The Right Time and Place

It was the start of a very hot Fourth of July weekend. My husband, my dog and Ihad just returned from the lake only to find our cat had been hit by a car andleft on the side of the road. He was still alive, but he was hurt badly. His jawand paw looked badly broken.

We tried to call our vet right away, only to get a recording saying he was gonefor the weekend. We called every veterinarian in the phone book with no luck. Ikept going back to look in the phone book to see if there were any animalhospitals that I missed. We finally decided we had to wait until morning whenall of a sudden the cat cried out in pain.

It was now midnight. I went back to the phone book and said,“God, please help uswith this cat.”

I looked in the phone book again and there was one veterinary hospital abouttwenty miles away that I hadn't called yet. The name and number seemed to jumpout at me. I called the number and I was very surprised when a woman answeredthe phone. I was even more surprised when she said she was the vet and asked howsoon we could get there.

The vet said it didn't look good. Our cat's brain was starting to swell and hecouldn't see, but she would try and save him if we wanted her to.The cat did survive, with his eyesight intact, and after one week he came home.

But the miracle didn't sTOP there. The cat's leg wasn't broken, but the musclehad been torn and the vet thought the cat would need his whole leg amputated.

After the second week, the cat was using that paw almost a hundred percent.

Later the vet told me that if I’d called at any other time that night I would’vegotten a recording there, too. The vet said she’d only sTOPped for a few minutesto check the animals.

I guess when I asked God to help us, He gave us the right time and place tocall.

恰好時(shí)間

[紐約]琳達(dá)·默雷

7月4日周末正是燠暑的開(kāi)始。我、我老公和狗剛從湖邊回來(lái)，結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)大家的貓被小車撞了，被撂在路邊。它仍舊活著，但傷勢(shì)緊急。它的顎和爪像是骨折了。

大家趕快給獸醫(yī)打電話，結(jié)果錄音電話說(shuō)他出去度周末了。不幸的是，大家?guī)缀踅o電話簿上的每一個(gè)獸醫(yī)打了電話。我又重新在電話簿上探尋看看是不是有我錯(cuò)過(guò)的獸醫(yī)院。大家最后決定不能不等到早晨，這個(gè)時(shí)候貓忽然痛苦地尖叫起來(lái)。

正值子夜時(shí)分。我又去翻電話簿說(shuō)，“上帝，請(qǐng)幫助這只貓。”

我又看了看電話簿，發(fā)現(xiàn)有一個(gè)我還沒(méi)打電話的獸醫(yī)院，離這兒約20英里。名字和號(hào)碼仿佛沖向我似的。我撥了號(hào)碼，而當(dāng)一位婦女回電話時(shí)我感到詫異。當(dāng)她說(shuō)她是獸醫(yī)并問(wèn)大家多長(zhǎng)時(shí)間才能到達(dá)那兒時(shí)我越發(fā)詫異。

獸醫(yī)說(shuō)事情不太妙。大家貓的頭開(kāi)始腫脹，它也看不見(jiàn)了，但假如大家期望她挽救它的話，她會(huì)盡力而為。

貓的確活了下來(lái)，但沒(méi)視力。一周后它回家了。但奇跡沒(méi)停止。貓的腿沒(méi)骨折，但肌肉撕裂了，獸醫(yī)覺(jué)得貓需要整條腿截肢。兩周后，貓幾乎百分之百在用那爪。

后來(lái)獸醫(yī)對(duì)我說(shuō)，假如那天晚上其他時(shí)間打電話，我也會(huì)得到錄音回答的。獸醫(yī)說(shuō)她僅僅停幾分鐘再去檢查動(dòng)物。

我覺(jué)得當(dāng)我叫上帝幫助大家時(shí)，他就給了我適合的時(shí)間打電話。