大胃王小貓
The Kitten That Eats Like a Pig

當(dāng)主人與狗轟轟烈烈演繹這出“尿不濕”二人轉(zhuǎn)的同時，小黃在哪兒？在忙什么呢？While that one-man-and-his-dog show was going on, ‘overflowing’with boisterous, pee-jerking melodrama, where was Gingerlet? And what was he up to? 答案是：他也沒閑著，他在捉魚，而且是徒手捉魚！The answer: He was busy too, catching fish. And doing so with bare paws!

“小黃”這個名字里的“小”字，有點(diǎn)誤導(dǎo)。剛來我家時，他確實(shí)挺小的，巴掌大小。The name Gingerlet is something of a misnomer. Yes, he was indeed quite small, the size of a palm, when he first came to our house. 記得那天到了吃午飯的時間，一家三口從不同的地方回家吃飯，父親回來得稍晚，他到家時飯菜已經(jīng)擺上桌了。It was lunchtime. I came home from school and my parents, from their respective work ‘units’. Father was late. By the time he got home, food was already on the table. 他進(jìn)來時，沒什么異常，只是表情似笑非笑，神秘兮兮的。As he stepped through the door, he had a mysterious look on his face, like a suppressed smile. Everything else about him seemed normal. 他一言不發(fā)，徑直走到桌邊，一只手漫不經(jīng)心地?cái)R在桌上——我和母親不約而同地驚呼一聲，一只“袖珍”貓，從他的衣袖里慢悠悠地爬了出來。Without a word, he walked up to the table and casually placed one hand on it... Mother and I gasped at the same time: A pocket-sized（or ‘sleeve-sized’）baby kitten slowly crawled out of his sleeve. 從那天起，每次吃飯，小黃都趴在父親的脖子上，探著小腦袋，父親自己吃一筷子，喂他一筷子。他成了父親的天然毛圍脖兒。From that day on, whenever we ate, Gingerlet would drape himself on the back of my father's neck, in the fashion of a fur scarf, his tiny head reaching down. Father would alternate between chopsticking food into his own mouth and letting Gingerlet eat from his chopsticks. 對這樣的“吃相”，母親很不滿，但除了嘮叨幾句“玩物喪志”，也沒怎么干涉。Mother was miffed at such reprehensible table manners, but her intervention went little beyond pitching a few admonitory pearls of wisdom at him.‘Indulgence in playthings is, alas, the bane of a man's spirit’was one of them.