"Did you know there's such a thing as a liger? There really is, it's a mix between a lion and a tiger. It doesn't happen in the wild though, zookeepers and scientists have to--force the two animals to mate?" Big Kid offered up out of nowhere, on the drive home today. "I don't even really like to think about that--"
"What does it look like?" little kid interrupted, with enthusiasm and curiosity.
"I don't know! I don't want to know! You shouldn't want to know either, you're only 7 years old!!"
"...I think he's asking what a liger looks like," I clarified.
"Oh," Big Kid said with obvious relief, "Like a mix between a lion and a tiger."
Then I tried to explain artificial insemination in an attempt to ease Big Kid's worried mind, but I don't think that helped.
I was actually relieved when the conversation moved along to conjoined twins and the likelihood of surgical separation.
2 comments:
The big deal around these parts growing up was "Shasta" the Liger at our local zoo. The sad thing about this being a big deal is . . . Shasta wasn't actually alive. She (he?) was all taxidermied up after her untimely death years before I was even born. Still. A liger! Almost like . . . a unicorn.
You should have started talking about Napoleon Dynamite instead!
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