“完美”的小狗

The Perfect Dog

During summer vacations, I would volunteer at the vet’s, so I’d seen a lot of dogs. Minnie was by far the funniest-looking dog I’d ever seen. Thin curly hair barely covered her sausage-shaped body. Her eyes always seemed surprised. And her tail looked like a rat’s tail.

She was brought to the vet to be put to sleep because her owners didn’t want her anymore. I thought Minnie was sweet, though. “No one should judge her by her looks,” I thought. So the vet gave her the necessary shots. Finally, I advertised Minnie in the local paper: “Funny-looking dog, well behaved, needs loving family.”

When a young man called, I warned him that Minnie was strange looking. The boy on the phone told me that his grandfather’s sixteen-year-old dog had just died. They wanted Minnie no matter what. I gave Minnie a good bath. Then we waited for them to arrive.

At last, an old car drove up in front of the vet’s. Two kids raced to the door. They held Minnie into their arms and rushed her out to their grandfather, who was waiting in the car. I hurried behind them to see his reaction to Minnie.

Inside the car, the grandfather cradled Minnie in his arms and touched her soft hair. She licked his face. Her rat-tail wagged around so quickly that it looked like it might fly off her body.

“She’s perfect!” the old man exclaimed.

I was thankful that Minnie had found the good home that she deserved.

That’s when I saw that the grandfather’s eyes were a milky white color—he was blind.

【日積月累】

vet n. 獸醫

cradle v. 將某人（某物）（如同小孩）置于搖籃中

lick v. 舔

wag v. (狗尾巴等)擺動

exclaim v. 呼喊，驚叫，大聲說

deserve vt. 應受，應得，值得

【參考譯文】

“完美”的小狗

暑假里，我會去獸醫診所幫忙，所以我見過很多狗。Minnie是我當時見過長得最最滑稽的狗，她那薄薄的卷毛幾乎都蓋不住她那香腸狀的身體，眼睛總是充滿好奇，尾巴和耗子的尾巴很像。

她的主人不再要她了，便把她帶到這個診所，讓她永久地“睡去”。但我覺得Minnie性格甜美。“不應該靠長相來評判她。”我想。于是，獸醫給她打了必要的幾針，最后我將Minnie刊登在當地的報紙上：“有一狗，長相滑稽，表現很好，尋找一個有愛心的家。”

有一個年輕人打電話過來，我提醒他Minnie長相奇怪。那男孩在電話里頭告訴我，他的祖父有條狗，16歲了，剛剛死去，他們不在乎Minnie長得怎樣。我給Minnie好好洗了個澡，等著他們的到來。

終于，有輛舊車停在了診所前面，兩個小孩跑到門邊，他們把Minnie抱入懷中，然后沖向在車里等待的祖父。我緊隨其后，想看看對Minnie的反應。

車里，祖父把Minnie攬入懷中，輕撫著她柔軟的毛，Minnie舔著他的臉，耗子似的尾巴飛快地搖動著，如此之快，好似要脫離她的身體而去。

“她很完美！”老人大聲地說道。

我很感激，Minnie找到了一個很好的家，這是她應得的。

就在那時候，我看見了老人的眼睛，乳白的顏色——他是盲人。

【人生啟迪】

完美并不需要你方方面面都比別人優秀，只要你身上有閃光點，在這個世界上，對有些人來說，你就是完美的，你同樣會得到屬于你的那份幸福。