關於標題:

我說應該翻譯為「我是貓戀人」。可是，作者說妳看翻成「我是動物愛好者」如何？我說，那樣有點不傳神。作者說，好了，隨便妳。可是為了真正表達作者的原意，還是採納他的意見。

想了好久，又覺得這裡主要描寫的是貓，所以還是用原來的「my cat, chauncey」比較好。

my cat, chauncey 

Dear Ana: I am forwarding hte correspondences between me and a friend on my cat. Maybe you will be interested in reading it. I am a cat lover. 

Hi dear.

Besdie the meeting which I told youa bout in the UN,....... 

Meanwhile, I want to tell you my love with my cat.

I had a cat, his name was Chauncey, which was an italian name given by his original owner. He was given to my son when he was newly born as a present from one of  his high school classmates, who happened to be an Italian girl. So the Itlain name. She was a cat lover and was preaching to people to love cats.. Anyway, my son was busy with his class and had to travel to somewhere so he asked me to take care of this baby kitten. I never had a pet beofre and was afraid of troubles to take care a him. I reluctantly accepted the tedious responsibility. Then after two weeks, the cat was somehow liked me very much and had always attached to me whenever I went in the house. When I read, he jumped on my lap to watch my book. When I sleep, he sat and slept next to me in bed. When I ate, he stood by my side to watch and made sounds, maio miao, to ask for food. We two very soon became insepaprable. When I went to office every morning, he stood on the window sill to watch me as if he was there to say good-bye. When I returned home, he was happy and jumped on me to lick and to touch. As long as I was at home, he was with me, sitting on my lap or lying on my side.

I treated him as my second son. Or even closer than my only real son. My wife was jealous about the way I treated him. Fortunately he was a boy cat, not a girl cat. Otherwise, my wife would  even more envied him.

In 2002, I brought him to Beijing when I decided that I would stay Beijing longer than I was in the US. We gave him all required shots of immunization and check-ups, and with hospital certification of his  good health and  all  disease-free clean conditions. When we entered the custom at the Beijing airport, we had a nightmare. The custom official did not recognize the certificate issued by the New Yrok Animal Hospital. He said there was no US goverment seal on that certificate. But I told him that all animal hospital in US were private. There was no government animal hosiptial. He then requested me to get a proof from the US embassy to indicate the certificate was recognized by the US government. So he put my cat into a dark room at the airport near their office, locked in a dirty cage  with no light, no water ,no food, ..etc. I was very upset but had no way to argue with that official. Even he threatened me if I kept arguing, he had to send my cat back to the US by the same airline on which we took to come to Beijing. So finally I asked him a favor to let me give some water and some cat food which brought with me and I put the water and food inside the cage. He arrogantly agreed. That time was around 11:00PM in the night. Wea ll tired and exhausted.

I went back to BJ apartment very sad and worried about my cat that night, and even could not sleep for the whole night.

Nest early morning before sun rised, I took a taxi and went to the US  embassy to make an urgent request to see the counsellor in charge with my special UN official passport. That counsellor thought that was something very very important. He immediately met me to discuss the issue. Only then he realized it was a issue of cat. Fortunatekly, himslef was also a cat lover. He was very sympathetic and immediately let me to write a note and he put a huge US embassy stamp on the note. What  I wrote on the note simplily said that the certificate was authentic and should be accpeted. Then I signed my name on the note.

Now armed with that note with the US embassy stamp, I went directly to the custom office to request them to free my cat. Even also, I had asked a director from the United Front Work Department to be with me to see the Custom official in charge there. They saw the note with the US embassy stamp, and they even did not bother to read the note, they asked me to pay a fee of 1000 RMB for them to keep my cat overnight in that small dark dirty room. I had no way to protest and only reluctanly submitted them the money. Then they released the cat, who was then  totally scared and nervously cried without sound but tears all over his face, and was shivering all the time. I felt so heart broken and upset.

I still kept that receipt which the Custom  official gave me, which was nothing but a shabbily printed note without real official stamp on it. I later was told that was the way those corrupted airport custom offices to collect money for their own "small treaure-money box".  The !000 RMB was more expensive for me as a UN official to pay my room  per day at that five-star Kun-Lun Hotel in Beijing.

I never forgot this story, when my cat went back first time with me to our motherland.

OK I shall stop here and tell you more tomorrow on my cat and the stroy afterward. I have  got to take a long distance phone call now.

