It was the first night of a tiring seven-day 250km race across the Gobi Desert a year ago. Mr. Leonard found a little dog going around his camp trying to __ herself.

“Cute, but I’m not giving you any, ”Leonard thought.   Like all __ , he had packed just enough for the whole race. He’d been running competitively for three years, and he had a __to win.

The next day, at the starting line, the dog __ him again. He waved her away, __ she might be stepped on by the runners.   However, the dog followed him all the way until the day s race __ .   That night the dog snuggled (紧贴) up to Leonard again and finally __   get a little food from him. By then, he was determined to name her Gobi.

The pair went on to finish the seven-day race, with Gobi __ a distance of 125km on her own, and that was enough for him to make a __ he would take her home to Edinburgh.   “Seeing Gobi on the race changed my attitude to things. It made me think more about stopping and helping her, __ just focusing on winning, ” said Leonard, who finished second.   “It also made my running more __, giving me a lot of pleasure. ”

As Leonard was preparing to get Gobi home, she was __ . With a group of 20 local volunteers coming to his __ , he finally found her. After that, Leonard never let Gobi out of his __. Now Gobi’s favorite activity is still running, and she __ does at least 8km with Leonard up the hills.

It was about 5 am on Saturday when Amanda Tanner and her husband were suddenly awakened by their dog, Axel. When the ________ couple was slow to respond, the dog kept trying to get their ________. Her husband finally went downstairs and opened the door to let the dog outside, but Axel didn’t ________. Instead, the dog stopped in front of the door of the couple’s 17-year-old son, Gabriel, and wouldn’t ________: Inside, their son was having a stroke (中风). When Gabriel’s dad ________ the teen, he quickly realized something was wrong. The boy was slurring (说话含糊不清) his speech and couldn’t ________ his right side. The family rushed their son to the emergency room ________.

By waking the parents up and leading them to the boy, the dog made a “massive” ________ in Gabriel’s outcome, says Dr. Sabih Effendi, who treated the teen. “It’s very ________ that their dog alerted and started this whole process of getting everyone ________ and going downstairs,” Effendi says. “When somebody’s acutely having a stroke, the neurons (神经元) are dying. If he was not found and another three or four hours went by, there would have been more and more brain ________.”

“I am beyond ________ for whatever sensitivity Axel has to tell us what’s going on and to have moved that so fast, Amanda said. Tanner ________ to make a little medal of honor for him to go on his collar.” He’s now ________, with following Gabriel everywhere,” Amanda says. “He’s now sleeping with Gabriel, and Gabriel’s door is open so he can go in and out. He’s always been very sensitive to everything and everybody’s ________ at home.”

Lately, I have been struggling to connect with my dad because our conversations have seemed unimportant to him. In a half-hearted attempt to find something that ______ him, I pulled out my phone and showed him a few ______ of Jay, my new pet rabbit.

“Did Mom tell you I got a bunny?” It was a strange question. To my surprise, my dad’s ______ were lifted. “A black bunny!” he called out, getting closer to ______ the photos. He wanted to know more. I hurried to find more photos, holding on to this ______ opportunity.

I shouldn’t be ______ that it was a bunny that broke through the ______ between my dad and me. Growing up, we never talked much. ______, our time together centered around animals, like catching crayfish at the river and caring for turtles and crabs. ______ animals has always been our thing.

A few months later, I came prepared with more photos and videos of Jay on my laptop so my dad could see them more ______. I had been ______ that his initial interest in Jay was a one-off event, but he ______ up again when I showed him the new stuff.

Our love for animals is the ______ that connects us. There was no ______ to start having deep conversations if that had never been our style, — just finding ______ together in a photo of a bunny was enough.