(单词翻译:单击)
When I ventured from the Den,
当我小心翼翼地从窝里爬出来时，
the surface beneath my pads was rough and hard and a wire fence abruptly ended my exploration after half a dozen yards.
我脚下的地面粗糙而坚硬，在我走了几步路之后，一道铁丝栅栏突然挡住了我的去路。
It was a cage with a wire top and a cement floor.
这是个笼子，顶部是铁丝，下面是水泥地。
The implications of all this made me weary, and I stumbled back to the Den, climbed up on top of a pile of siblings, and collapsed.
一想到这一切意味着什么，我就感到疲惫不堪。我跌跌撞撞地回到窝里，爬到兄弟姐妹的上面，又滚落下来。
I was a little puppy again, barely able to walk.
我又变成了一只小狗，一只不太会走路的小狗。
I had a new family, a new mother, and a new home.
我有了一个新的家庭、一个新妈妈、一个新的家。
Our fur was uniformly blond, our eyes dark. My new mother’s milk was far richer than what had come from my first mother.
我们的皮毛都是金黄色的，眼睛是黑色的。我新妈妈的奶水比我第一个妈妈的丰富多了。
We lived with a man, who came by with food for my mother, which she gulped down quickly before returning to the Den to keep us warm.
我们和一个男人住在一起，他会给妈妈带吃的。妈妈每次都会很快吃完，然后回到窝里给我们取暖。
But what about the Yard, and Senora, and Fast and Coco?
但是院子去哪儿了？还有夫人、Fast和可可呢？
I could remember my life very clearly, and yet everything was different now, as if I had started over. Was that possible?
我还清楚地记得我之前的生活，但现在一切都不同了，仿佛我又重新开始了。这一切都是真的吗？
I recalled Spike’s outraged barking and how, as I fell asleep in that hot room, I was seized with an inexplicable question, a question of purpose.
我回想起斯派克愤怒的吼叫，我还记得自己在那个闷热的房间里睡着时，我脑海中一直萦绕着一个我想不通的问题，一个有关目的的问题。
This didn’t seem like the sort of thing a dog should think about, but I found myself returning to the issue often,
这似乎不是一只狗应该考虑的事情，但我发现自己还是经常会想到这个问题，
usually as I was just dozing off for an irresistible nap.
通常都是在困意袭来的时候想到的。
Why? Why was I a puppy again? Why did I harbor a nagging feeling that as a dog there was something I was supposed to do?
为什么？为什么我又变回小狗了？为什么我总有一种挥之不去的感觉，觉得自己作为一只狗是有某种使命的？
Our enclosure didn’t offer much to look at, and there was nothing fun to chew on except each other,
我们所在的这个笼子里没什么好看的，除了彼此之外，也没有其他什么好玩儿的东西可以咬，
but as my brothers and sisters and I became more aware, we discovered there were more puppies in a kennel to the right:
但是当我和我的兄弟姐妹们对周围环境的意识越来越强时，我们发现右边的狗窝里还有其他一些小狗：
tiny, energetic little guys with dark markings and hair that stuck up all over the place.
它们身材矮小、精力充沛，长着深色斑纹，支起的毛发十分凌乱。
