Watch out! Love in the animal world is going around… and it’s catching!
Mild symptoms of contagion might just be a smile on your face, but in worst case scenarios you may experience uncontrollable laughing, or even guffawing. And smiles, too, are contagious to other people!
Being an animal lover, however, is perhaps one of the best epidemics imaginable!
Animals and pets are good for your mind, good for your body, and good for your spirit. Studies have shown that keeping pets relieves depression, improves marriages, and kids with pets tend to function better. Caring for a pet also helps lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and improves heart function!
Cuddling releases serotonin and oxytocin, which can help improve our moods and fight depression. Smiling makes us look more attractive, feel younger, and adds years to our lives. It also releases endorphins, natural pain killers, and serotonin, which all together relieve stress and make us feel good.
The animal world is such an important part of human life! A synergy between people and animals has existed for thousands of years and has been crucial to the development of the human species. Throughout history the interconnection with animal life has helped humans learn and adapt, and become the most dominant life force on planet Earth.
So with all this animal love going around, make way for happiness! Embrace the animal world, get the contagion, and have an awesome life!
| Kissing a pig! Little boy kissing a pig at the Redneck Petting Zoo. “I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” – Winston Churchill | |
| Kissing Fischer’s Lovebirds “Animals are reliable, many full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to.” – Alfred A. Montapert |  Photo Wiki Commons, Courtesy Peter Bekesi |
| Kissing a camel! Man kissing a camel near a Sphinx in Cairo. Everybody knows how to love a dog… but how about a camel? “It is just like man’s vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb, because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.” – Mark Twain | |
| Kissing Prairie dogs “All of the animals except for man know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it.” – Samuel Butler | |
Kissing Horses. “When animals express their feelings they pour out like water from a spout. Animals’ emotions are raw, unfiltered, and uncontrolled. Their joy is the purest and most contagious of joys and their grief the deepest and most devastating. Their passions bring us to our knees in delight and sorrow.” – Marc Bekoff |  Photo Wiki Commons, Courtesy Daniel Johnson |
| Loving a best friend! Chesney is pushing around his new found kitten friend Joey, who was orphaned at just two-weeks old! “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi | |
| Loving those less fortunate! German shepherd named Leo is protecting and guiding a young cavalier King Charles spaniel that is almost completely blind. “The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself, too.” – Samuel Butler |  German shepherd named Leo is protecting and guiding a young cavalier King Charles spaniel in England that is almost completely blind. Photo Via pawnation.com |
| Bug up close and personal! These two are going at it “eye-to-eye”! Some insects can taste with their feet or legs too! “Only your true friends will tell you when your face is dirty.” | |
| Kissing a crocodile! A Malaysian man kissing a crocodile in a zoo. “Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” – Anatole France | |
| Love = hanging out with friends! Koko is a 35 year-old lowland gorilla who enjoys a heart-warming relationship with kittens. “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” – George Orwell, Animal Farm | |
| Kissing and snuggling a cat! “…loving and caring for my beautiful daughter, Devi.” “Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog (or cat!) could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.” – Dean Koontz |  Photo Wiki Commons, Courtesy Flower.dicicco |
| Kissing a Seal! “Angels walk among us, sometimes they are unseen and have wings, and sometimes they pant and lick our faces.” Jonathan Brooks “You can judge a man’s true character by the way he treats his fellow animals.” | |
| A Bubble Eye Goldfish sums it all up… “Animals never worry about Heaven or Hell, neither do I, maybe that’s why we get along.” – Charles Bukowski |  Photo Wiki Commons, Courtesy Angie Torres |
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Clarice Brough is a team member at Animal-World and has contributed many articles and write-ups.
Featured Image Credit: Helena Lopes, Unsplash