My Personal Quirk

[kokopelle]

I am listening to the book-on-tape version of 'Dark Lady' by Richard North Patterson . This is a suspense/murder story with people being killed in fairly gruesome ways. This does not really bother me. I think part of this reaction is my (now very submerged) latent death-wish. I did freak out when the heroine's cat was killed. I literally had to fast-forward through these portions. On TV I watch detective/suspense shows without batting an eye, but cannot watch the animal rescue/animal police shows. Do I care about animals more than people? I don't know...

Comments

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

I have the same quirk. I can't deal with animal death and animal cruelty; it hurts me worse than human cruelty.

I was 14 when the Star Trek TNG episode "Genesis" aired, in which the crew is de-evolved via a virus. Data's cat, Spot, was de-evolved into a lizard thing, but she gave birth to her kittens right before that happened. When they showed the helpless newborn kittens mewling on the floor, I shrieked, "I don't care what happens to the people! What about the kittens? Someone has to help the kittens!"

When I think about my house catching fire or being flooded with carbon monoxide, my first thought is always about my cats, how I can get my cats to safety.

[valleysailor.livejournal.com]

I, too, have an adversity to seeing animals of any kind suffering, whereas death and destruction on TV rarely bothers me. May be it is the underlying notion that death of humans on TV is just fiction, just make-believe, where you know that animal rescue programs on Animal Planet are very much for real. I was the same way post-Katrina. Figuring incorrectly that the government would take care of the people, my concern was who was going to rescue the animals left behind.
I also worry about how GiGi would get out if my house caught fire.