
Agreed again. Their needs and wants are simpler and easier to cater to and their way of expressing them more direct and less circumstantial. I'm again confused when people say "if animals could talk", as I find them easier to understand than most people.
Humans use language as much to hide and disguise as to actually express themselves and verbal communication is often coded and full of hidden "traps" and pitfalls. Especially in social situations, precision in expression and language can be a disaster.
I dedicated a lot of time and effort to study body language (as a foreign language as I like to say), both theoretically and in practice, and so much of it is ambiguous and circumstantial, that sometimes I feel like the more you know, the less you understand
That skunk stood me up!
Once, and this is a true story, I was sitting in the woods next to a tiny stream. I was so still for so long I became background. An adult skunk walking along the stream walked up to and passed directly behind me.
In the end, I wasn't comfortable continuing that thread.
Don't ask me why.
Other things may have been happening in my life.
A resource management thing, perhaps.
I stopped following it, so I don't even how far it progressed.
Maybe we should try again.
It got uncomfortable to me too.
I am sorry I teased. I won’t bring it up again. 
I once meditated so hard it summoned a badger.
Did you feel bonded to the badger?
Not particularly, other than being a fellow forest creature. Though it did break my focus. And when I moved my head, I learned that badgers are surprisingly fast for such a squat animal.
I didn't feel bonded to the skunk either. i was holding my breath, because it was so close any movement at all might frighten him into spraying.
OTOH today I felt bonded with a mango tree via its leaves brushing my face.
Lol, I bet you were holding your breath