Animal Lover

Svet takes after her dad’s love of animals. When I got to know Paulie better during the early days of our relationship, I learned that he is crazy over animals, and would in fact rather read a book about them than about war and weaponry (which he is also interested in, but he so much prefers animals). We have a big book about animals in the house, and Svet and Paulie would sit together and read it for hours. Paulie would point to an animal and say its name, and Svet would repeat after him.

Would you believe that my little one now knows about animal names that I haven’t even heard of? Just yesterday, she approached me and said “Mommy, drawing ibex”. I was like, “WTF is an ibex?” Paulie proceeded to tell me patiently that it’s a mountain goat. Right. I’m 26 and my daughter is two and she knows more about animals than I do. Shameful. I’m a loser for a mom.

She loved my grandmother’s dog at first sight. She would give the dog whatever food she has on her hand and she isn’t afraid that it might bite her. It’s a good thing the dog doesn’t bite, or I would have died in fright.

It’s a good thing, I guess, her love for animals. I mean obviously I wouldn’t worry about her being cruel to animals. She is really upset when she sees a dead ant. A dead ant! And even cries when she sees a butterfly with broken wings. Maybe she’ll be even a vet when she grows up. Cute.