Valuable Platonic Connections

MxSmith

Have you ever had a reallly good roommate? A bar tender that was the best therapist you could ever want? Do you know what it feels like to have a wild animal trust you? As a community that clearly values platonic connections, I'd like to know what your favorite and most treasured natural platonic connections have been? I think the value of romantic and sexual relationships is overglorified. There's nothing wrong with them, I'm just bored of love stories. Tell me about your beautiful platonic connections.

Lovelight

@MxSmith "Do you know what it feels like to have a wild animal trust you?"

A stray/feral cat if that counts as wild who her and I had the best of friendships for a while. She was the BEST. Even trusted me so much that she brought her kitties where I lived.

Next up, a goose kind of trusted me, though that's not really a trust I want to have cause I learned that it isn't good for them.

I've yet to have a butterfly trust me and land on me. That would be epi...spectacular I imagine. That or a really friendly alien.

My friends, they are pretty awesome.

CuddleDuncan

A wild baby baboon wanted to play with me once. Well, a toddler. Her mum wouldn't let her. She thought about it, because I looked ok, but in the end she decided it wasn't worth the risk.

I've never been trusted by a goose. ... I've been bitten by a goose.

SitaRosee

This may be a bit of a long story, my cat Charlotte. I got her while I was married to someone in the military. I lived in North Carolina at the time, often saw how animals are advertised “free to good home” and I often came across topics of those who would mention the unfortunate pets who went to homes that resulted in unfortunate events for the pets. So when I came across Charlotte free post, I was like “omg she’s so precious! What if the…no!” I immediately knew I had to do everything I could to take her and promise her forever under my care. So I reached out and even suggested Charlotte can spend the night, and we could both see if we where the right fit, the girl was going to leave to Spain soon, but wanted to find her a good home. I promised to do my best for her. Once Charlotte moved in, she hid from us for a while. I figured she doesn’t know us, but my husband from the time was like “we can’t have a cat we don’t ever see, if she doesn’t start coming out we’re getting rid of her.” I was completely against that, what I started doing was bringing her food and water under the bed, where she would mainly hide. Little by little she started coming around me. It took her some time but once she got comfortable, if I’m home, she would follow me around the house. I had to relocate to Florida, then Los Angeles, it was then we had to separate for a bit, I got her back once I had my own place in Las Vegas. She remained by my side until back in 2019, my sisters cat passed away, I agreed to let her keep Charlotte while I was out of town. When I got back, Charlotte was missing, I was devastated! I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, I was so worried about her. When a pet passes, we know what happened to them, when they go missing, it’s like what happened to my baby? So I couldn’t rest, she went missing in Henderson Nevada, that thought alone, I felt like I’d never find her. 7 days later, I am crying like “what haven’t I thought of?” That’s when a brilliant idea hit me, as crazy as it sounded. On the 8th day, I took her litter box I had at my place (she had two litter boxes, one was at my place, the other was at my sisters house where she went missing) . I put all her litter and put it in individual small zipped locked bags, I took a long pony tail of my hair I had been saving from a previous haircut transformation. I went to the cross streets where I received the most reporting of people seeing a cat that fit her description, I started creating a trail, it was about an 8 minute drive away from my mother figures house. I had friends helping me with this because even though it was an 8 minute drive, walking and doing most of the work by foot was time consuming. My love for Charlotte though was my fuel. I was determined this needs to bring her home to me. I missed her so much. With each piece of my hair I attached to trees, under rocks, bushes, anywhere she can pick up my scent, mixed with her scent. As my friends helped with their car to make holes on the litter bags to create the trail that leads to my moms house. It’s crazy to think I created a trail specifically for my cat. I spoke to myself as I planted my hair “please Charlotte come home to me..” I said what I could to awaken our connection and somehow help her feel what I was feeling, and most of all to guide her that I was around, I went home afterwards. Slept what I could. The next day, I went on with day search, answering calls, searching for updates I could follow up with, people would call, I remember a lady telling me “you know I lost my dog, spent over 2000 trying to find him and I still can’t find him!” I thought “omg I don’t have a lot of money but that can’t possibly be the only thing I depend on to bring her back.” It was hard and I felt helpless. That night as I was going to bed, this would have been the 9th day since Charlotte was declared missing. I felt so sad. My eyes where tired of crying, but I needed to sleep. I received a text….it was my sister saying “Charlotte is back!!!!” I did not hesitate to go pick her up. A good friend of mine came with me, since she had been helping me with the search, including her kids, we all went, it was about a 30 minute ride, we where so happy and excited. I felt so lucky and thankful, I took her home with me. She was only dirty but was fine! I was so scared she may have met an animal that would harm her, but gosh I was so grateful to see she was fine. It’s insane to imagine that time and what it was like. Since then we relocated to a new city. I’m on the 5th floor. But I see how much Charlotte enjoys it here. It’s now 2021 and we are still together. It has been a long challenge for me, I have suffered from depression for such a long time. I’ve felt so alone most of my life and before Charlotte came into my life, I couldn’t stay away from hospitals because I was so creative when it came to suicide attempts, but more so me being several depressed, part of me wanted to live, but another part of me wanted to take myself from the pain. It was so hard to feel like I belonged. But when I find myself alone in my apartment, I reflect on my life, how far I’ve come, I look to my side, there’s Charlotte. People have came and gone, but she’s stayed a part of my life. I feel like she could have left, found a new life, but she came back to me. When I come home, no matter how late it is, she’ll run to greet me. I see how caring she is and I’m just grateful she’s a part of my family. I dislike thinking of the future because I know everything is temporary, we have to be ok when it’s time to let go, but right now I wish this would last forever, I’ve asked her if she’ll please meet in the after life and continue our journey as companions, it’s all I ask from the universe. ✨ that’s my story of my Cat Charlotte

