Like many of us, I've always been drawn to animals, living and extinct, from as early as I could remember. Was it the abundance of animal and dinosaur books in my house? The Schleich figurines and other toys I grew up with? The movies and cartoons I watched over and over, such as The Jungle Book and Harley Spiny? Or was it the abundant visits to the Barcelona Zoo and Aqualeon Safari park, among others?
In truth, perhaps the fact that I was an animal person in a very much non-animal family (I've only ever had pets in the last four years of my life, having moved out) and the fact that my favourites were crocodiles, dinosaurs and other reptiles, which everyone around me seemed to disdain and frown upon, with many half-baked councillors trying to disencourage me from "liking sharp-toothed animals", just made me like them even more, in a subconscious act of rebellion.
My way of liking animals changed over the years though. As a young child, I liked them just because, but disliked dogs, because my brother did, and pigs, because watching Spirited Away traumatized me at that age. In my tween and teen years, I got swept away in trends of the time... only being interested in "cool" animals and hating on lions and T. Rexes because tigers and the JP3 Spinosaurus were better in my naive conception of the world. Yep, not proud of this stage at all... It's only been in my adult years, shortly before joining Zoochat for that matter, that I've come to appreciate all of nature. I don't dislike any animal, and I have many, many favourites. So yes, I've always loved animals, and this will never change.
