Mostly Vegetarians

A few weeks ago, Greta and I were reading a Peter Rabbit tale.  In it, Tommy Brock had just kidnapped all of Benjamin Bunny's baby bunnies.  He'd put them in a sack and stuck them in the oven for safekeeping while he napped.  On the table awaited his carving knives and his pie pan.  Greta was horrified.  Paul and I go back and forth:  regular coffee/decaf, vegetarian/carnivores.  There was about a decade or so when I was a real vegetarian but now I'm only a mostly-vegetarian, and Greta and I have talked about that.  When reading about Tommy Brock's ensuing slaughter of the babies, though, Greta said, "He's mean!  He's going to eat those bunnies."  I replied, "You eat animals sometimes." Greta said, "Yeah, but they are already dead."  "They are already dead because someone killed them so that you could eat them," I said.  "But I don't eat rabbits," said Greta, to which I replied, "No but you do eat chickens, pigs, and cows."  She thought for a split second and then said, "I'm going to be a vegetarian."  I told her that I would help her and we'd both be vegetarians together.  A few days later, Greta ate a hot dog at a friend's house.  I gently reminded her, after she'd finished eating it, that the hot dog was made of meat.  She asked what kind of meat and I told her maybe pig's meat.  She said, "Then why do they call it a hot dog?"  After hearing the answer to that age-old question, Greta replied with some severity, "Then I'm a vegetarian who eats piggies."  That was a few weeks ago, and I have largely forgotten about her effort.  She has never really been a big meat eater anyway, so it's easy for her to follow this rigorous piggy-and-plant-eating lifestyle, I suppose.  Last night we had chicken, a major rarity in our house of mostly vegetarians, and when I asked her if she wanted a bite, Greta said, "No, I'm a vegetarian."  There you have it.  Greta is a mostly vegetarian, too.  I asked Paul if he'd like to go vegan for a test drive a few nights ago, and he totally ignored me.  Maybe Greta will get on board.