Many years ago, I thought I was adopting a mini pig, but it turned out that I was wrong when it reached 650 pounds. One night, about five years ago, I was surfing the Internet in the living room. Then I received a message from a former classmate. We hadn’t communicated for a long time, so I felt a little surprised.

“Hey Steve,” she said. “I know you love animals very much. I have a mini pig that is not getting along with my dogs. I can’t keep it. Do you want it?”

It’s true that I’ve always loved animals. My first best friend was my childhood dog. So I was quite excited. A mini pig sounded lovely. The whole situation seemed a little strange, but I’ve always been a trusting person.

I replied casually, “Let me do some research and I will give you an answer later.”

But I knew I wanted the pig. I just had to figure out how to make it happen, because I had many pets and a roommate.

A few hours later, I got another message from her:

“Someone else is interested. If you don’t want her, this other person will take her.”

You’re probably smart enough to recognize this as a manipulative tactic (巧妙的策略), and normally I’m smart enough too. But I wouldn’t let that pig go. So I told her that I’d take the animal. I gave her my address, and we agreed to meet near my house the next day.

I knew nothing about mini pigs.

I felt joyful when I drove home with the newest member of our family.

My hero — Domi

Five years ago, I had a strange dream, directing me to adopt a particular dog. It was obvious from the dream that I would know the dog by his unusual face. But when I woke up, I could never recall what the unique facial feature was.

I was very curious. So early one Saturday morning, I went to the specified shelter to check the available adoptees. After looking carefully at all the dogs, I was disappointed that not one dog had anything unusual about its face.

On my way out of the shelter, I noticed a box of puppies (小狗) just outside of view from the main area. My attention was drawn to one puppy named Domi who appeared to have no fur on his face. I was worried about this strange-looking puppy, and hoped he hadn’t been injured. However, on closer inspection, I found he did have fur on his face, but it was a very odd shade of gray that made it look like skin. Satisfied and relieved that he was okay, I turned to leave the shelter.

And then it hit me: The face — it’s the dog with the unusual face! Immediately, I returned to the puppy. As I lifted him from the box, we bonded instantly. I knew I could not leave without him so I headed for the adoption desk. In that short amount of time, he had wrapped his paws around my heart; his barks, quite different from other dogs’, had a soothing (抚慰的) and comforting quality, also touching my soul.

Meeting with the shelter manager, I was informed a family had already selected him. There was, however, still a slight chance since the family had not made their final decision. After an anxiety-filled hour, I saw a member of the family, the mother, walk straight toward me, carrying Domi. My heart pounded as she approached. For a moment, she didn’t say a word. Then, with a broad smile, she said, “Here’s your dog.”

I was speechless as grateful tears were welling up in my eyes.

When Domi was three. I had a brain disorder and fainted from time to time.

“A usual boring day!” This would be the answer from Roman if somebody asked him how his day was. These days he found everything boring, and nothing excited him.

One day he was lying on the bed in his room as usual. Suddenly the light went off. His room was rather hot without an air conditioner. Though he did not want to leave his room, he had to. Unwillingly, he left his room and came to the living room. It was slightly cool there as the living room had two huge windows.

His young brother was playing with his friend. They were rolling on the floor. He was looking out for the TV remote, but couldn’t find it. He got up and searched for it everywhere, but the remote was nowhere to be seen. He looked at his brother who was still lying on the floor, playing.

He asked him, “where is the remote?”

“Under the sofa,” his brother yelled.

He tried to look through the remote, but it was dark. He put his hand under the sofa. He touched something, grabbed it and took his hand out. It was a snake in his hand!

Upon seeing that, his brother started to yell, “Snake! Snake!” Mom came as soon as she heard the shouting. She was too horrified to see a snake. She was so scared that she even couldn’t speak a word. Two kids were trying to hide behind each other’s back. “What an old trick!” Roman thought and threw it to the kids.

As the snake landed on the floor and neared the kids, it started moving from the left side to the right. Only then did Roman realize that the snake was real, and not a toy. He threw the snake to kids because he thought it was a fake snake and it was the kids who were playing some tricks.

This time Mom almost got a heart attack. Now Roman was scared, too. The snake was only 10 meters away from the kids and was staring at them. They even couldn’t call the rescue team. There might be some deadly damage before their arrival. There was not much time to think. It was the time for a quick action.

As Roman was farther from the snake, he jumped onto the window and grabbed the curtains.

After the rescue team caught and took the snake away, everyone went inside the home.