One Time in China, I…saved a frog’s life.

As promised, here is my first installment of One Time in China, I…

Enjoy!

One Time in China, I…saved a frog’s life.

I’m an animal lover. Big time. Growing up, my family always had pets—many cats, a few dogs, several hamsters, and one big goldfish. My mom has never been an animal person (she tolerates them), but my dad has always had a penchant for feeding stray cats that wandered up to our houses over the years. Even his current dog, that he so adores, was a throwaway. He found the poor thing wandering around near his place of work, and after turning her in to the shelter and no one claiming her, he took her home. So, I guess I get my love for our furry friends from my dad. I just can’t stand to see animals in need or in trouble.

That said, China can be a rough place for animal lovers. You may have heard that they eat dog and cat over there. It’s not a myth. I know dog is more of a winter delicacy. It’s also pricey, from what I understand. Cat as a food, on the other hand, I don’t know much about. I don’t really want to know, either. It was one thing I pushed out of my mind while there, and went out of my way to avoid witnessing. Luckily, in Shanghai you can avoid a lot of things. That’s why I love it there.

However, I could not avoid the live frogs, turtles, fish, and eels available in the grocery store. And I’m not talking about in the pet section either. I had to force myself to turn a blind eye to that. I once saw a live fish flopping around on the floor next to the tank, and no one caring. One day, I was walking to said grocery store to pick up a few things (nothing alive, thank you very much!), when I saw a big, brown frog hopping down the middle of the sidewalk. It was very out of place. I have no idea why it was there, but I wondered if it had escaped from a cage someone had been transporting. I took a deep breath and just kept walking. I can’t help that frog. What would I do for it? I thought the entire way to the store. It made me so mad that a stupid frog could bother me so much, but it did. My favorite children’s books, after all, are the Frog & Toad series, so all I could think of was good old Frog, trying not to eat too many cookies, and agreeing not to look at Toad in his bathing suit.

So, I told myself that if the frog was still there on my way home, I’d figure something out. I’d let destiny take over. I went to the store and got whatever it is I was after that day, and bought an extra plastic sack—just in case. On my way home, sure enough, there was the frog, inches away from hopping into the busy street where it would have been flattened in mere seconds. I quickly opened my extra plastic bag and scooped the frog up into it. A Chinese man approached me after seeing what I’d done, and started asking me something, smiling and pointing at the bag. Are you going to eat that? I imagine he said. Unable to understand or respond, I just smiled and said, “I’m rescuing it.” Yes, I know that was silly and that he didn’t understand, but what else could I say? I carried the frog down the street a little further to a fancy apartment complex with a pond. There was a guard at the gate, but being a foreigner, I strolled right in without even a glance. I went over to the pond and let the frog out of the bag. He immediately claimed his freedom, jumping into the water and swimming away. "Stupid frog," I muttered as I walked away, happy that I didn’t have to worry about him all day long.

I tell you, sometimes loving animals so much feels like a curse.