7-15 小狗快运（中）

The Puppy Express

Once back in Fort Wayne, the Topps found a mobile home to rent, one of Joe's brothers gave them his old car, sisters in law provided pots and pans and bed linens 1, the children returned to their old schools, and Nancy and Joe found jobs. Bit by bit the family got itself together, but the circle had a painful gap in it. Snoopy was missing. Every day Nancy telephoned a different moving company, a different trucking company, begging for a ride for Snoopy. Every day Jodi and Matthew came through the door asking if she'd had any luck, and she had to say no.

By March, they'd been back in Fort Wayne six weeks and Nancy was in despair. She dreaded 2 hearing from Wyoming that Snoopy had died out there, never knowing how hard they'd tried to get her back. One day, having tried everything else, she telephoned the Fort Wayne Department of Animal Control and told them the story.

“I don't know what I can do to help,” the director, a man named Rod, said when she'd finished. “But I'll tell you this: I'm sure going to try.”

A week later, he too had exhausted 3 the obvious approaches. Snoopy was too frail 4 to be shipped in the unheated baggage compartment 5 of a plane. A professional animal transporting company wanted ＄ 665 to bring her east. Shipping 6 companies refused to be responsible for her. Rod hung up from his latest call and shook his head.“ I wish the old time Pony 7 Express1 was still in existence,” he remarked to his assistant, Skip. “They'd have brought the dog back.”

“They'd have passed her along from one driver to another. It would've been a Puppy Express,” Skip joked.

Rod thought for a minute. “By golly2, that may be the answer.” He got out a map and a list of animal shelters in Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, and began telephoning. Could he enlist 8 enough volunteers to put together a Puppy Express to transport Snoopy by stages across five states? Would enough people believe it mattered so for a little seventeen year old dog to be reunited with her family that they'd drive a hundred or so miles west to pick her up and another hundred or so miles east to deliver her to the next driver?

A week later, Rod called the Topps. “The Puppy Express starts tomorrow. Snoopy's coming home!” he told Nancy jubilantly3.

The animal control officer in Rock Springs had volunteered to be Snoopy's first driver. When he pulled up outside the clinic, the vet 9 bundled Snoopy in a sweater and carried her to the car. “She's got a cold,” the vet said, “so keep her warm. Medicine and instructions and the special food for her kidney condition are in the shopping bag.”

She put the little dog on the seat and held out her hand. Snoopy placed her paw in it. “You're welcome, old girl,” the vet said, shaking it. “It's been a pleasure taking care of you. The best of luck. Get home safely!”

They drove the 108 miles to Rawlings, Wyoming. There they rendezvoused4 with a woman named Cathy, who'd come 118 miles from Casper to meet them. Cathy laughed when she saw Snoopy. “What a funny looking little serious creature you are to be traveling in such style,” she teased. “Imagine, private chauffeurs5 across five states.” But that evening, when she phoned Rod in Indiana to report that Snoopy had arrived safely in Casper, she called her “a dear old girl,” and admitted that, “If she were mine, I'd go to a lot of trouble to get her back, too.”

注释：

1. Pony Express  (19世纪60年代美国西部的)快马邮递

2. By golly  [表示惊奇、高兴等] 啊，天哪! (golly为God的委婉语)

3. jubilantly [5dVu:bilEntlI] ad.  欢欣地，欢腾地

4. rendezvous 10 [5rCndivu:] vi.  约会；会面；在指定地点会合

5. chauffeur 11 [5FEufE] n. (受雇于私人或公司等的)汽车司机

小狗快运（中）

一回到韦恩堡，托普(前译托普斯，有误)一家租到一处活动房屋，乔的一个哥哥给了他们一辆旧车，妯娌们给了锅盆碗碟和床单床罩。孩子们又回到原来的学校，南希和乔都找到了工作。一家人的生活逐渐地安定了下来，但家中没有斯努皮是个痛苦的缺陷。南希每天都打电话给一家不同的搬运公司和一家不同的运输公司，请求他们把斯努皮捎回来。约迪和马修每天进屋就问妈妈运气如何，她只能回答说还没联系上。

到了3月，他们回到韦恩堡已经6个星期了，南希陷入绝望。她担心会从怀俄明传来斯努皮已经死了的消息，而它还一直不知道他们曾为它的归来付出了多少努力。想尽了各种方法都无用，一天她打电话给韦恩堡的动物管理部门，把情况告诉了他们。

“我不知道我能帮上什么忙，”一个叫罗德的主任等南希叙述完说道，“不过我可以告诉你：我肯定要试一试。”

一周之后，罗德试了所有能想到的渠道，但仍然无济于事。斯努皮体质太弱，不适宜装在没有暖气的行李舱里空运。一家专门从事动物运输的公司要价665块钱。一般的运输公司又不愿意承担运送它的责任。罗德挂上最后一个电话，摇摇头。“现在要是还有当年的快马邮递就好了，”他跟他的助手斯基普说道。“快马邮递能把狗送回来。”

“那他们可得一个骑手一个骑手地接力，那可就成了小狗快运了，”斯基普开玩笑地说道。

罗德想了一下。“对啊，这也许能行。”他找出一张地图和一张记录怀俄明、内布拉斯加、艾奥瓦、伊利诺伊和印第安纳州的动物庇护站的名单，然后就开始打电话。他能找到足够的志愿者组成横跨5个州的小狗快运吗?会有足够的人相信，为了一只17岁的小狗和家人团聚，值得往西开100多英里接上它，再往东开100多英里把它交给下一个司机吗?

一周之后，罗德打电话给托普家。“小狗快运明天开始，斯努皮要回家了!”他兴奋地告诉南希。

罗克斯普林斯动物管理部门的负责人志愿担任斯努皮的第一位驾驶员。他把车停在动物诊所外面，兽医用绒衣包上斯努皮，把它送上车。“它感冒了，”兽医说道，“别让它着凉。药、用药说明和根据它肾的情况专门制作的食物都在购物袋里。”

女兽医把小狗放在车座上之后，伸出了手，小狗把爪子放在她手上。“老闺女，不客气，”兽医握着爪子说道。“照看你很高兴。祝你好运，一路平安到家!” 

他们开了108英里到了怀俄明州罗林斯，在那儿和从118英里外卡斯珀城来的卡西会面。卡西见到斯努皮就笑。“你这个长相有趣的小宝贝竟做这么气派的旅行，”她逗乐地说道。“你想想，5个私人司机，横跨5个州。”但那天晚上，她在给印第安纳州的罗德打电话报告安全抵达卡斯珀的时候，她已经改口称斯努?为“亲爱的老闺女”了，并且承认，“它要是我的狗，我也会想尽办法把它弄回来的。”