Reality and Rebirth

Most of the pages on my website are about Me and My Opinions. You're still here, so I'm assuming that's of some interest to you. So here you go: my top ten favorite animals, from all corners of the animal kingdom, starting with number ten!

My Top 10 Favorite Animals

10. Acorn Weevil – Wikipedia Link

I'm scared of most bugs. I'm not proud of this. I know it's irrational, but my response to seeing a strange bug is most often fear. I try not to kill them, I catch them in a cup or on paper and put them outside, or just leave them be–but I'm scared of bugs.

That said, acorn weevils still make it on this list, if on the lowest position. I wanted at least one bug on here for Hashtag Diversity, and I have fond memories of sitting outside as a child, picking apart acorns, and seeing the larvae inside. They're cute! Somehow, I thought as a kid that I would be the first person to discover them, as if no one had ever wondered what those little round holes in acorns were.

9. Snapping Turtle – Wikipedia Link

Snapping turtles are cool! They can bite with enough force to break bones! As a child, I had school near a large pond where many snapping turtles lived, some of enormous size. To my child self, anyway. Sometimes a small one would crawl out and the kids would catch it, which wasn't very smart, now that I think about it. They take number nine on the list for fond memories of Admiration and a sort of Awe. They were intimidating as a kid, but I learned to coexist with them.

8. Chicken – Wikipedia Link

I fantasize about raising chickens for their eggs, even though I can't eat eggs. I just think a few would be nice to have around! I respect chickens greatly as a food source, both their eggs and their meat, and they're also wonderful animals outside of consumption. I haven't interacted with many, but I admire the different breeds, and I've met ones that were owned by friends. Great animals all around. I wish my HOA didn't forbid them.

7. Predatory Tunicate – Wikipedia Link

I just think they're neat; the only tunicates that are ambush predators, and they live so deep in the ocean! I also like how they look. They're kind of goofy, haha. I suspect my favorite pokémon's design–Cradily–was partially inspired by them. Not much else to say here.

6. Immortal Jellyfish – Wikipedia Link

I was pretty indifferent to these fellas until I made a connection between them cycling between two stages of life to the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes. Now I think they're awesome, and *almost* on my top five favorite animals. It's also kind of cool and possibly frightening that they showed up all over the ocean! I hope they're not an invasive species anywhere.

5. Diplocaulus – Wikipedia Link

Yes, this animal is extinct. I don't care. It's arrow-shaped head is just so charming, I've loved it since I was a kid. That's… basically it! We don't know much about them, sadly, due to how long ago they lived. I have respect for them as a prehistoric amphibian. Who knows how many variants of their kind existed, long ago!

4. Leopard Gecko – Wikipedia Link

Geckos are cute and have a charming face shape, and the leopard gecko in particular has a wide variety of morphs and patterns that I like a lot! As a child, a potential hobby I considered was breeding leopard geckos, but I did not pursue this seriously.

3. Quetzalcoatlus – Wikipedia Link

We're in the Fursona Territory, now. My third or tertiary fursona is a quetzalcoatlus named Proxy, and as a species, I think they're really cool! Pterosaurs in general I like just for being distinct from dinosaurs, and quetzalcoatlus are the largest examples of them; possibly the largest flying animals ever discovered. That's cool! That's awesome!

2. Moray Eel – Wikipedia Link

They're predators with cute, goofy looking faces, and they come in all sorts of colors and patterns. Green is a classic, but my secondary fursona is a laced moray, though I don't think the colors I gave Torch are typical of the species, haha. I really just think they look cute, and I fantasize about a world where merfolk have domesticated them as big water puppies.

1. Cat – Wikipedia Link

After putting cat as my number one favorite animal, I wondered, "Is this a normie list? Do I have normie favorite animals?" even though I've got weevils and jellyfish on here. Even if it was, I cannot deny my truth: I love kitty cats.

What's there to say about them? My primary fursona, Moxie, is a cat. I grew up around cats all my life: Fang, Ashley, Cookie, Snowy, Sparky, Deedee, Sassy, and the Unauthorized Beast are all names of cats either I or my immediate family have kept as pets. They're cute, they play, they purr, they sleep on my legs, and they all have such interesting, unique personalities that really shine when you get to know them. I dearly love every cat I've known.

Honorable Mentions

Thanks for reading!