First off - what city did you start in? Britain is a good choice - lots of players there.
To purchase from vendors, type: "vendor buy" next to them.
A good way to start out getting some combat skills and starting money is to fight zombies and skeletons around the various graveyards outside of towns.
Stealing is somewhat complex and far more complicated than I care to go into here. There are threads further down in this forum about stealing and how to train it. I don't think I'd recommend it to a truly new player.
Find things? Like what? Money? Magic weapons? Bear meat?
Animal taming is done using the animal taming skill. You click the skill, click an animal, and you attempt to tame it.
The beauty of UO is how in depth, complex, and involving it can be. Spend some time in this forum reading threads and try to pick up on as much as you can.