After a beautiful purebred puppy wandered onto our back porch and made himself at home, my husband composed an ad for the "Lost and found" column of the local newspaper. It read: "A puppy, male, approximately nine months old, no collar, very friendly, found on Rockbridge Road. "

I feared all the detail might encourage an unscrupulous person to claim the dog. As I methodically explained why each clue revealed too much, my husband dutifully crossed out the words. Finally, in frustration, he rewrote the ad, reducing it to a single sentence that I couldn't refute.

It read: "Guess what I found?"

一只漂亮的純種狗來到我們的后門廊并已此為家了。我丈夫為當地的“失物招領”欄目構思了一則廣告。它是這樣寫的：“小狗，雄性，近九個月年齡，無項圈，很友善，發現于石橋路。”

我害怕這樣的細節會給那些昧著良心要狗的人以可乘之機。我有條不紊地解釋為什么每個線索都透露得太多，我丈夫就盡職地劃去一些詞。終于，出于為難，他重新寫了廣告，把它縮為一個我無法反駁的句子。

它是這樣寫的：“猜猜我發現了什么？”