'Poor Animals'

At the meat section of the Chinese grocery store, I ordered some ground pork.

Olivia asked me: "Mommy, what's that?"

"Ground pork." I answered. "Remember the 包子 (pork and veggie buns) you are in love with that Anna and Andrew's mommy made? That's what's in the buns."

"Oh. But what's pork?"

"Pork is piggy." I told her.

"Piggy?" she opened her eyes wider, apparently it came to her as a surprise.

Then I ordered some spare ribs.

"Mommy, what's that?" she asked again.

"Spare ribs and they are from piggy too." I answered.

"And how about those?" she pointed to the beef section.

"Those are beef and they are from cows. And those on the very end are from chicken." I told her all.

She stood there looking at me, totally in shock. "We are eating all these animals?" she asked in disbelief.

Apparently she has never linked these red, raw and even bloody meat laid in front of her with those animals she loves in her mind until this moment. Not to mention that we just saw the movie "Barn Yard" yesterday and there were lovely cows and piggies in that movie.

I nodded and told her that that's what these animals are raised for.

She blinked her eyes a couple of times. I could tell that she became emotional as something watery came to the corner of her eyes. She then looked up and said: "Poor animals."

My heart felt for my little girl. I pulled her head over against my chest and said to her: "I know, but don’t be sad, honey."

Knowing how much she loves those animals, for a second, I wondered whether she would decide to convert to a vegetarian.