Becoming a different animal

[John_Doe]

Which species would you choose, if you could be a different kind of animal?

If this were a real life possibility I'd probably want to be an elephant in part because they are herbivorous. I'd probably want to be a female elephant since they seem more social (if I'm not mistaken their groups tend to consist of mothers, aunts, etc. with their children and a matriarch but maybe I'm completely off. I need to do some research/refresh my information. This will be a quick/not-very-thought out post). They are self-aware, basically gentle, they form deep attachments to one another, etc.

If not for their eating other animals I'd probably want to be a dolphin. They seem generally playful/fun-oriented and sweet, they are also self-aware, and swimming deep under water is a lot like flying in that you have the freedom to move three-dimensionally. India and some Pacific Island countries apparently recognize the personhood or dolphins and whales under their laws.

I love cats, I normally don't think about being one (they are my brothers, but I normally think more about having a relationship with one as a non-cat than being one) but it could be fun to be one as well, especially if I'm a domesticated cat who's well cared for. They are peaceful and loving and it might be fun to play with string or chase the beam of a flashlight or climb a tree or those 'jungle gym' things that are made for cats.

Other animals-a butterfly (a species that doesn't eat feces if there are any, they sometimes do and I know I'm projecting human sensibilities I wouldn't have as a butterfly but I'm not a butterfly yet), a wolf, an American buffalo, some kind of bird (birds of prey fly really high, it looks like fun but I don't know how much they enjoy it. Apparently, there's some evidence that gala birds enjoy flying), an octopus, a golden retriever (dolphins are almost like golden retrievers, to me), a whale (with their beautiful courtship songs, I guess I've always had this image of them as wise and sensitive beings and they can live for very long so I often think of them as 'elders.' Their intelligence makes them very mysterious to me, how like human beings are they), a wild horse, a pig (sweet and playful), etc. I'll think of more later. If I could come back to being a human and remember my experience as another animal I'd probably want to experience being an invertebrate since, considering how far removed they are from us on the evolutionary tree, they are like aliens (much of what we have in common with them is from convergent evolution), they have minds that are much, more different than ours than non-human primates or non-human mammals. There's evidence that bees play and myrmica ants have passed mirror self-recognition tests. Ants seem really 'complicated,' when they're running around I always want to know what they're doing, they're probably not just looking for food (for themselves) or mates, their lives seem to revolve around their colonies and serving the queen.

I don't want to give the impression that I respect some animals more than others. It's just fun to think about belonging to different certain species. Their happiness is my happiness.

[Condemned]

If I could be in a home like mine, I'd want to be a cat. I love my own cats just like they were my own kids. I lost one a couple of years ago and cried for days. It took me several months to get used to her not being around. I still get teary eyed when I think about her death. One minute she was playing with her favorite cat toy, then next minute she is whimpering and takes her last breath in my arms.