“神猫”徒行200英里返家走红网络

　　Holly¹ the cat has become an internet sensation, mystified animal experts [and used up an unknown number of her nine lives] by trekking² 200 miles home after disappearing on a family road trip eight weeks earlier.

　　Exhausted³ and emaciated⁴, barely able to stand and too weak to miaow, the cat appeared from nowhere on New Year's Eve in the back garden of a Florida family home.

　　For six days, Barb⁵ Mazzola and her children put out food and milk for the nervous animal, eventually coaxing⁶ her inside their house in West Palm Beach.

　　They fell in love with the cat, a tortoiseshell with distinctive⁷ black, brown and ginger⁸ patterning. But when Mrs Mazzola took it to the vet⁹, she reluctantly asked if the cat had an implanted microchip that would identify its original owners.

　　She did. And it turned out her name was Holly and that her owners Jacob and Bonnie Richter lived just a mile away.

　　But what was truly remarkable¹⁰ was that they had lost Holly two months earlier when she bolted out of their mobile home on a trip to Daytona Beach – 200 miles north along Florida's Atlantic coast.

　　How Holly, a house cat who rarely ventured outside, managed to make it to back to her hometown from unknown terrain¹¹ so far away has baffled animal behaviourists.

　　It has also turned her into an internet sensation among feline¹² aficionados¹³ and spawned¹⁴ countless¹⁵ theories about how sights, sounds and smells, an inner compass or some memories of the drive north may have guided her homeward odyssey¹⁶.

　　"It is a complete mystery," said Marc Bekoff, a University of Colorado professor who specialises in animal behaviour. "She may have had some basic sense of direction and then got clues from sights or sounds as she got closer, but the truth is that we have no idea how she got home."

　　What seems certain, judging from the state of its paws, is that it walked home by road and pavement, rather than somehow hitching¹⁷ a lift or going cross-country. Its back feet, the ones that cat use to propel themselves, were swollen¹⁸, rubbed and raw and the claws were worn down to stubs.

　　“神猫”霍莉近日走红网络，也令动物学家大惑不解。它在一次家庭驾车游中走失，历时八周徒步200英里返回家中，此时已筋疲力尽。

　　新年前夜，在佛罗里达一户家庭的后院出现一只猫，它看起来筋疲力尽，神情憔悴，勉强站立着，连叫声都发不出来了。

　　六天来，巴伯?马佐拉和她的孩子们一直给这只紧张兮兮的小猫喂食物与牛奶，最后又把它带到位于西棕榈滩的家中。

　　他们对这只小猫宠爱有加，它的毛色为黄褐黑白相间，黑、棕、姜黄三色相间的图案十分显眼。不过，当抱着它去兽医那里时，马佐拉夫人不很心甘情愿地问起这只猫身上是否植入了芯片，以便其主人辨识。

　　她还是问了。结果得知这只猫名叫霍莉，它的主人雅各布?里克特和邦妮?里克特就住在一英里外。

　　不过，真正神奇的是，两个月前，在随主人全家乘房车去德托纳比奇的行程中，霍莉跳出了车子，从此音讯全无。德托纳比奇位于佛罗里达的大西洋沿岸以北200英里处。

　　名叫霍莉的这只家猫从未独自外出过，它是如何从未知的某地徒行回家的呢？对此，动物行为学家也颇为费解。

　　霍莉也由此在养猫爱好者中蹿红，并在网上走红。人们开始展开大讨论，探讨视觉、听觉、味觉、内置指南针、或北上行程中的一些记忆片段如何指引着霍莉完成返家的长途跋涉。

　　“这完全让人费解”，科罗拉多大学教授、动物行为研究专家马克?贝科夫说道。“她可能有一定的方向感，于是越往前走，就会通过视觉或听觉找到一些线索。不过，说实话，我们不知道它是如何回家的。”

