The start of my animal collection was November 17th 2013.
It was during a Lowlug meeting in Rotterdam (Holland).
As usual I brought some extra collectible minifigs to swap for other minifigs.
One of the persons who wanted to swap didn't have any minifigs to swap, but he did have some Friends animals.
The deal was easily struck and I had some animals: a white rabbit, a little dog, a cat and a few more.
When I arrived at home I also took some other Friends animals an set it it on a small base of white bricks.
Not really special. 7 animals in a line.
It was kind of fun and over time a few more Friends animals were added.
It became a lot of fun: a Friends animals collection.
Pretty soon I was keeping an eye out for more Friends animals.
And thus it became: Mother and daughter were collecting all Friends sets and father was collecting all Friend animals.
The small base became a plate with a row of brick so as to be able to make two rows of animals.
But it was no longer just Friends animals, because that dog is so much fun, and that bird, and...
Then I decided: This collection is not just Friends animals, but every LEGO animal I like.
And when I searched my LEGO collection for animals, my collection became much larger... And even more fun.
For the LEGO Fan Event in Lisbon (Portugal) in april 2014 I built a real display.
Becauseyou can have a lot of animals, but you also have to present it in an attractive manner.
On that display were about 100 different animals.
This wat the first time I presented my collection at an event and the responses were better than expected.
Some of the responses were like this:
- "Hey, all the LEGO animals." My response "Well, not all. Not at all"
- "Look, I've got that one too!"
- "Sir, how much are they?" "Sorry, this is my private collection."
And by the end of the event I had even more animals, which I had found at the parts dealers there.

For the next event in Aalsmeer (Holland) I had expanded the display from 48 studs wide to 64 studs wide, so as to be able to set down more animals.

Several events later I rebuilt the whole display for LEGO World (Holland), becayse it had become way too small to fit all the animals.
Increased the width to 80 studs. More depth, And added an underwater section for all the water animals. It now had become so large that it didn't even fit in a box for easy transport.
And it still wasn't large enough to fit all the animals.

The responses continue to be overwhelming.
And even fellow LEGO entousiasts help me obtain animals that I do not yet have, for which I thank them! You know who you are.

The aim of the collection is: To present all LEGO animals I like at (about) minifig scale in an attractive display.
I want one of each variation. Every animal in every available colour and every available print.
These are mainly city and Friends animals, but also some from Belville, Star Wars, etc.
I am not collecting Creator or Duplo. Tose are far too many. (Although they've got some verynice animals. So maybe...)

At this time the collection contains about 200 animals. The latest addition is the new Star Wars dewback from the Mos Eisley Cantina set (75052).
My wish list contains somemore animals including the old dewback, a taun taun, a rancor, a transparet bluedolphin (yes, those exist) and a glow in the dark octopus.
And I'm keeping an eye on all new sets (especially Friends) for any new animals.

And the display needs to be rebuilt again, to accomodate the new additions.
Who has some Trans Medium Blue plates 8 x 8 to spare?