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transcript level 2
Try not to look at this until you’ve done all the exercises that go with the listening.
The cat story
Jackie: This week for podcastsinenglish.com I’m talking to Donna who I know
loves animals. Donna, do you have any pets at the moment?
Donna: [laughs] No, I don’t have any pets at the moment!
Jackie: Why is that?
Donna: I did have a cat but, unfortunately our cat got stolen.
Jackie: Oh dear! From, from your house?
Donna: Yes, it was about… actually about a year ago, and we brought our cat
to Thailand from Singapore and…
Jackie: You took the cat in the plane?
Donna: Yeah! [laughs] She came across in the plane. We got three seats to
ourselves…
Jackie: You took the cat on the plane…
Donna: On the plane
Jackie: …on the seat!
Donna: That’s right! She was in a cage like you know the small carry box that
goes on, but she was right beside me [laughs] and I got very good
attention, very good service! Um… we brought her to Thailand, we
had her here for probably about a year and um… unfortunately, one
time we were away, and we came back and she was gone.
Jackie: How do you know that she was stolen?
Donna: What happened was we went away on holiday and the lady at the
office was lovely, lovely lady, …um looked after our cat really well
and she’d come up each day, put the air-conditioning on for her
[laughs], …um take her down to the office, let her sleep in the office.
But one day they were quite busy, all of them were busy, and they
realized it had been quite a while since they’d seen her so someone
decided it was time to… to go and have a look for her and when they
did they couldn’t find her anywhere.
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Jackie: Right
Donna: And, um… so there were about five people searching for her all over
the apartment block and they couldn’t find her. Um… when we got
home, we got home the very next day, we also, like, searched
everywhere inside just incase, you know, she, she was scared, hiding
somewhere…
Jackie: Right
Donna: …but, but she wasn’t there. So then we searched all around the
neighbourhood, we asked neighbours we searched for such a long
time to try and find her. But the only conclusion we could come to
was that somebody had come into the apartment and taken her.
Jackie: But there are many cats on the streets, why would they want to steal
your particular cat, do you think?
Donna: She was an unusual cat, she was a special breed, she was called a
‘Ragdoll’… white fluffy with …um coloured paws and nose and tail.
Um… beautiful nature, very gentle, …um so she was the only one we
know of in Thailand.
Jackie: What was she like then with strangers?
Donna: Well, she was very placid so while she wouldn’t sort of run to
somebody …um that she didn’t know she wouldn’t do anything to, to
defend herself or to, to stop anyone from picking her up. You know
she wouldn’t scratch, she wouldn’t bite, she was a very gentle cat.
Jackie: Ah, that’s a shame! Are you thinking about getting another cat in the
future, do you think?
Donna: Interesting. We’ve always had cats, we’ve always had pets of some
kind. At the moment we’ve decided we won’t get another cat. So,
for now, we won’t, yeah.
Jackie: Oh, that’s a sad story!
Donna: Yeah!
Jackie: Ah, thank you.
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