人狗之間的網絡速配 Online Matchmaking but With Dogs as Dates
I want a dog, but my landlady is a cat person.
我想養只狗，可我的女房東卻愛貓。
I’ve whined, begged and offered a hefty security deposit trying to change her mind. Keeping a dog by your side has been considered a healthy habit for tens of thousands of years. Research shows that dogs can prompt us to be more active and less stressed, and dog owners tend to visit the doctor less often and live longer. After a string of robberies in our neighborhood and my own encounter with a naked man on a nearby running trail, I tried to convince my landlord that we would all be safer with a dog around. It’s still a no.
我苦苦哀求，希望網開一面，甚至表示願意繳納高額保證金，只求她能改變心意。千萬年來，養狗一直被認爲是個健康的習慣。研究表明，狗狗可以敦促我們多做運動，幫我們釋放壓力；養狗的人往往更少去看醫生，壽命也更長。自從我家周圍發生了一系列搶劫案，而我自己也在附近的跑步道上遇見裸男之後，我再次嘗試說服房東：爲了安全起見我們應該養一條狗，可答案仍然是：不。
Enter Pickles — a snorting, wheezing, wiggling 15 pounds of smoosh-face French bulldog bliss that is technology’s answer to my dog dilemma. Using a new app called Bark’N’Borrow, an Uber-type matchmaking service, we borrowed Pickles recently for an overnight dose of dog companionship.
好在科技幫我圓滿解決了這個大難題。最近，利用一款叫做Bark'N'Borrow的類似優步(Uber)的新app（應用軟件），我租借了皮克爾斯(Pickles)——一隻呼哧呼哧噴着鼻息還愛扭啊扭的15磅（約合6.8千克）平臉法國鬥牛犬來陪伴我們過夜。
The idea behind Bark’N’Borrow and other new dog-service apps like Rover and Dog Vacay is to create a community of dog lovers both with and without dogs — pairing those who crave canine companionship with dogs that could use a little more people time. Bark’N’Borrow also connects dog owners for pooch playdates and has a portal for potential dog-sitter matches as well. Rover and Dog Vacay, meanwhile, offer boarding options for pets in people’s homes rather than a kennel.
Bark’N’Borrow以及Rover、Dog Vacay等其他新型狗狗服務app的設計初衷，是爲了給所有愛狗人士創建一個社區，在那些自己沒有狗卻渴望狗狗陪伴的人與暫時無人照顧的狗狗們之間牽線搭橋。狗主人們可以通過Bark'N'Borrow相約帶上狗狗們一起玩，該app爲潛在的狗保姆也提供了門戶。而有了Rover和Dog Vacay，狗主人可以選擇各種各樣的人家來寄養寵物，再也不用把它們關在狗舍了。
Given that services like Airbnb, Liquid, Fon and Getaround allow people to share their homes, bikes, WiFi and cars, it was only a matter of time before pets got involved in the sharing economy too.
鑑於人們已在使用Airbnb、Liquid、Fon、Getaround等服務與他人共享房屋、自行車、WiFi和汽車，寵物被納入共享經濟也不過是個時間問題。
To start, I set up an online profile on Bark’N’Borrow, sort of like an online dating service, with photo, personal information, my reasons for wanting to meet a dog and the qualities I’m looking for in a dog. The basic service is free, and payment is required only for dog-sitting services.
首先，我在Bark'N'Borrow上建立了一個在線檔案，內容有點像網上約會服務那種，包括照片、個人信息、我想要跟狗狗共處的理由，以及我希望找到一隻怎樣的狗狗。基本服務是免費的，需要收費的僅限於專職的寵物看護服務。
After asking for a dog that was “easy-going, good with people, good with children, good with other dogs, good with other animals, and good with strangers,” two matches in my area popped up right away. I had the choice of a 4-year-old golden retriever named Ringo and a 5-month-old French bulldog named Pickles. They both looked great, so I took the next step — contacting the owners. Specific prompts allowed me to suggest a time and location for meeting in person.
我在“對狗狗的要求”一欄填上了“隨和、親近人尤其是孩子、善於與其他的狗和其他動物相處，不怕生”，馬上就有兩個匹配彈了出來：名爲林戈(Ringo)的4歲金毛獵犬，以及5個月大的法國鬥牛犬皮克爾斯。它們看起來都棒極了，所以我進入到下一個步驟——聯繫狗主人。app上提供了詳細的提示來幫助我預約見面的時間和地點。
Dog owners have various reasons for using Bark’N’Borrow. Some work long hours and worry about keeping a dog cooped up at home all day. Some are frequent travelers who would rather have the personal touch of a borrower versus a kennel. And some, I would soon come to find out, just believe in sharing their precious pets with people like me, because they’ve seen the good it can do for both sides.
狗主人使用Bark'N'Borrow的理由多種多樣。有些人需要長時間工作，不放心把愛犬關在家裏一整天；有些是經常出差，與其將狗狗留在冷冰冰的狗屋，他們寧願把它暫借給愛狗人士。我很快發現，還有一些人只是單純地信賴，並願意與像我這樣的人共享他們的寶貝寵物，因爲他們覺得這樣對雙方都有好處。
By now you’re probably wondering how anyone could leave a beloved pet with a total stranger. Bark’N’Borrow’s founder, Liam Berkeley, told me the company took great pains to verify users, linking to their Facebook profile or other public information, and that someone actually reviewed every account before giving anyone the green light to interact with the rest of the community.
