I find it easier to be with dogs then with people. as long as their basic needs are met, they’re generally low maintenance and highly trustworthy. Also it’s easy for me to read “dog”. 

When I was small we had a border collie cross and a wolfhound/shepherd “monstrosity” who looked after us when we played. 

As an adult I owned and trained a dominant aggressive man biting Dalmatian named Xena – when she died they named a small planetoid after the television character and I put her collar inside my broken clock on the bookcase.

My husband was never seriously abusive while she was alive because she was like a land shark and had tried taking a few hands including his.

Molly was a tiny chihuahua/spaniel cross with no hair and terrible teeth who was being sold for crack and had been badly neglected. She was a riot. She understood Latin, Spanish, and possibly Cuban. I called her Maria. She had a cleft palate she needed to be close to me. I never really appreciated little dogs prior to Molly. If you insulted the pope she would get offended and snort and walk out of the room. She was very theatrical.

This dog we called Alex… I found her at the hospital. She had huge bloodclots on her hips that burst open and it was a fucking mess. Turns out she was scheduled for hip replacements and they hadn’t run X-rays? So maybe running away saved her. We had to cauterize her constantly and clean and pack the wounds, and I took her to a priest one day just because it seemed like the thing to do. She must have been meant to have been found by me. She brought new meaning to tough and pretty.after she was blessed she finally started to knit up, but she was part Rhodesian ridgeback and had delicate skin. Poor baby girl, you have idiots for humans. We found them afterwards and they took her but the house tasted like copper for months.
Now of course I have Da Vinci who takes commands in like five languages and understands crosswalk systems.

I am often left disappointed by myself and humans in general when I compare the species.