I Like Animals Better than People...

Does this make me a bad person?

And no, it's not just me being a misanthrope.  I've always been that way.  (And no, that does not mean that I don't like individual people - I love my family and friends, so don't think that I'm dissing on them.)

I can even remember as a little girl asking my babysitter if she liked animals or people better, and being completely shocked when she told me people!  I proudly told her that I liked animals better, and she just looked uncomfortable.  I guess that was my first clue that I wasn't normal.

I think it's because I have never completely understood why people act the way that they do sometimes - I have a very difficult time with it to this day.  I've gotten good at "reading" people's emotions, but am sometimes completely clueless about why they feel that way, and cannot for the life of me understand their reasoning.  Animals are simpler - yes, they behave badly sometimes, but it's not difficult to figure out why.  If a dog is angry and growling, there's a reason for it, and it's not just because he had a fight with Cindy last night and is worried that he won't be able to pay the mortgage.  You probably just walked too close to his food bowl, or he was abused as a puppy. Completely understandable.

If a dog loves you, he loves you.  He doesn't care about what people think of you, of him, or anything else.  Cats are a bit more complicated, but still much easier to understand than human beings.  My cats purr when they're happy, hiss when they're angry, meow when they want something, and run away when they're scared.  People would find some way to mess up even those most basic reactions...

And I will never completely understand what makes us tick.