你或許會感到奇怪，要怎樣將心愛的寵物交給一個完全陌生的人才能放心呢？Bark'N'Borrow的創始人利亞姆·伯克利(Liam Berkeley)告訴我，他們公司在用戶身份驗證上可謂是煞費苦心：他們會一一覈查用戶在Facebook（臉譜網）上的個人資料和其他公共信息，確認無誤後纔會准許他與社區內的其他用戶交流。
A similar service in Britain and Ireland called BorrowMyDoggy has amassed thousands of users and more than 200,000 Facebook fans in the three years it has been operating. The San Francisco-based start-up Walkzee has also been met with widespread approval for pairing people with animal shelter dogs to take for walks. Walkzee has been in beta-testing for several months in more than 100 shelters across America and went live to the public this fall.
英國和愛爾蘭也有類似的服務，稱爲BorrowMyDoggy，運營三年來它已經積累了數千名用戶和超過20萬名facebook粉絲。總部位於舊金山的創業公司Walkzee推出了一項服務，幫助動物收容所裏的狗狗尋找願意帶它們出去遛遛的人，贏得了廣泛的讚譽。Walkzee已經在美國各地的100多個收容所進行了數個月的beta測試，他們希望今年秋天該服務能夠正式面世。
Kirsten Harris, a 23-year-old who works at a tech start-up in Los Angeles, responded to my in-app query within a few minutes. After a few emails, we agreed to talk by ng our phone call, I learned more about Pickles — who is friendly, well-behaved, housebroken and, at the tender age of five months, already a veteran to the Bark’N’Borrow process. I told her about my family and my reasons for wanting to borrow a dog. I explained about our home, nearby dog-walking trails and parks, my experience growing up with dogs and my landlady, the cat lady.
現在，再說回我的故事。就在我在app上發佈查詢後的幾分鐘之內，一名在洛杉磯的高科技創業公司工作的23歲年輕女士柯爾斯滕·哈里斯(Kirsten Harris)迴應了我。我們互通了幾次電子郵件，決定打個電話詳談。在電話中，我對皮克爾斯有了更深的瞭解——它友好又乖巧，受到過良好的管教，雖然只有五個月大，卻已經是久經Bark’N’Borrow流程的“老將”了。我也對哈里斯女士介紹了我的家庭情況，我想要借狗的原因，我家的房子、附近的狗狗步行道和公園，我跟狗狗一起成長的經歷以及我那位愛貓的房東。
We agreed to meet.
然後，我們約定見面。
Ms. Harris and Pickles met my daughter and me outside our home less than eight hours after we first connected on Bark’N’Borrow. A bowlegged blond beast basically leapt out of her arms and into our hearts. Ms. Harris told us that the motto of the French bulldog is “Love the one you’re with,” and Pickles definitely lived up to his breed’s reputation. His regular borrowers include a mother and 2-year-old son and a 30-year-old woman and recent Manhattan transplant who borrows Pickles overnight every few weeks for companionship.
從初次在Bark’N’Borrow上聯絡算起，還不到八個小時我和女兒就在家門外見到了哈里斯女士和皮克爾斯。那隻羅圈腿的金毛小傢伙一下子就從她的臂彎裏跳進了我們的心坎中。哈里斯女士告訴我們，法國鬥牛犬的座右銘是“跟着誰就愛上誰”，皮克爾斯在此方面絕對是它們種族的翹楚。經常租借它的人包括一位母親和她2歲的兒子，還有一名最近剛搬到曼哈頓，每幾周就將皮克爾斯借走陪她過夜的30歲女子。
Ms. Harris, on her way to San Francisco for the night, stayed for a while and watched Pickles and my daughter play in the yard as Pickles shredded some leaves and discovered the small green apples that had fallen from our trees.
哈里斯女士是在去舊金山過夜的路上送皮克爾斯過來的，她在我們家留了一會兒，看皮克爾斯和我女兒在院子裏玩耍，皮克爾斯撕着樹葉玩，還發現了之前從樹上掉下來的綠色小蘋果。
Our night with Pickles was everything we had hoped for and more. Pickles wrestled with my daughter’s long hair and snuggled on my lap. After a few barks when my husband got home from work (a watch dog!), Pickles ended up sleeping in our bed, right between our heads.
與皮克爾斯共度的那個晚上，美好得超出了我們的預期。皮克爾斯依偎在我的大腿上，糾纏我女兒的長頭髮。我丈夫下班回家時它吠叫了幾聲（好一隻看門狗！），後來卻睡在了我們夫婦的牀上，身子擱在我倆的頭中間。
The next day Pickles traveled with my family to a cross-country meet, where he mingled with other dogs, high schoolers and parents who wanted to know where they could borrow a dog too.
第二天，我們一家帶着皮克爾斯一起去參加越野聚會，在那裏，它跟其他的狗、高中生還有想知道從哪裏也能借只狗狗來玩的家長們玩得那叫一個歡吶。
