Tiger People

Em and I got on to the subject of fish, and then fish stock, after seeing a guy with a small fish on the end of his line.

Em: Yuck. You wouldn't eat that, would you Mummy? Because fish is meat.
Me: That's right. I don't eat meat.
Em: Me neither, because I'm a vegetarian, right Mummy?
Me: Yes, if you want to be.
Em: I am, because I don't eat meat. But when I'm a teenager I will eat meat.
Me: Why's that?
Em: Because I'll be living with Frank! [her "boyfriend" at school]
Me: Why does living with Frank mean you'll eat meat? Maybe he'll be a vegetarian too.
Em: No mummy, because we're tiger people! Tiger people have to eat meat.
Me: Oh, well that makes sense. Will you eat it raw?
Em: No, cooked.
Me: Tigers usually eat their meat raw. They catch it and kill it themselves.
Em: Yes, we hunt our own meat, except when we're feeling sick and we have to buy it at the shops.
Me: Fair enough.
Em: But we will still eat lots of meat, even when we have a bad cough.