双语：冒险7个月 小狗终回主人家(图)

　　Dog back home after adventure, neutering

　　2007-2008学年 第18期

　　秦毅忠 译

　　DIAMOND, Mo. — The Bowman family has its pooch back. Their dog Happy is back after seven months of adventure, an operation, two intermediate homes and a new name.

　　Happy, also known as Radar, is the same dog who ran away from a different Joplin household to live at veterinarian Steve Walstad’s Joplin office, where he was neutered last month.

　　Misty Bowman, mother of Codey, 14, and Chase, 9, saw Happy’s picture Monday in the Joplin Globe with a story about Walstad deciding to keep the dog that he called Radar.

　　“I was yelling at my husband, saying, ‘Tell me I’m crazy, tell me that’s not Happy,’” Misty said of her reaction reading the newspaper.

　　The Bowmans say they took the dog they called Happy home from a friend’s house when he was 8 weeks old. He stood out to Misty because he was so friendly and not at all aggressive.

　　Misty’s husband, Rob, was especially

　　attached to the dog and named him Happy “because he always looks like he’s smiling.”

　　After 2 1/2 years as their family pet, Happy went missing from the Bowmans’ 160-acre farm in Diamond seven months ago. Misty said the family drove all over the area, rode four-wheelers around the property, put up lost-dog ads, and went door-to-door asking for information on their pet.

　　“Eventually we came to the assumption that he was gone, we thought he got run over,” Misty said.

　　But that was not the case. He had been taken in by a family that named Radar for his ability to find his way around.

　　That talent showed up earlier this month when he came back to Walstad’s office, where he had been boarded for several weeks — and neutered — while his adoptive family was out of town.

　　The family was considering trying to find another home for him anyway, so Walstad decided to keep him as an office pet.

　　Bowman called Walstad’s office and explained the situation, insisting her children didn’t know that Happy was still alive and that Walstad could keep him if he wanted. But Walstad said he couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out and cheerfully turned over the dog to its rightful owners.

　　Happy went home Monday afternoon, and Misty Bowman said he started to get excited in the car as they got close to the house.

　　“He knew where he was at,” she said.(AP)

　　参考译文：

　　密苏里州戴蒙德消息：鲍曼一家找回了他们丢失的小狗。在历经7¾个月的冒险、一次手术、两个中间家庭和一个新名字后，他们的小狗“快乐”又回到了主人身边。

　　“快乐”又名“雷达”，就是从(密苏里州)乔普林市另一个家庭出走，后又住在兽医史蒂夫•沃尔斯塔德乔普林市办公室的那条狗。它于上个月在那里被阉割。

　　米丝蒂•鲍曼是14岁的科迪和9岁的蔡斯的母亲，她星期一在《乔普林环球报》上看到了“快乐”的照片，上面附有一条报道说，沃尔斯塔德决定收养这条他称作“雷达”的狗。

　　米丝蒂提起她在看到报纸后的反应时说：“我冲我的丈夫大喊大叫道：‘快告诉我我疯了，告诉我那不是快乐！’”

　　鲍曼一家说，他们从一位朋友家里将这条他们叫做“快乐”的小狗带回了家，当时它才8周大。在米丝蒂看来，这条狗很出色，因为它太友好了，一点都不好斗。

　　米丝蒂的丈夫罗布尤其喜欢这条狗，为它取名“快乐”，“因为它看上去总像在微笑。”

　　作为

　　米丝蒂说：“最后，我们认为这条狗失踪了，我们想它是被轧死了。”

　　但事实并非如此。“快乐”被另一个家庭收养了，由于它有识别周围道路的能力，这家人为它起名“雷达”。

　　这条聪明的狗于本月初露面，它返回到沃尔斯塔德的办公室，在那儿被喂养了几周的时间并遭到了阉割，当时收养它的那一家人都不在城里。

　　那一家子正在考虑无论如何为它物色一个新主人，因此沃尔斯塔德决定收养这条狗，将其作为办公室的宠物。

　　鲍曼给沃尔斯塔德的办公室打电话说明了情况，坚持说她的孩子们都不知道“快乐”还活着，如果愿意，沃尔斯塔德可以收养它。但沃尔斯塔德说，既然事情是这样，他(如果继续收养)不会感到更快乐，之后，他兴高采烈地将这条狗归还给了它真正的主人。

　　“快乐”于星期一下午回到了家，米丝蒂•鲍曼说，当他们离家越来越近时，车里的小狗开始变得兴奋起来。

　　“它知道它就要到家了，”她说。