世界趣問：一只沒人愿意領養的狗

　　下面是學習啦小編整理的世界趣問：一只沒人愿意領養的狗，歡迎大家閱讀!

　　The Wrong Dog

　　一只沒人愿意領養的狗

　　The woman walked up and down Main Street carrying a beautiful 5-month-old black Labrador mix in her arms. The dog was resting on the woman’s shoulder like a baby, gazing helplessly at the pedestrians, cars and shop windows. I was sitting at an outdoor table at the local coffee house with my husband, Alex, and we watched the comical, but endearing, scenario with curiosity.

　　On her third pass by our table the woman asked, “Can she say hello?” The woman, we soon found, was acting as a “foster mother” for a local rescue organization, and had the puppy out to desensitize her to street noise.

　　一名女子在緬街(Main Street)來來回回地走著，懷里抱著一只五個月大的漂亮的黑色拉布拉多混血狗。這只狗像嬰兒一樣把頭靠在女子的肩上，無助地盯著行人、車輛和店鋪的櫥窗。我和丈夫亞歷克斯(Alex)坐在咖啡館的戶外桌子旁，好奇地注視著這滑稽有愛的一幕。

　　在第三次經過我們的桌子時，這名女子問道，“讓它和你們打個招呼好嗎?”我們很快得知，這名女子是當地一家救援機構的“寄養媽媽”，帶這只小狗出來是為了讓它對馬路上的噪音脫敏

　　We were animal lovers — pet people with three cats and a dog at home along with our two children — so yes, of course, we obliged. The puppy — her name was Nina — immediately curled at my feet, under the protection of my long summer skirt. Alex and I asked, Is she good with other dogs? With cats? With children? She was, the woman said.

　　We lived in the country, our house butting up against a 30-acre preserve. Many of our neighbors and friends had similar homes brimming with kids and pets. Our pets were always adopted, and were loving and trustworthy companions. I grew up with several cats, and as a college student I worked at the Bennington County Humane Society, in Vermont. Our Rhodesian Ridgeback, Gemma, adored other dogs, and enjoyed a special relationship with our cat Addie, a docile tortoiseshell. They often slept next to each other, and Addie would stand on hind legs to kiss Gemma’s muzzle.

　　我們都很喜歡動物——家里有三只貓和一條狗陪伴著我們的兩個孩子——所以，我們當然答應了這個請求。這只名叫妮娜(Nina)的小狗立刻蜷在我的腳邊，把我的夏裝長裙當成了保護傘。亞歷克斯和我問，它和其他狗狗合得來嗎?和貓合得來嗎?和小孩子呢?這名女子說，合得來。

　　我們住在鄉下，我們的家毗鄰一個30英畝(約合12公頃)的保護區。許多鄰居和朋友的家庭和我們相似，都有許多孩子和寵物。我們的寵物都是領養的，是溫順可愛、值得信賴的伙伴。我童年時，家里就養了好幾只貓，大學時，我曾在佛蒙特州的本寧頓縣慈善協會(Bennington County Humane Society)打工。我們的羅德西亞背脊犬杰瑪(Gemma)對其他的狗狗很好，與我們溫順的三色貓阿迪(Addie)有著很特殊的感情。他們常常睡在彼此身邊，有時，阿迪會用后腿站立，親吻杰瑪的臉。

　　Before adopting Nina, we spoke at length to her foster mother, and also to the woman who ran the small-scale rescue operation.

　　Our children met Nina, walking her on a leash and playing with her, and she seemed sweet and smart, though shy. She was intensely fearful of loud noises, but with love and training she appeared poised to blossom into a lovely family dog.

　　在領養妮娜之前，我們和它的寄養媽媽，以及經營著這家小型救援機構的女士進行了詳細的交談。

　　我們的孩子見到了妮娜，用鏈子牽著它遛彎，跟它玩耍，它似乎很溫順聰明，但有些害羞。它特別害怕巨大的聲響，但經過照料和訓練，它似乎很快就能成為一只可愛的家犬了。

　　But things became complicated when we brought Nina home. She panicked in her new environment, tearing up the stairs to our bedroom. Like an alpha-male guard dog, she leaped onto the middle of the bed and growled with bared teeth. Clearly, she was terrified.

　　As she growled at me from my bed, I thought, This is bad. I felt a rush of regret and a terrible intuition that this dog was something different than she first seemed. But by bedtime we had calmed her down and she snuggled in bed next to us. A call in the morning to the rescue group assured us that Nina just needed time to adjust to her new home.

　　但當我們把妮娜帶回家之后，情況卻變得復雜起來。它面對新環境煩躁不安，飛一樣跑上樓梯，進到了我們的臥室。就像一只兇悍的護衛狗一樣，它跳到了床中央，咆哮著露出牙齒。顯然，它十分驚恐。

　　當它在我的床上沖我咆哮時，我想，這太糟糕了。我感到一陣后悔，并且有一種可怕的直覺：這條狗和它最初給人的印象并不相同。但到了睡覺的時候，我們讓它平靜了下來，它依偎在我們身旁睡著了。第二天早上，我們給這家救援機構打了個電話，對方說服了我們，妮娜只是需要時間來適應它的新家。