I was hit on my back as I walked down the hall. I turned around angrily, only to discover a lovely cat. His name was Oscar and he was born at the shelter I was visiting. The volunteer let me know that the mother was abandoned by her owner. She and the rest of the litter (幼崽) had been adopted quickly, but Oscar remained.

I could tell he was just what we needed. We were just married, full of love and hope, but we were also facing a few unexpected trials. Just weeks after our wedding, my husband was injured in an accident at work, which not only broke his body but his spirit. Hours of physical treatment led to sleepless nights. I hoped that this little cat would cheer up my husband.

When I brought Oscar home, I asked my husband to shut his eyes and open his hands. I handed him the cat, who reached up and rubbed his paws (爪子) against my husband’s face. It had been months since I saw my husband smile like this, and Oscar himself couldn’t stop purring (发出呼噜声).

Years passed, and our sweet Oscar continued to bring us comfort. He had an ability to know if someone was having an emotional moment; he would always try to help.

One day, I received a phone call from my mother telling me that my father had cancer. I swore to do everything I could to help him. Feeling upset, I took a bath to try to collect my thoughts. Oscar reached up, opened the closed door, and jumped directly into the bathtub with me. Hearing the loud noise, my husband ran into the bathroom to find Oscar all wet just inches from my face. That little guy was all heart.

Fortunately, my father beat cancer and recovered fully. Following his final treatment, he was given two weeks of rest at home. He asked if he and my mother could “babysit” Oscar for those weeks. We were more than happy to share.

On the final day of Oscar’s visit, my father decided to bake cookies for me and my husband to thank us for “lending” him our cat.

“Did you add these paw prints on the cookies?” I asked my dad surprisingly.

My husband and I enjoy seeing life through the eyes of our children. It’s amazing to watch as they discover their world.

While we were outdoors last summer enjoying the sunshine, our oldest daughter, Kaytlin, called me to the doorway. Beneath the steps was a baby red squirrel.

We watched it from a distance, not wanting to disturb it or scare off its mother. But after a long wait—and looking all around our house for signs of a nest or a mother—we realized the tiny squirrel was lost.

Shaking terribly, he was weak, thin, and hungry. We tried to find an expert to help, but the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife website showed that there were no wildlife experts in our area. After some quick research, we concluded that the best way to give the squirrel a fighting chance was to care for him ourselves. So a trip to the local store for milk and supplies was in order. More research taught us how much to feed him, how to estimate his age, how and when to wean (断奶) him, and that we should let him go as soon as he could survive on his own.

Our daughters and I took turns in feeding “Squirt.” Kaytlin took on the most responsibility. She taught him to eat from a bottle, and she woke in the night for his feeds.

To our relief, Squirt soon became healthy and strong. Within a few weeks he became more active. He would chatter (吱吱叫) for his next meal, playfully go around the girls, and lie down on them for sleep. It wasn’t long before he was weaned onto solid food and reintroduced to the wild.

His first few visits to the great outdoors were funny. Just like a child, he would play in the grass some and then run back to Kaytlin for safety. Soon she had him climbing trees and finding nest material.

One day in the trees, Squirt met up with a family of gray squirrels.

One night, Squirt didn’t come back to our house and it rained hard.

Kindness of Strangers

We depend upon a community where helping others is highly thought of. This helps form a web that holds us together in times of need.

Years ago, I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready when my fourteen-year-old daughter, Cassandra, called me from her room. “Mom, can you help me get downstairs?” She had lung disease and depended on oxygen twenty-four hours a day, so it was impossible for her to move up and down the stairs without help. I turned down the stove and ran upstairs to her room. Cassandra let out a sigh and closed her eyes. “Mom, I wish it wasn’t so hard for me to climb the stairs.”

“I know, honey. We’ll try to work something out.”

A month earlier, a company introduced an electric stairlift (座椅电梯) to us. It sounded wonderful. It would greatly improve my daughter’s life. Unluckily, we couldn’t afford it along with the medical bills although John, my husband, even took two jobs to support the family.

I asked the local organization for help once again. They had lent us a wheelchair and a shower chair; maybe they could help with a stairlift, too. I held my breath while the phone rang. “Do you have a stairlift I could borrow?” But they hadn’t.

A few weeks later, we bought a shower chair. Then we could return the borrowed one. I loaded it into my car and drove to the organization. As I got close to the gate of its building, I saw something looking like metal rails, and one of them had a chair attached.

I thought I was seeing things. I parked my car and got out to confirm it was real. I touched the cool metal of the rails and the soft cushion of the attached seat. There was even a remote control taped to a rail. It was a stairlift! I ran in to ask about it. A volunteer told me that someone left it here during the night. He added that a note was left on the stairlift, saying “For anyone who may need it.”

“Can I take it away today?” I asked hopefully.

After John fixed the stairlift on our stairs, we shouted at Cassandra to try it out!

Today was Community Service Day at school. Maya’s class was going to make cards for the seniors living in a nursing home. It was also the first day Maya would be wearing her leg brace (腿支架) to school, which was designed to help her walk more steadily and smoothly.

