听说狗对人类的爱是最接近上帝的爱。如果不曾被上帝垂青，至少这一种爱，你可以拥有。

By Simina Mistreanu

Little Bear had an unlikely beginning in life. He was born in a village in western Romania, an adorable pup with brown fur and green eyes. His family included a four-year-old boy, who melted when he met the puppy. The puppy melted as well. From then on, they were inseparable.

Little Bear（以下简称“LB”）是一只“命途多舛”的狗。出生在罗马尼亚西部山村，LB有着棕色的毛发和绿色的眼睛。它的第一任主人是一个四岁的小男孩。

They would play together and have their meals together. The boy even insisted that they take naps together. But here's the thing: In rural Romania, people are still wary of getting too close to animals. The boy's grandfather believed that if his grandson swallowed or inhaled a fur from the puppy, he would grow a cyst on his lungs or liver (that in fact is not true; there are no risks associated to dog fur as long as the dog is properly vaccinated). So the old man decided to end the friendship and get rid of the dog.

男孩和狗感情甚好。然而在罗马尼亚农村，人们对与动物近距离接触这件事还是比较介意的。小男孩的祖父甚至担心，如果不小心吞下了狗毛，小男孩就会肺肿胀（事实是，只要打过疫苗，狗毛不会造成任何危险）。于是老人决定终止小男孩与狗的共同生活。

The little boy was heartbroken, of course, to wake up one morning and not find his buddy. The old man had given the dog to a friend, who in turn gave it to my mom. That's how Little Bear became part of our family.

一天清晨醒来，小男孩发现他的狗不见了，自然是心碎的。老人把狗送给了一个朋友，后来辗转到我母亲手中。

I only met him a few months later, during a visit. But the puppy had started working his way to my family's heart much earlier.

His tactic was unbounded enthusiasm. He exuded joy whenever he saw my mom or my grandma. He jumped like a ball on his stubby legs, aiming to get ever closer to the adults' level.

LB的“绝招”是无休止的跳脱。无论什么时候见到我母亲或外祖母，它眼里流露的都是欢喜。

My mom indulged him but didn't engage with him at first. She was always too busy working. That changed one winter afternoon. Snow had blanketed the yard, and my mom started shoveling the pathways. Little Bear trailed along after her as usual. Whenever she would dump a load of snow, Little Bear would jump right in the middle of it, spinning on two legs and biting the snow. He would run to my mom and back waiting for more. My mom would throw more snow at him, eliciting more jumping and spinning.

母亲一开始并不十分待见它，因为她太忙了。一个冬天的午后，一切都改变了。这一天，雪覆盖了整个后院，母亲开始铲雪。LB像往常一样跟在她左右。她刚刚铲起一堆雪，LB就跑到这堆雪中间，开始“戏雪”，然后继续等待更多的“雪弹”。母亲就不停向他泼出更多的雪，一边忍俊不禁。

My mom started laughing. There was something special about this dog.

这是一个奇妙的时刻，这是一只奇妙的狗。

My family always had dogs when I was growing up. Although they were my best friends, the adults never paid them much attention. Occasionally, the dogs would end up in the chickens' yard, and there would be casualties (A German Shepherd puppy once lined up 24 chickens he had just killed). When Little Bear arrived, the family's other dog, Soni, had been banned indefinitely in a pen for killing chickens. Another constant was that the dogs would die young as escape artists, either hit by a car on the road in front of the house, or by eating rodent poison in the neighbors' gardens.

我的童年一直有狗的陪伴。它们是我最好的朋友，然而大人总是很少注意到它们。有时候，你会在养鸡的后院发现它们，还有它们的战利品（有一次一只德国牧羊犬“手刃”了24只鸡）。还有经常发生的是家里的狗被门口的车撞死或者误食邻居花园的鼠药而中毒身亡。

One afternoon last winter my mom found the door to the chickens' yard open and Little Bear chewing on a chicken's head. She beat him with a broomstick (which he learned to fear) but never banished him in a pen. Since then, Little Bear has killed an estimate of 17 chickens.

一天下午，母亲发现鸡舍的门开了，LB正在“享用”一只鸡。母亲狠狠地揍了LB，但是并没有关它进“小黑屋”。自那时起，LB的“受害者”已经飙升到17只。

He has also made doors for himself where there were only walls. He chewed the mosquito net at the entrance of the two kitchens and chewed the yard's wooden gate so he could sneak out and chase after my mom's car.

它几乎做到了“无墙不入”。蚊帐、院门……没有什么能阻挡它。

In a very touchy scene, my mom once surprised him chewing at Soni's pen's metal fence.

有一次，LB甚至被逮到正在咬我家另外一只狗Soni金属做的小窝。

But he did all this with boundless enthusiasm. He trailed along after people, constantly provoking them to play, fixating them with eyes brimming with love.

它永远看起来都是精力无限的样子。它跟着人们狂奔，炽烈地渴求着人类的爱。

In his book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," Robert M. Pirsig talks about the concept of gumption:

魄力是什么？Robert M. Pirsig有本书《父子的世界：对价值观的探寻》（BT君注：上世纪70年代美国的一部畅销书，据说卖出了5百万册。）研究这个问题。

"The Greeks call it enthousiasmos, the root of "enthusiasm," which means literally "filled with theos," or God, or Quality.

A person filled with gumption doesn't sit around dissipating and stewing about things. He's at the front of the train of his own awareness, watching to see what's up the track and meeting it when it comes. That's gumption."

“有魄力的人不会坐下来无所事事。他们总是走在意识的前头，探索世界的轨迹。”

Writer Anne Lamott has said that a dog's love for its owner is as close as you can get to God's love. I think we can learn a lot from dogs' dedication and excitement. Gumption, even coming from a furry creature, can change the world.

作家Anne Lamott曾说狗对主人的爱是最接近上帝的爱。从一只狗身上，我们可以学到很多。魄力，即使是一只毛茸茸的生物所能给予的，都能改变世界。

My mother has since changed the locks to all the yard doors, fixed the chewed-up gate so Little Bear can't get out, allowed him to hang out in the kitchen and even released Soni from his pen (A few days later, Soni killed a turkey, but that's a different story).

This is the story of Little Bear, the enthusiastic pup with green eyes and a full heart.

这就是LB的故事，一只永远精力充沛的狗，闪烁着绿色的眼睛，满溢着丰盈的心。