This sounds like me too. I realized in therapy recently, that I's be raised in essentially a loveless household. I never saw my parents exchange so much as a single moment of affection for each other, no kissing, no hugging or carressing. I thought this was normal and I feel now that I've been trying to invent love from a place of parched earth where nothing would grow. I am a loving, sensitive, passionate and yes, loving individual but I don't allow my emotions to bubble to the surface, keep them tamped down. It's cost me one relationship after another. Now I know what it is, can name it, I'm determined to fix it. I too, love animals and prefer their company to people. I'd like to change that too.