The joys of rebirth and other tales of compassion...

Life as a toad sucks... You get to eat only the slower of mosquito's (god knows what they had for lunch) and an occasional ant passing by, you can't even jump properly like your cousins since you seem to have a tendency towards obesitas, and your skin doesn't appeal to that charming prince who could kiss you into a state of happiness.... Luckily for you you happen to live in a Buddhist country, so what do you do? You head towards the main road near your pond and hope for a compassionate believer to pass by, or rather to pass over you, and if possible let it be a believer driving a truck filled with bricks for the nearest temple, so that your spirit gets squeezed out of this life and into the other one a little bit faster as usual. Yup, this toad would give you his broadest smile if he only remembered how... Which makes me wonder, do butchers in Buddhist country make merit by ending the lives of countless down spiraled entities and releasing them from their animal lives and pushing them towards the next level? I mean, if the cow or chicken gets it, it gets eaten, so it brings happiness to some people, thus it should gain merit and move up a level no? Maybe my understandings of Buddhism are a bit confined... In any way, I wonder what the dog is doing in this sign outside of a restaurant in Ubon.....? Or maybe these fellas are standing in line for a food handout? Animal Farm the Thai style...