Ana:

This is my friend's reply to my cat stroy, for your infroamtion.

Subject: Re: my cat, chauncey 

Chauncey 真是一个可爱的猫，为什么它在家人中间最依赖你呢？呵呵，猫弟弟好像更容易依赖人。它懂中文吗？我的猫妹妹也非常依赖我，我走到哪它跟到哪儿，我趴在床上看书的时候，它就跳到我的背上，找一个它觉得最舒服的地方躺下睡觉，蔚为奇观。为了让它睡得好，我不得不支着胳膊，长时间保持一个姿势。它死的那一天我还记得，1996年4月2日，死时双目圆睁，口吐鲜血，我哭了无数次。后来，我家又养了许多猫，包括一只出生只有2周，因为妈妈被人偷走，不得不提前送来的猫，我是用针管打牛奶喂大的它。但因为我外出上学，它跟我的家人更亲密，我也很嫉妒它，因为它赢得了我妈妈很多的爱。我妹妹睡觉的时候，它钻进被子，把脑袋放到枕头上，好像一个小人儿。有一次，我居然看到它象婴儿索乳一样，伸直身子腻在我妈妈怀里。

对于你在机场的遭遇，我只能说，这帮人太过分了。他们就是看着你是个遵纪守法的人，才会勒索了你。我也遇到过这种情况。我想，你在官方组织的场合被安排和照顾得很多，和那些人打交道的经验不够吧。如果你当时就找到机场的总经理或者党委书记，我猜他们不会为难你。因为作为第一负责人，不可能把违法乱纪的事情做得这样明显，而且他们又无处可以推卸责任。你应该问机场的收款人要发票或者收据，从而向消费部门投诉。如果你愿意，你还可以向北京的晚报投诉，我觉得这对于晚报是一个好题材，说不定第二天社会新闻的头版就会出现大字标题：《联合国官员在首都机场遭受勒索》。然后，机场的主管部门会看到这样的新闻，机场的负责人就会登门道歉，并且赔偿你的损失。哈，也许你慈悲为怀，不愿意这样高调吧。

我曾经被一个出版社恶意拖欠书的稿费，3年中，我始终跟他们的一个中层干部交涉，却始终没有结果。最后我忍无可忍了，在咨询了律师之后，我认为律师太麻烦，而且他们要价很高，所以我决定自己解决这个问题。我找他们的员工要到了他们社长的手机号码，天天给社长打电话，一个星期就解决了问题。我跟那个无赖的出版社的社长在他的办公室讨价还价，最后在打了8折的情况下要回了钱。没有道理可讲，不会遵守合约，有时候人只能强横。

我今天要和妹妹一起去听著名音乐家俞丽拿的演讲，今天只能到这里了。

我很想知道，Chauncey后来怎么样了。

周末愉快！

Dear M.L

您的貓從北京機場出來直到生命終結的故事呢？這一段您沒有寄給我。您的觀察和描述好有意思，幽默、風趣，讓人啞然失笑。

等您寄來喔！

ANA

2006/04/29

continued on Chauncey.

Date: Mar 24, 2006 9:20 AM
Subject: Re: my cat, chauncey

Dear ANA: 

As for my dear cat, Chauncey, we had him to be with us in Beijng since the Summer of 2002. He was happy to be with us.  As we liked him so much, it was I who fed him, who played with him, who slept with him, who cleaned him, who talked to him, ...He and me were just inseparable. He was so understanding, so affectionate, so intelligent.  My wife was joking that he and me were too much to attach to each other.  

BY the April of 2004, he reached 14 years old and was considered like a very fragile and very old person. He passed away probably by a  slow heart attack. I took him to a veterinarian. It was diagnosed he had then a weak heart and not much could we do to help. He was old.

Yet before he died, he seemed to know that he would be leaving soon. He came to my study and watched me to read and to sleep on my lap. His eyes was moist and filling with tears. I some how also knew that his time was ending. We sat together and watched each other and talked  and I even sang to him  for two whole days. Then he died while I was holding him in my chest. Before that last moment, he cried without sounds but licked and kissed my face and hair from time to time. Then he was quitely slept away with his hands on my shoulder, his head on my chest. Even now when I am wirting and recollecting that time when we said good-bye to each other, I have tears welling my eyes.

