Meet the Woman Who Gives Rescued Farm Animals a Second Chance at Life
Shortly after doctors diagnosed ten-year-old Jenny Brown with bone cancer, they had to cut off her right leg below the knee to save her life. Facing a year of chemotherapy (化疗) after the surgery, Jenny begged her mother for a kitten. The orange calico Jenny named Boogie rarely left her side, licking tears from her cheeks after hospital visits and curling up in her lap as she adjusted to life with a prosthetic (假肢的) leg.
“My relationship with Boogie showed me that animals think, feel, and suffer as much as we do,” says Jenny, now 44.
In 1994, Jenny graduated from Columbia College Chicago and began a career in television and documentary production. On the side, she volunteered as a videographer for animal rights groups, and in 2002, she shot undercover footage of horrible animal mistreatment at several Texas farm animal stockyards. “After seeing that, I knew I needed to help animals,” says Jenny.
A year later, she gave up her film career and with her fiancé, Doug Abel, a film editor, opened the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing and recovering farm animals, on a 22-acre property they bought in the rolling hills of Woodstock, New York, the next year.
In August 2007, she received a call from Animal Care and Control of NYC about a small goat it had found hopping around Prospect Park. Jenny guessed it had run away from one of the city’s murder-houses. The goat’s legs were severely injured, probably from being bound together with wire, and its mouth was covered in aching.
Jenny and her team brought the goat, which they named Albie, to the preserve, but they soon realized that Albie’s left front leg was injured beyond repair. After a veterinarian(兽医) cut off the leg. Jenny asked Erik Tomkins, the doctor who makes Jenny’s prostheses, to fashion a leg for Albie. To date, seven of the preserve’s animals have received prosthetic limbs or braces. “On most farms, animals with these illnesses would be immediately killed,” says Jenny.
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Sue and Johnsy are friends and they live in one studio.
But Johnsy kept her bed. The doctor thought there was uncertain hope and he couldn’t see any confidence in Johnsy.
At the same time, Johnsy lay on the bed, looking through the small window and counted “10、9” and “8、7......” She said feebly. When the last leaf fell she must go.
Sue heard that and felt sad. She went to invite old Behrman, who was a painter with no achievement. And he always talked of his coming masterpiece.
Behrman heard the story of Johnsy from Sue.
After the beating rain and fierce wind that had endured through the night, there was still one leaf. And another terrible night, it was still here. Johnsy lay for a long time looking at it. Then she saw the life’s energy and wanted to live.
With the help of doctor and Sue, Johnsy was out of danger. But the bad news was that the old Behrman died of pneumonia. And they knew the secret that the last leaf was just a painting, drew by Behramn in that terrible night.
This is really a beautiful and sorrowful story. We can give other people energy, hope and love. You can see something glittering in our heart.
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Once upon a time a man became a great archer (射手). He asked the king to declare him as the greatest archer of the country. The king was about to do so when an old servant of the king said,“Wait, my king. I know an old man who lives in the forest. He is a much greater archer. Let this young man go to him and learn from him for at least three years. ”
The man could not believe that there could be a greater archer than him, but he went and found the old man and he was! For three years he learned from him. Then one day, when he thought he had learned everything, the thought arose in him, “If I kill this old man, then I will be the greatest archer.”
The old man had gone to cut wood and he was coming back carrying wood on his shoulder. The young man hid behind a tree, waiting to kill him. He shot an arrow. The old man took a small piece of wood and threw it. It struck the arrow and the arrow turned back and wounded the young man badly. The old man came, took out the arrow and said, “I knew that some day or other you were going to do this. That’s why I have not taught you this secret. There is no need to kill me. My master is still alive, and I’m nothing better than him. It would take you at least thirty years to learn from him. Actually, one can never be the greatest.”
