瓊·克雷格黑德·喬治

A lady in a fur coat threw a fighting， hissing cat off a bridge， got back into her car， and sped into the night.

Rachet the cat splashed into the river.

She felt the wetness， and hating it， reached out to claw this enemy. Her paw struck a stick， raked it for a better hold， and she was swimming.

An eddy caught her， swirled her shoreward until she felt stones under her feet and ran out of the water. Shaking her paws， she four-footed it into a woods that edged the river. When she was out of sight of the bridge she stopped， shook herself， and frantically licked the water off her sodden tiger-striped fur. With her forepaw she cleaned her ears of the river water， then her face and whiskers. The bruise on her ribs where the lady had kicked her yesterday had been soothed by the cold water and was no longer throbbing.

When she was almost dry， she crept deeper into the night woods. Rachet， like all cats， found her way in the dark with the rods in her eyes， which could take in the faintest of light， even starlight， and make the night into day. Smelling dryness， she hurried to the fallen leaves under an oak tree and frantically rolled in them. Then shivering with loneliness and fright， she miaowed in her baby voice to bring her mother. There was no answer. Her world has changed.

With her whiskers feeling for obstacles and her nose smelling for living things， she cautiously walked down a well-trodden path. The path held the odor of the red fox， Shifty， but being young and inexperienced， Rachet did not know that red foxes hunted cats. So she followed his path to the edge of the woods.

There she stopped to look for and avoid people. The ones she knew kicked， picked her up by her orange-striped tail， or locked her in a closet without food or water when they went away for several days. She had been a plaything for children. Now， with summer over and the children back in school， the lady had dropped her in the river， hoping she would drown.

But Rachet was a cat. She had survived the kicks and closets and would survive this. With her feet poised to run at the sight of a human， she studied the scenes presented to her. An overgrown field of grasses， goldenrod， milkweed， and ragweed covered the two acres of abandoned farmland that lay in front of her. It was scattered with papers and discarded junk. The field ended at the Roxville railroad station， now under a rising moon. A few people were waiting on a platform for the puffing， whistling diesel trains to take them to the city. The people smelled acrid.

一位身著毛皮大衣的女士，手里抓著一只拼命掙扎、嘶嘶亂叫的貓，從橋上扔了下去。然后她回到車?yán)?，快速駛進(jìn)夜幕。

這只叫作拉齊特的貓咪跌落進(jìn)河中。

拉齊特感覺到了潮濕的河水，這讓她極為反感，就伸出爪子去抓這個(gè)敵人。她的爪子碰到了一根木棍，撓了一下，再抓牢，然后開始游泳。

河水一個(gè)漩渦打過來，把她沖向岸邊。她察覺到了腳下的石頭，就從水里跑了出來。拉齊特甩甩爪子，四腳著地，走進(jìn)了河邊的一個(gè)樹林里。她走到看不見大橋的地方停下來，搖一搖身子，拼命地舔掉身上的水。她的虎紋毛皮都濕透了。拉齊特用前爪弄干凈耳朵里的河水，然后是臉上以及胡須上的水。昨天那位女士踢到了她的肋骨，還留有瘀傷，如今冰冷的河水讓疼痛有所緩解，不再一扎一扎地疼了。

等身上幾乎干了，拉齊特就爬往樹林深處。跟其他貓一樣，拉齊特在黑暗中用瞳孔看路。貓的瞳孔能接收最微弱的光線，甚至是星光，所以對他們而言黑夜就像白晝一樣明亮。拉齊特通過嗅覺找到了干爽的地方——那是一棵橡樹下的落葉堆，她急忙跑過去在里面瘋狂打滾。拉齊特感到很孤單，也很害怕，渾身顫抖，就用小貓咪的聲音叫了幾聲，想呼喚自己的媽媽。但沒有任何回答。拉齊特的世界徹底變樣了。

拉齊特用胡須感知路上的障礙，用鼻子搜尋活物，沿著一條已經(jīng)踏平的小路往前走。這條路上充斥著赤狐希夫蒂的氣味。但拉齊特太小，沒有經(jīng)驗(yàn)，不知道赤狐會(huì)獵食貓類。所以她沿著赤狐希夫蒂的小路走到了樹林邊上。

拉齊特在樹林邊停下來，東張西望，要避開人類。在拉齊特看來，人類踢她，抓著她橙色條紋的尾巴提起她，或者離開家好多天的時(shí)候把她鎖在壁櫥里，卻不留食物和水。她不過是小孩子的玩物罷了。現(xiàn)在，夏天結(jié)束了，孩子回到學(xué)校，那個(gè)女士就把她扔進(jìn)河里，希望淹死她。

但拉齊特是一只貓。她已經(jīng)熬過了踢打和關(guān)壁櫥，被拋棄到荒野肯定也能熬過去。她擺好姿勢，只要看到人類就可以逃開。她仔細(xì)打量著眼前的景象。她面前是一片廢棄的農(nóng)田，大約有兩英畝，長滿了各種雜草，比如秋麒麟、馬利筋、豚草等。到處散落著紙片和廢棄的垃圾。這一塊荒地一直延伸到羅克斯維爾火車站。此時(shí)一輪明月正在火車站上空升起。有幾個(gè)人待在站臺(tái)上，正等待會(huì)噴氣和鳴笛的狄塞爾火車來把他們運(yùn)到城里去。這些人聞起來有種刺鼻的氣味。