Animal lover

My daughter. Oh. When I'm not fantasizing about listing her on Pet Finders for a small "re-homing fee", well, I think she's pretty damn fantastic.

While she thinks nothing of unleashing a fury that can strip paint onto the ones she loves most, well, she has the most sensitive, tender heart. She has always, since the day she could talk, LOOOOVED animals. For years (YEARS) her favorite thing in the whole entire world was to go to feed stores and pet stores to see the animals. Dogs, cats, baby pigs, chickens, rabbits, snakes, hairless rats, turtles...Of course, she wanted to bring every single one home, and it broke her heart when we had to leave without them. You'd think I'd have wizened up and instead lured her to, oh I don't know, a candy store or toy store or ANYTHING other than a place caused her, every single time, to look up at me with gigantic crocodile tears and say in the most pitiful voice imaginable "But mommy, if we don't save this puppy, who will?" Yeah. I'm a slow learner.

Well now we have these two sisters who pick Anna up from school each day and these girls? Are essentially 18 and 20 year old versions of Anna. They love rocks and fossils and beads and art and music and incense (uuggghh the incense) and above all, ANIMALS.

Specifically:

PIT BULLS.

I know. WTF, kid? Why not sweet little cuddly bunnies (oh yeah we've already rescued one of those. But still.) No, she chooses a beast that has a reputation for mauling faces off small children. DO NOT, however, make the mistake of mentioning this factoid to her, or you will experience one of those paint-stripping furies upon your being, as she wails "EVERYBODY HATES PIT BULLS!! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!!! THEY ARE SWEET AND LOVING UNLESS STUPID PEOPLE TRAIN THEM TO BE MEAN!!!!!!! THEY DESERVE TO BE LOVED TOO!!!"

She may have a point, but really? I'm not interested in testing this theory. I do, however, love that she is so empathetic and open-minded. Me, I admit to having a pit-bull prejudice.

Anyway, she has now decided that she is going to start her own little Pit Bull (or Pitties, as she affectionately calls them) fund raiser. She has convinced a small group of friends at school to join her, and they are going to "sell lemonade and brownies and have yard sales once a month to raise money for Pit Bull shelters." How cute is that? The other day she informed me that she needed help printing off some pictures of Pit Bulls, because she and her friends were going to do a "presentation" in front of the class. (Let me tell you, if you ever want to give yourself a 4-day case of the heebie-jeebies, just go ahead and google "pictures of pit bulls" and then get ready to test your gag reflex because let's just say? There are not just cute pictures of cuddly Pit Bull puppies. Ooooh no, there are photos, very graphic photos, of the damage they are capable of.)

Anyway, that day she couldn't wait to call me after school and tell me: "MOM!!! Guess what??!! When we first said we were going to talk about Pit Bulls, the whole class said 'Uuggghh. We hate Pit Bulls!' but by the time we showed them the pictures and talked about how there are so many of them that need good, loving homes because they have been abused, everyone in the class agreed to help us!"

Her teacher was so impressed by their impassioned plea, that she asked them to give their presentation in front of the whole school at the next assembly!

True, it's not the cause I would choose, but I LOVE that she is so empathetic toward these animals and is going to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Yeah, I guess I'll keep her.