It was a cold autumn morning, Maya looked down, feeling embarrassed. To make it lovelier, she had delicately decorated the brace with pretty butterfly patterns. Still, she was unsure about others’ reaction. All morning at school, kids kept glancing at her brace. To her relief, they didn’t say anything.

In the classroom, Maya was drawing little green buds (芽) and pretty flowers when her friend Samir came over and sat by her. She felt his eyes fixed on her brace and heard him asking, “What’s that for?” Not knowing what to say, Maya pretended she didn’t hear him. After a few seconds of awkwardness, she glanced back at him, and found that he looked a little sad.

After lunch, the class set off. The nursing home was on a small hill and all of them walked there happily along the path. Maya found that the brace did make it easier for her to walk up.

Maya and Samir were paired up with a lady who was 83 years old. There at the end of the hall in a wheelchair, with a big smile on her face, sat the lady, wearing a pink coat, with red lipstick and beautiful earrings. She looked bright and full of life. Moving flexibly and fast towards Maya and Samir, she greeted first. “I’m Joan, ” she said cheerfully, “Glad to meet you. ”

Maya and Samir handed her the cards they made. Joan looked at Samir’s card carefully and spoke with admiration, “You’ve written a poem! That’s so artistic!” Samir’s face reddened with shyness. Then Joan turned to Maya’s picture. “The first flowers of spring!” she cried in delight. “You really have a gift for using colour!” she said. Clearly, Joan’s praise added great power into Maya.

In a sudden wave of bravery, Maya asked, “What’s it like being in a wheelchair?”

Deeply impressed by Joan, Maya offered to sit beside Samir on the bus ride back home.

“Po po, Popo, cat cat, Popo cat—oh dear, what a hard word!” said George, quite out of patience. “Do you call that a hard word to pronounce, George? I know much harder words than that.” “Well, father, this is the hardest word I ever saw,” replied George. “Sometimes the hardest words are the shortest. I know one little word, with only two letters in it, that very few children, or men either, can always speak.” said his father.

“Only two letters! What can it be?” cried George. “The hardest word,” replied his father, “I have ever met with is a little word of two letters— no.” “That’s the easiest word in the world!” cried George. He repeated, “N-o, no; n-o, no,” a great many times. “George, I hope you’ll always find it as easy to pronounce as you think it is now, and that you’ll be able to speak it when you should.”

In the morning George went bravely to school, a little proud that he could pronounce so hard a word as “Popocatepetl.” Not far from the schoolhouse was a large pond, where the boys used to skate and slide when it was frozen over.That day when the boys went to school, they found the pond as smooth and clear as glass, and they thought that by noon the ice would be strong enough to skate upon. So as soon as school was dismissed(放学)the boys all ran to the pond, —some to try the ice, and others simply to see it.

“Come, George,” said William, “now we shall have a glorious time sliding.” George hesitated(犹豫). He did not believe the ice was strong enough.

“Oh, come on!” said another boy, “I know it is strong enough. I have known it to freeze over in one night. It would bear.” But George still hesitated, for his father had forbidden him to go on the ice without special permission.

“I know why George won’t go,” said William, “he’s afraid he might fall down and hurt himself.”

“He’s a coward(胆小鬼)!” cried another.

George couldn’t stand this any longer, for he was very proud of his courage.

In the evening, George and his parents sat together around the cheerful fire.

“You’ll have to be quicker to beat Kendall on Friday,” Coach Dugan said. For weeks, I’d been hearing about how fast he was. I was tired of it. But I stll walked back to the starting line. A good start gives you a half success.

Eric said to me, “I heard that Kendall trains with Olympic coaches.”“What? No way,” I said. Not only that, I heard he cheats and does whatever it takes to win.

“Let’s go, boy,” Coach shouted. I got ready and exploded, driving hard toward the finishing line. I crossed two full steps ahead of everyone else. Coach clicked his stopwatch and nodded.“Better, Alex. But let’s do it again.” I couldn’t get any faster. Besides, Kendall trains with Olympic coaches!“You have to work harder,” Coach Dugan said. Easy for him to say, he wasn’t racing Kerry Kendall.

Then came the day to compete. The infield bustled (忙乱) with kids from every middle school in our district. I sat on the grass, looking for Kendall and preparing for the competition.

“Are you Alex?” a voice asked. I looked up over my shoulder, Kerry Kendal. I nodded. Kendall sat down next to me.“Heard you’re fast,” he said, touching his nose to his knee. I checked him out. His leg muscles (肌肉) looked like he worked out plenty. After a minute, he asked,“Is it true you have a private (私人的) trainer?” I laughed.“Coach Dugan was good, but he was no private trainer. Well, I heard you trained with Olympic coaches.” He was surprised. “You’re kidding, right? I train by running the hills. After practice I run those hills until my legs ache. That sounds like Olympic coaches to you?”

I finally learned the truth that for this competition Kendal had worked hard. Running the hills was tough, but he did it after his regular practices every day. I wonder how those foolish rumors (谣言) started and why I believed them. Seeing Kendall stood in place, I said, “Nice talking to you. Good luck in the dash.” He stopped and turned.“The same to you.” We looked at each other and smiled, and then he started over to join his team.

Then the competition began.