Magic was a four-year-old German Shepherd about to be adopted at the animal shelter along with hundreds of other dogs. The reporter announced that the dogs and cats would be put down if no one came by the end of the day. My friend Rosie felt worried about the animals and asked me to accompany her there. So after school we rushed to the shelter to save whoever we could. Finally, she got a cat and I was touched by the poor animals, asking the shelter worker for the biggest dog they had. His name was Magic.

Actually, I lived alone in an apartment. I had to stay in college during the day. So I always stayed out and taking care of a dog at home seemed a challenge for me. Rosie felt uneasy about the dog and advised me to abandon the thought of keeping the dog and send it to a warm home.

But I liked Magic so much, so I didn’t accept her advice and brought Magic home. After learning I adopted a dog, my neighbor below showed worry for I hadn’t kept an animal before.

As it turned out, there wasn’t a lot of trust. Magic would take the food out of his bowl, bring it in front of me and eat it one bit e at a time. My friend Rosie was pretty sure I was crazy and that keeping it would be a huge mistake. But slowly Magic and I got to know each other. We became best friends. For the first time, my apartment felt like a home. We walked together through Central Park every morning and night. Even when my friends invited me to parties, I just wanted to be home with Magic. Our lives were happy. For the first time, I was content.

Unfortunately, a problem appeared. When I was in, he kept calm, but he barked a lot when I was not in, which disturbed my neighbor below.

One day, my neighbor below knocked on my door.

After listening to the problem, Rosie figured Magic barked just because he felt lonely.

This is a true story of my grandfather James. In the 1930s, Grandpa was a school kid and took a part-time job in a theater. One day, during a break when the audience were going to the bathroom, he was shocked to see three very huge rats which crossed the aisles (过道) and went under the seats. Grandpa feared the audience would be hurt.

When the movie was over, Grandpa told the manager what he saw. The manager was anxious, and said they couldn’t use poisons to drive the rats away. Grandpa suggested putting cats in the theater at night when it was closed. The manager agreed and gave grandpa the task of putting the cats in the theater at night, but grandpa had to be there in the morning to remove the cats and any dead rat that might be around.

The next day, grandpa found two cats. At the end of the night when the movie was over, he brought the cats into the theater as “night guards”. Then, he left and headed home, excitedly thinking about how many dead rats there would be when he went to the theater in the morning.

The next morning, grandpa hurried to the theater to take care of the cats and all of those dead rats before he went to school. After reaching the theater, he opened the front door, to his surprise, the two cats rushed out of the door and down the street at once. Confused, grandpa entered the theater and turned on the light. To his surprise, he couldn’t find one dead rat.

Soon, grandpa and the manager found out that the rats were so big that the cats were actually scared of them. Grandpa wondered how to deal with the problem. When grandpa got home from school that day, he told his parents what had happened. They laughed and told him that the best way was to get a Rat Terrier dog. They said it’s a type of dog that is good at killing rats. Although grandpa doubted it, he decided to have a try.

Grandpa reached the local dog shelter and asked if they had a Rat Terrier.

To check whether the dog had killed any rats, the next morning grandpa got up very early.