Well, no, those don't sound very pleasant at all, it's true. But sometimes it's rather fun to be an animal, if you end up as a good one.

And no, it was by a prince, actually. Er, sort of. I met a frog that was actually a prince, and when I broke the enchantment he was under, he gave me the crown he'd been wearing as a frog--which, it turns out, had the ability to change its wearer into a frog at will, just by putting it on and taking it off. And giving it to me was the only good thing he did for me, too, the twit.