汪喵星人的自白

by Jesse Hunter

foonfoon 譯

PROLOGUE 卷首語

汪喵星人的自白

PUT YOURSELF In THEIR 'PAWS'

by Jesse Hunter

foonfoon 譯

“If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.”

— James Herriot

I’m a cat lover; always have been. While other kids liked to pull cats’ tails and throw them and kick them, seemingly deriving joy from their squeals of discomfort, I preferred the relaxing, therapeutic vibrations of a cat’s purring to any sound on earth. I still miss having that sound to coax me into dreamland, but the cats aren’t allowed in the bedroom anymore since my wife’s allergies started acting up.

As the years pass, my aging Cantonese cats, Liono or Lolo for short, and Tyra Banks or Tyty are still quite spry, but have recently become points of contention between me, my wife and her mother. I understand the diffculties with bringing them, the cats and my wife, to the United States later this year, but I don’t have the heart to leave my furry felines behind. Besides, there’s no one here in China I trust to take care of them. And that brings us to this month’s featured articles.

All three features this month are told from the pets’point of view. So instead of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, you can put yourself in these animals’ paws, so to speak. We start with a rather heart-wrenching tale of life and death, The Story of Whiskers, which follows a young cat from kittenhood all the way to its fnal breath. Then, in another tear-jerker titled How Could You?, we see a dog grow up with a loving family, only to be abandoned to an animal shelter for the rest of its days. And finally, Boss, Come Play with Me is another dog-told-tale, about how stress can make people forget about what’s really important in life.

So whether you’re a cat person like me, or a dog person like many others, just don’t forget to close your eyes, once in a while, and imagine how they must feel.

我是個愛貓之人，一直都是。其他小孩子喜歡扯貓尾巴，將它們又是扔又是踢的，似乎能從那痛苦的尖叫聲中獲得快感，但我更喜歡小貓發出的那種讓人放松、治愈人心的咕嚕咕嚕聲，這是我在這個世界上最喜歡的一種聲音。我依然非常想念聽著那種聲音進入夢鄉的日子，但由于我妻子的過敏癥狀開始復發，小貓們就不再被允許進入臥室了。

隨著時間一年一年地過去，我在廣州養的兩只小貓的年齡也越來越大，它們是里奧諾（昵稱洛洛）以及泰拉·班克斯（昵稱泰泰），但是它們還是非常活潑靈敏。不過最近，它們成為了我、我妻子和岳母爭執的焦點。我明白要在今年下半年把他們——小貓們和我妻子——帶回美國有多困難，但我實在是不忍心把這些毛茸茸的小家伙留下來。而且，我在中國也沒有什么可以信任的人來照顧它們。這也就引出了這個月的主題。

這個月的三篇主題文章皆以寵物的視角出發，嘗試不以人的角度，而是以這些動物的角度來讀這些故事。我們的開篇故事是一個讓人十分揪心的關于生與死的故事——《小貓毛毛》，講述了一只小貓從小到最后死亡的故事。接著，在另一篇催人淚下的故事《汪星人的控訴》中，我們目睹了一只成長在一個愛意滿滿的家庭里的小狗，最后卻慘遭拋棄，在動物收容所度過余生。最后，《主人，來玩》則是另一個以狗的視角出發的故事，關于壓力是如何讓人忘記人生中最重要的東西。……