A dog named Nanuq is back with his Alaskan islander family after going missing for over one month. Nanuq was found over 200 kilometers away across sea ice.

Nanuq _________ in March when Iworigan and her family went to visit friends on another part of St. Lawrence Island. She believes Nanuq together and another dog ran out onto the ice to _________ food. The other dog, Starlight, stayed away for a number of weeks but came home. Nanuq did not come _________.

About one month later, Iworigan said people in the town of Wales began posting _________ of a dog they had found. Her father _________ her the photos and said they looked like Nanuq. Iworigan looked at the photos and yelled(叫着说), “That’s our dog. What is he doing in Wales?” If you look at a map, you can see that the town of Wales and St. Lawrence Island are _________ by a lot of water. But in the winter, most of it is _________. This might have permitted Nanuq to _________ 241 kilometers either floating or running on the ice.

The trip is being _________ as a miracle(奇迹). But no one will ever know everything about Nanuq’s story or how he __________ for so long.

“I have no __________ how he ended up in Wales,” Iworigan said. “Maybe the ice __________ while he was hunting.” Iworigan said the dog probably ate the remains of other animals such as a seal or caught and ate a seal. “He’s smart,” she said.

Nanuq came home to his family on an airplane last week and Iworigan’s daughter, Brooklyn, yelled with __________ when she saw him. The dog had been __________ by another animal leaving scars(伤疤) but was otherwise in good __________ after his longtime away from home.

Bringing home a dog was the furthest thing from my mind. My daughter Emily had other_________, however. So on a hot day, when I_________that I still had absolutely no_________to bring home a dog, I found myself with Emily and my wife Betsy driving to the animal_________to look at puppies, and we named the one we chose "Sophie".

Two months after her_________, my mother was killed in a car accident, and I felt_________by her death. In the mornings, after Betsy and Emily left, instead of_________on my writing, all I could do was to_________into space. That feeling seemed as though it was going to_________the rest of my life.

Sophie, however, was not interested in__________my looking into space. She would__________me to take her out. Once we were at the park, she would__________me until I played with her. I learned from her__________that life can be good again.

Emily__________with Sophie, and so (lid Betsy and I in our own__________. When Emily was twenty and about to leave home, she moved to Georgia. It was another difficult__________as Betsy and I frequently__________empty-nest symptom during that time, but Sophie was there for us. She was older now and not as__________about racing around. When she left us finally, it was difficult, but I could only be__________for the many years we'd had together.

Life is__________changing. No matter what knocks you down, you need to get up, firmly believing that it can be wonderful again, even if it can never be the same.

When Ariel Rojas rode her bike to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, New York, last November, she planned to go hiking and bird — watching. Bingo! A mile into her walk, she ________ a gorgeous female mute swan near the water’s edge. Rojas, 30, who had worked at the Wild Bird Rescue Center in Manhattan, knew that mute swans can be _________. But as she approached this one, it didn’t move. She was certain that the bird needed ________ attention. Rojas covered her jacket over the bird’s head to keep it calm, ________ picked it up, and cradled it in her arms. And then a thought ________ her: What do I do now?

Her best ________ was the rescue center, but that was across the East River and clear on the other side of town. How was she going to ________ a 17 — pound swan on her bike all that way? ________, some confused strangers driving by ________ her, her bike, and the swan a lift to a nearby subway station.

On the subway, no one seemed particularly ________ by the feathered passenger. Rojas called the rescue center en route, and Tristan, an animal — care manager, ________ her up at the subway station and drove bird, bike, and rescuer to the facility. There, staff members ________ that the swan might have lead poisoning, caused by ________ weights used on fishing lines.

The staff got the swan back up on her ________. She even made a ________ at the center—another injured swan. Sadly, even with all that TLC (tender loving care), the swan got ________ with bacteria. Two months after Rojas came to her rescue, she ________.

It’s a(n) ________ ending, but the real story is just how far some people are willing to go to ________ a swan in the big city — literally. In all, Rojas ________ two hours by foot, car, and subway. Says Tristan, “That’s the perfect summary of who she is.”