Love Is Blind: The Magic of Tabby

In October, 2019, I started my work at a local animal shelter. Tabby was a 14-year-old dog. What’s more, she was blind and deaf. Tabby’s adoption (收养) seemed impossible. After all, we didn’t have many adopters coming in asking, “Can you show me all of your really old dogs who are also _________?” We had all thought that Tabby would live out the rest of her life at the _________.

One day a woman named Loretta came to the shelter. Her son, Gary, had _________ Tabby’s picture and stories on the shelter’s website at home. They were interested in meeting her! It was the only _________ we ever received about Tabby. What could a young child possibly see in a 14-year-old dog who was both blind and deaf? Most boys would want a dog who could grow with them and _________ through grassy fields on summer days. Tabby would _________ be able to do that. But after meeting her, Loretta and Gary decided that she was the right dog for their family. They adopted Tabby!

If Tabby’s story had simply ended with her _________ adoption, it would still have been something very special indeed. _________, it was what happened after her adoption that people might regard as “magic”. Gary _________ seizures (癫痫). Since Gary and Tabby met they became __________. They did everything together. Besides, Tabby could be aware of the coming of Gary’s seizures __________ they happened, giving his family a(n) __________ that one was about to strike. What’s more, Gary seemed to be having fewer and fewer seizures since Tabby’s __________.

How could it be? Nobody could explain __________ Tabby did it. But those of us who were fortunate enough to know her and her family had witnessed (见证) the magic, the kind that has its roots in __________.

Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges is celebrating becoming a grandfather and is also happy to be back in acting. But life wasn’t so ______ for him in 2021. He had to fight with cancer and suffered from COVID-19 ______ . Recently, he spoke about those hard days, and what kept him motivated (有动力的).

Life suddenly took a ______ turn for Jeff when one day he started getting pain in his stomach. His whole life ______ when a nine-by-twelve-inch tumor (肿瘤) was found in his stomach. ______ was started immediately and the tumor disappeared soon.

But in January 2021, both he and his wife Sue were ______ by COVID-19. Sue was able to recover in five days, while he ______ with it in hospital for months.

“COVID-19 made my cancer look like ______ ,” Jeff recalled. He couldn’t breathe properly and needed oxygen even to roll over in bed. His wife Sue was ______ that he might die.

“I was pretty close to ______ . The doctors kept telling me, ‘Jeff, you’ve got to fight.’ But I was about to ______ . I was ready to go,” said Jeff. But he remembered his ______ to his daughter to dance with her on her wedding day, which gave him the will to ______ back. And he eventually recovered. He was not only able to ______ with his daughter but was also happy to be reunited again with his wife and enjoy the second ______ at life.

I would say I totally did it.

I could sound a(n) _________ to cause people to pay attention to the children with neurological (神经系统的) diseases. I could put my _________ as a dancer to perform on stage across the country in order to raise money for these children.

I have tried a lot, and also _________ a lot.

On the other day I went to _________ money we collected to those extremely sick children. They all _________ me happily and looked at me as if I had been their long-lost family member, and one of them _________ held my hand, expressing his wish that I would come more often.

Therefore, I have made it my life _________ to help fight neurological diseases, and to inspire more young donors to participate in for _________ lives through arts.

I spend many weekends speaking at medical conferences to provide visibility (可见性) for the _________ ill children, so do my colleagues.

__________ things can happen if the arts and medicine join forces. A life can be saved somewhere in the world with funding research, __________ the medical equipment, and providing home-care services.

In these ways, the young __________ of our generation, along with our times, can come together and __________ a domino effect (多米诺骨牌效应) that we’ve been dreaming about.

I have learned that the __________ work is not something reserved for adults. I am 16 years old and I am responsible for my fellows. What happens to each of us __________ us all. I’ve only just begun to learn how to care about others.