Such an unconditonal love and trust between me and Chauncey was unforgetable. My very dear love  and attachment with Chauncey has since made me held respect and attention and care to other lifes, either human or any other creatures, in the world.  

My wife and I took Chauncey to an animal funeral house at the suburbin Beijing and had creamated his body. I still keep his ashes in a ceramic urn in my Beijing home in my study room. I remember him from time to time.We plan to bury him when I am back to Beijing later this year. A friend of ours suggestd to let him rest in Xiang-Shan where the trees are green and the sky is blue. At where his sipirit would be free.I shall say another good-bye to him again, wishing him happy at paradise and always be with us in our heart.

I shall tell you more later on that corrupted custom official or officials. The reality was not as simple as what you naively thought.                                      

this the second correspondence from me to my friend on the cat.

Subject: Re: my cat, chauncey

Yes, I still very much think about Chuancey from tiem to time. He made me to realize the value of  life. Even a small animal has his own uniqie feelings and  thought. The unconditional  loyalty and love which he demonstrated to me was unforgetable and deeply rooted in my heart. Since his passing away, I have determined to do something good for those natural preservation and animal protection projects whenever possible. The buddhism conception to respect lifes for everything really has its significance that we should learn.

But I thought that a cat could  have a life span for 17 years more or less. I thought that my Chauncey could have lived for another  three years if things went all right.

After the disgusted blackmail exhorted to me on Chauncey's one night prison in Beijing airport, the next day, I was invited to a private dinner by a high ranking official who was a member of the CCP Political Bureau. I told him about the ugly behavior of the Beijing Custom. He however advised that it was not worth to fight back against them. Even he said that exactly like you has  indicated that the top official at the Custom Office might not necessary know the coopruption, if with his help,  we approached the Custom Office then certainly I could hvae that corrupted guy got punished or blamed for what happened. Then it was likely I would be black-listed by those guys at the Custon. Then after, whenever I come through the Custom each time I come to China, I would be subject to their harassment. They would find all excuses to search my luggages and delay the whole process, unless every time when I come, I ask someone from certain high office to accompany and escort me through the custom. So he asked if that was worthwhile  or not? Instead, he had his secretary called next day to the custom office to thank them so kind to help me to have gotten my cat and other things done in scuh an expeditious way. The custom office then  would remember that I had a friend at high place and I was not taking any offense by their blackmail. So next time when I was getting through if something happen, I could always ask the top supervisor to help. So this was how things work in our great motherland.

We both need to learn more about those kins of political skills to get things done in China. So no wonder he reaches to be  a memebr of the CCP  Political Bureau not wothout a reason.

大哥，你好。

我们的网络出了问题，直到今天下午才恢复正常，之前一直不能访问任何网站。

你们在机场遇到的问题很复杂么？我只是觉得，很多时候，直接找到一把手会方便很多。 找不到一把手找能找到的最高领导会好一点。不过也许你们的情况特别复杂吧。不管怎么说，一只猫1000块钱"过关费"是太贵了。又不是在宠物店买的名种猫。

Chauncey竟然活了14岁，这是相当高龄了，跟人的100岁也差不多。我听过最老的猫也没有超过这个岁数，可见它被照顾得非常好，是一只幸福的猫。我觉得猫和狗，是有灵性的动物，不管是名种，还是普通的种族，只要被爱、被照顾，都会变得非常聪明。有多少猫可以受到主人这样的爱护和思念呢？它真是一只幸运的猫。我读了它临终的故事，感到非常感动，这是一种非常真诚而深厚的情感，这份爱值得珍藏。    

祝健康。

Dear Mr.L

什麼靈感使您想起寫這個故事的呢？您的文筆很好喔！寫的很生動、傳神。我看了很嫉妒呢！

您與一隻貓的感情如此深厚，何況是人呢？難怪您的朋友遍天下。看來您可以寫很多故事喔。這是一篇很好的散文，您要不要拿去發表呢？報社一定很感興趣的。「我是貓戀人」真的太生動了，尤其是貓和您的互動，貓對您的依賴，貓被關在機場又暗又髒的籠子裡，您的焦急、心痛、憐憫實在令我羨慕。何時有幸我也能做您家的貓！

今天我想早點睡，明天要做的第一件事就是給沈教授寫信，連同我寫的筆記一同寄去。拖到現在真的有點不好意思了。祝您平安

Ana

Subject: Re: 我可以做您家的貓嗎?