　　从猫爪的情况来看，有一点似乎是可以肯定的，即它确实是沿公路和人行道徒步回来的，而不是搭顺风车或穿越野地。它的后脚掌（猫用来推进身体运动）肿胀起来，磨破了皮，爪子磨得只剩一小段了。

1 holly   

n.[植]冬青属灌木

参考例句：

• I recently acquired some wood from a holly tree.最近我从一棵冬青树上弄了些木料。
• People often decorate their houses with holly at Christmas.人们总是在圣诞节时用冬青来装饰房屋。

2 trekking   

v.艰苦跋涉，徒步旅行( trek的现在分词 )；（尤指在山中）远足，徒步旅行，游山玩水

参考例句：

• She can't come pony trekking after all because she's in a delicate condition. 她结果还是不能坐小马车旅行，因为她已怀孕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We spent the summer trekking in the foothills of the Himalayas. 我们整个夏天都在喜马拉雅山的山麓艰难跋涉。 来自互联网

3 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

4 emaciated   

adj.衰弱的，消瘦的

参考例句：

• A long time illness made him sallow and emaciated.长期患病使他面黄肌瘦。
• In the light of a single candle,she can see his emaciated face.借着烛光，她能看到他的被憔悴的面孔。

5 barb   

n.（鱼钩等的）倒钩，倒刺

参考例句：

• The barb of his wit made us wince.他那锋芒毕露的机智使我们退避三舍。
• A fish hook has a barb to prevent the fish from escaping after being hooked.鱼钩上都有一个倒钩以防上了钩的鱼逃走。

6 coaxing   

v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的现在分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱；“锻炼”效应

参考例句：

• No amount of coaxing will make me change my mind. 任你费尽口舌也不会说服我改变主意。
• It took a lot of coaxing before he agreed. 劝说了很久他才同意。 来自辞典例句

7 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

8 ginger   

n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气

参考例句：

• There is no ginger in the young man.这个年轻人没有精神。
• Ginger shall be hot in the mouth.生姜吃到嘴里总是辣的。

9 vet   

n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查

参考例句：

• I took my dog to the vet.我把狗带到兽医诊所看病。
• Someone should vet this report before it goes out.这篇报道发表之前应该有人对它进行详查。

10 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

11 terrain   

n.地面，地形，地图

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• He knows the terrain of this locality like the back of his hand.他对这一带的地形了如指掌。

12 feline   

adj.猫科的

参考例句：

• As a result,humans have learned to respect feline independence.结果是人们已经学会尊重猫的独立性。
• The awakening was almost feline in its stealthiness.这种醒觉，简直和猫的脚步一样地轻悄。

13 aficionados   

n.酷爱…者，…迷( aficionado的名词复数 )； 爱看斗牛的人

参考例句：

• West Coast aficionados of postwar coffee-shop architecture(Karal Ann Marling) 西海岸战后咖啡店式建筑的狂热追随者（卡拉尔安马林） 来自互联网
• Clay developed a radical style which appalled boxing aficionados. 克莱发展出一种震惊拳击迷的全新风格。 来自互联网

14 spawned   

（鱼、蛙等）大量产（卵）( spawn的过去式和过去分词 )； 大量生产

参考例句：

• The band's album spawned a string of hit singles. 这支乐队的专辑繁衍出一连串走红的单曲唱片。
• The computer industry has spawned a lot of new companies. 由于电脑工业的发展，许多新公司纷纷成立。

15 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

16 odyssey   

n.长途冒险旅行；一连串的冒险

参考例句：

• The march to Travnik was the final stretch of a 16-hour odyssey.去特拉夫尼克的这段路是长达16小时艰险旅行的最后一程。
• His odyssey of passion, friendship,love,and revenge was now finished.他的热情、友谊、爱情和复仇的漫长历程，到此结束了。

17 hitching   

搭乘； （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的现在分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上

参考例句：

• The farmer yoked the oxen before hitching them to the wagon. 农夫在将牛套上大车之前先给它们套上轭。
• I saw an old man hitching along on his stick. 我看见一位老人拄着手杖蹒跚而行。

18 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。