Babichev

Gosh, I have so many stories like that I don’t even know where to begin.

I had a male Saudi student roommate for six months. What was particularly unusual about that is that Saudi men and women do not socialize together outside of the family but since I was not Saudi (and old enough to be his grandmother) it was okay. He was awesome! He loved having new experiences. We had no idea in the beginning that we would have many adventures together. I took him to a balloon glow, he loved that. He would make a Saudi dish of meat and rice, invite his friends over, and we’d sit on the floor and eat with our hands out of a common plate. It was so communal. His friends were wonderful, so respectful and accepting of me, and had a camaraderie among them one does not see among American men. I lamented that I would never get to meet any of the women but he put me in touch with one of the women in his class. (There were a group of Saudi students studying at a university.) She invited me over, I met a few of the women, and she and I bonded immediately. She was so open and warm and we had great conversation. I cried when they all left.

The night my roommate left he asked me not to go into his room until after he left. When I entered his room, there was a beautiful arrangement of some silk flowers, some photos of me and him, some beautiful wrapped gifts - a necklace and earrings and some books on Islam - and a letter that he and the woman wrote that was so heartfelt it made me cry. They signed it, “Your son and daughter, A___ & O___”

Morpheus

I have a great relationship with my Wife’s sister. We talk often and have great conversations. My Wife on the other hand, does not have a great relationship with her. It’s not a bad relationship, my Wife just goes into big sister mode and gets over protective whereas I treat her more as a friend. I don’t tell my Wife a lot of the stuff her Sister and I talk about because I know she’ll just over worry about her.

Shake

That was a beautiful story! @SitaRosee

Lovelight

@CuddleDuncan Oh it bit in the beginning too, though nothing I couldn't handle. :P

Though having learned what I've, I decided it's better to have them as distant friends. 😅

blisscuddles

@SitaRosee That’s a beautiful story. Pets, with their unconditional love, bring out the best in you. Going through the elaborate ways to bring her back shows how kind hearted you are and a creative talent you have.

Mela_B

I must admit that I am extremely lucky in this department. I have at least three extremely valuable, wonderful platonic friends who, on a regular basis, shower me with love and affection. We trade homemade meals, house sit, care for each other's pets, chat regularly, and so much more. I am surrounded by love.

I've had a few wild animals trust me, and a few that were like friends. A few of my favorites would be:

• I used to run a lot thru the woods. Occasionally in this one area I would see some deer. After a lot runs thru there one day this doe just sprang into a run along side me. She was at least 40 yards away but she ran right along for a good 30 yards or so. Happened several more times, I'd come through on my daily run and she'd just run along for a bit.
• I had a red tailed hawk literally allow me to pick it up one time. It was injured and had some type of infection in it's wing. I only found it cause I was tracking it in the snow, bird prints with a weird looking green liquid in the snow. Ended up putting my coat over it's head and then picked it up, took it home and took it to an animal rescue place.
• Probably my favorite was a wild deer that let me touch it one time. The details are mine but suffice to say it was amazing.

quixotic_life

When I was a kid my best friend and I were playing on an old surfboard in the ocean, near where a stream emptied into it. After a bit we were joined by an otter. It was so cute and fun to play/swim with!!

UKGuy

My best platonic connections are with plants. I have a Yucca Elata that I grew from a seed collected at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. I nursed it from a seed, to a tiny seedling, to a 12 foot tall tree dominating my front garden. It's not huggable though because the fronds end in very sharp spines.