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You can tell a lot about a man by how he treats his dogs.

For many years, I enjoyed living with my dogs, Tilly and Chance. Their _______ was nearly enough to keep my loneliness at bay. Nearly. Last year, I started dating, but with _______. When I first dated Steve, I _______ he had a dog, Molly, and a cat, Flora. While I was _______ that he was an animal lover, I _______ that three dogs were perhaps too many, and my dogs might attack _______, the cat.

The next week we _______ our dogs together. It was a hot day. When we paused to catch our _______, Steve got down on one knee. Was he proposing (求婚)? I liked him too, but so _______? He poured water from a bottle into his hand and offered it to my dogs. ____________, I began to fall for him.

We ____________ to date, though neither of us brought up the future. And then in late November, Tilly had an operation on her ____________. I took the dogs out four times a day, and I worried that Tilly ____________ climbing the stairs could reopen the wound. Then Steve ____________ his house. All worked ____________. The three dogs formed a pack that, with coaching, ____________ Flora’s space; Steve and I formed a good team ____________ for Tilly. We made good housemates.

A year later, much to my ____________, this man produced a little box with a ring and proposed to me. He did not kneel (跪) down, nor did I ____________ him to. That’s only for giving ____________ to the dogs that brought us together.