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When I first met Strawberry, age 16, she was lying on her back, paws akimbo.[qh]
我第一次见到“草莓”时，她16岁，仰面躺着，爪子放在腰部。[qh]
Her cat belly was shaved bare, and black stitches ran several inches down her naked pink skin.[qh]
猫咪的肚子被剃得光秃秃，黑色的缝线沿着她裸露的粉红色皮肤缝了几英寸。[qh]
A radiologist squirted ultrasound goop on her abdomen while two veterinary students in dark-blue scrubs gently held down her legs—not that this was really necessary.[qh]
一位放射科医生在她的腹部喷射超声波粘液，同时，两位身着深蓝色手术服的兽医学生轻轻地按住她的腿——这并非真的有必要。[qh]
Strawberry was too tired, too drugged, or simply too out of it from her surgery the previous day to protest. [qh]
“草莓”要么太累了，要么麻醉药劲太大，要么只是前一天做了手术，迷迷糊糊，没有反抗。[qh]
In the dim light of the radiology room, her pupils were dilated into deep black pools. [qh]
在放射科昏暗的灯光下，她的瞳孔放大成一片深黑色。[qh]
She slowly turned her head toward me. [qh]
她慢慢地把头转向我。[qh]
She turned away. She looked around at the small crowd of doctors and students surrounding her, as if to wonder what on God’s green earth had happened for her to end up like this.[qh]
她转过来，环顾四周，看了看围在她身边的医生与学生，似乎在纳闷，究竟发生了什么事，她会落得这样的下场。[qh]
What had happened was that Strawberry had received a kidney transplant.[qh]
“草莓”接受了肾脏移植手术。[qh]
A surgical team at the University of Georgia had shaved off patches of her long ginger fur, inserting catheters in her leg and neck to deliver the cocktail of drugs she would need during her hospital stay: anesthesia, painkillers, antibiotics, blood thinners, and immunosuppressants.[qh]
乔治亚大学的一个手术小组剃掉了她姜黄色的长毛，在其腿部和脖子处插入导管，为其输送住院期间所需的各种药物: 麻醉剂、止痛药、抗生素、血液稀释剂和免疫抑制剂。[qh]
Then a surgeon named Chad Schmiedt carefully cut down the midline of her belly—past the two shriveled kidneys that were no longer doing their job and almost to her groin. [qh]
之后，一位名叫查德·施米特的外科医生小心翼翼地沿着她的腹部中线切开——途经两个不再起作用的干瘪肾脏，再到她的腹股沟。[qh]
Next, he stitched into place a healthy new kidney, freshly retrieved from a living donor just hours earlier.[qh]
接着，他将一个健康的新肾脏缝合进去，这是几个小时前刚从一只活体猫咪(捐赠肾脏的猫咪)身上取出的。[qh]
Schmiedt is one of only a few surgeons who perform transplants on cats, and is therefore one of the world’s foremost experts at connecting cat kidneys. [qh]
在猫身上进行移植手术的外科医生为数不多，而施米特就是其中之一，因此，他是世界一流的猫肾脏连接专家。[qh]
When he first greeted me with a broad smile and a handshake, I was struck by how his large, callused hand engulfed mine. [qh]
当他第一次笑容满面、握手迎接我时，我被他那只握着我的、长满老茧的大手所震撼。[qh]
In the operating room, though, his hands work with microscopic precision, stitching up arteries and veins only millimeters wide.[qh]
然而，在手术室里，他的手部工作极其精细，缝合只有毫米宽的动脉和静脉。[qh]
This is the hardest part, he told me, like sewing “wet rice paper.”[qh]
他告诉我，这是最难的部分，如同缝合“浸湿的米纸”一样。[qh]
Once the donor kidney was in place, it flushed pink and Schmiedt closed Strawberry back up. [qh]
一旦捐赠的肾脏到位，就会变成粉红色，施米特将“草莓”的肚子重新缝合。[qh]
(As in human transplants, the old kidneys can stay in place.) [qh]
(如同人体移植一样，原来的肾脏可以留在原位。)[qh]
It was then a matter of waiting for her to wake up and pee. [qh]
接下来就是等她醒来尿尿了。[qh]
She had done both by the time of her ultrasound.[qh]
她在做超声波检查时，已经做完了这两件事。[qh]
Not that Strawberry could understand any of this—or that any cat understands why we humans insist on bringing them to vet offices to be poked and prodded by strangers. [qh]
这并不是说“草莓”可以理解这一切，也不是说任何一只猫都明白为什么我们人类坚持把它们带到兽医室，让陌生人来戳来戳去。[qh]
But without the transplant, she would die of kidney failure, an affliction akin to being gradually poisoned from within. [qh]
但如果不接受移植，她将死于肾衰竭，一种类似于体内逐渐中毒的痛苦。[qh]
Other treatments could slow her kidney disease, which is common in older cats, but they could not stop it. [qh]
其他治疗方法也可以延缓肾脏病进展，这种病在老年猫中很常见，但这些治疗方法无法消除这种病。[qh]
This is why Strawberry’s owner decided to spend $15,000 on a kidney—a last resort to save her life, or at least extend it.[qh]
这就是为什么“草莓”的主人决定花1.5万美元买一个肾脏——这是挽救她生命的最后手段，或者至少是延长她的生命的最后手段。[qh]
