Like many people， I needed a cat photo for my personal website. Lulu did the trick. She was puffy， orange and belonged to the ex-roommate of my sister’s boyfriend.
和许多人一样，我要给我的个人网页配一张猫的图。露露搞定了这件事。它是我姐姐男友的前室友养的一只胖胖的橘猫。
That was just over six months ago. My website’s traffic has languished， but Lulu now commands nearly 40，000 Instagram followers. “Be the cute you wish to see in this world，” one post says. In another， she gloats from the bottom of a laundry hamper.
这不过是六个多月前的事情。我的网页流量一直萎靡不振，不过露露现在拥有将近4万Instagram粉丝。一条帖子说：“真是世间罕有的小可爱。”在另一条帖子里，它在洗衣篮里得意洋洋地往上看。
The glorious rise of my furry affiliate came as a bit of a shock， and I’m not alone in my consternation. Nobody intended for the internet to be swarmed with cats. Yet here they are， modeling toupees made from their own discarded fur as part of the Trump Your Cat movement or popping up to protest Brexit.
我这个毛茸茸小伙伴的大红大紫有点令人震惊，而对此感到错愕的不只我一个。谁也没想让互联网成为猫扎堆的地方。可是它们就在这里，在“让你的猫变成特朗普”的活动中作为模特儿展示用自己丢弃的毛发做成的假发，或者跳出来抗议英国脱欧。
Of course nobody intended for the planet to be swarmed with house cats either. In many ways， their online dominance is an extension of their earthly conquests， and the same flesh-and-blood behavior that propelled cats across the globe also sustains Lulu and her peers.
当然，也没人想让这个星球上到处都是家猫。从许多方面来讲，它们在网上的统治地位是其在现实世界征战的延续，让猫遍布全球的那种有血有肉的行为也让露露之辈生存下来。
Cats aren’t the only creatures to thrive online， of course， and dogs actually eclipse them in search traffic. But their viral success is unique. According to data from Buzzfeed， the most popular cat posts get almost quadruple the traffic of the most-clicked dogs. Cat images also have unparalleled staying power. Other creature memes tend to rise and fall rather quickly. But cats remain on top.
当然，猫不是在网上走红的唯一生物，其实狗的搜索流量盖过了猫。但是猫的蹿红是独一无二的。根据“嗡嗡喂”网站的统计数字，最热门猫帖的流量几乎是点击量最大狗帖的四倍。猫图还有着无可比拟的持久力。其他动物萌图的流量往往会很快涨落。但是猫始终高居榜首。
Their virtual success is rooted in their real biology. Cats are solitary， asocial hypercarnivores built to do one thing： get meat. The famous cat meme I Can Haz Cheeseburger， in which a gaping gray cat demands a quarter-pounder， had the right idea. Every fiber of the feline being is evolved to hunt， and cats employ a distinctive stalk-and-ambush approach， in which they sit very still and watch for prey to innocently wander by， then explode from the underbrush to slaughter it.
它们在虚拟世界走红的根源在于其真实的生物习性。猫是独来独往、不合群的超级食肉动物，生来只做一件事：得到肉。流传广泛的猫咪萌图“我想吃芝士汉堡”找对了路子，在图片上，一只张着嘴的灰猫要求吃足三两汉堡包。这种猫科动物的每一个特性都是为捕猎进化而来，而且猫采用的是悄悄靠近猎物然后发动伏击的特有捕猎手法，在捕猎时，它们静卧一旁，看着猎物无知无觉地四处游荡，然后从灌木丛中一跃而出，直取对方性命。
Dogs， by contrast， aren’t surprise predators. Their wild relatives， wolves， are long-distance hunters， tracking prey for miles. Such dogged personalities make for better long narrative arcs， which is why canines outnumber cats in movies and novels. But the internet is more like poetry： nonlinear， fragmented， spontaneous and explosive， a place to simultaneously hide and strike. And from Dr. Seuss to T. S. Eliot， poetry is a rare medium in which cats are more prevalent than dogs.
相比之下，狗算不上是出其不意的掠食者。它们在野外的亲戚——狼是长距离猎手，会长达数英里地追踪猎物。这种执著个性天生更适合跨度长的叙述形式。正因为如此，犬在电影和小说中出现的次数超过猫。但是互联网更像是诗歌：非线性、无条理、自然流露并且具有爆发力，一个可以同时躲藏与出击的地方。从苏斯博士到艾略特，诗歌是难得猫比狗出现得更频繁的一种文学形式。
Cats’ social habits — or rather， lack thereof — also prime them for life online. Dogs are highly social animals， whose behavior is such a mirror of our own emotions that without people in close physical proximity they can seem like unfinished beings.
猫在群居方面的习性——或者倒不如说这种习性的缺失——也让它们为网上的生龙活虎做好了准备。狗是群居性很强的动物，它们的行为十分清楚地反映我们自己的情感，以至于近旁没有人时，它们看起来就像是不完整的生物。
But what about the quintessential internet artifact， cat photos？ These portraits involve neither socializing nor violence. Yet their appeal is still connected to feline biology， through the mesmerizing structure of the feline face.
那么又该如何看待互联网上完美的人工作品——猫图呢？这些照片既不涉及群居活动也不涉及暴力行为，可是它们的吸引力仍旧与猫科动物的生物习性有关，借助的是猫科动物迷人的面部结构。
As watch-and-wait hunters， cats have big， round eyes planted right in the center of their heads， giving them excellent depth perception when they leap for a kill. They have little snub noses， since they lurk in hiding places instead of snuffling after prey for miles like dogs. And they have rounded faces and chubby “cheeks，” the byproduct of short， powerful jaws designed to deliver a killing bite.
作为边观察边等待的猎手，猫的头部正中长着圆溜溜的大眼睛，让它们在跃出去捕杀时具有出色的深度知觉。它们有着扁平的小鼻子，因为它们在藏身之处潜伏，而不是像狗一样嗅着气味追寻猎物长达数英里远。而且它们拥有圆脸和胖乎乎的“脸颊”，这是为了让它们能够一咬致命而生就的短小强壮下颌的副产品。
These facial features， a terrifying distillation of feline lethality， happen to also be what humans consider cute. They remind us of own faces， and especially of our babies， since humans， too， have big eyes planted in the center of our heads， which we use in large part to read the facial expressions of others. Through this uncanny but accidental interspecies resemblance， cat faces prime us to communicate， whether by post， tweet or pin.
这些面部特征是猫科动物杀伤力令人生畏的精华，恰好也是人类眼中的可爱之处。它们让我们想到自己的脸，特别是婴儿的脸，因为人类同样是在头部中央长着大大的眼睛，在很大程度上是用来观察别人的表情。由于这种神秘但偶然的种间相似，猫脸刺激我们去交流，无论是通过帖子、推文还是钉图（通过图片社交分享网站Pinterest发布的图片——本网注）。（李凤芹译自美国《纽约时报》网站10月15日文章）
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