From today on, I am a dog with status!

Today is the day for the com­mu­ni­ty to get dog licens­es. Xiaoyin and her dad agreed to come back this after­noon to get them togeth­er. She’ll get Hen­ry’s pho­tos tak­en this morn­ing, and then her dad will devel­op them. She’ll pick him up from kinder­garten ear­ly this after­noon.
 
Get­ting a dog license in Bei­jing was much eas­i­er than we imag­ined. We brought the most impor­tant items—money, a pho­to, and then Hen­ry and I went to the near­by neigh­bor­hood com­mit­tee. Two local police offi­cers were wait­ing. We filled out a form, attached our pho­tos, and paid the mon­ey. Every­thing was done, and we col­lect­ed the license 10 days lat­er. Some peo­ple, know­ing this, did­n’t even take their dog with them. They just said a few nice things, paid the mon­ey, and were done with it. Appar­ent­ly, rais­ing a giant dog isn’t a prob­lem. The police were very accom­mo­dat­ing, giv­ing us a new leash and telling us to get vac­ci­nat­ed. I explained I’d already had it in March, and they said I could get it next year. Not bad.
 
Hen­ry has­n’t been very fond of pho­tos late­ly, always hid­ing when they were tak­en. It took a lot of effort to get a one-inch bare­head­ed, front-fac­ing pho­to. Here are a few recent pho­tos for your ref­er­ence. (Note from Dad)
 
从今天开始我是一条有身份的狗了!
 
Pho­tos tak­en just after mov­ing into the new home (May 2)
 
从今天开始我是一条有身份的狗了!
 
I’ll be angry with any­one who press­es the shut­ter but­ton! (Fac­ing the paparazzi with right­eous indig­na­tion) — May 17th
 
从今天开始我是一条有身份的狗了!
 
If they could get some food, that would be anoth­er mat­ter… (After the paparazzi switched to a bribery pol­i­cy)
 
从今天开始我是一条有身份的狗了!
 
One-inch bare­head­ed frontal pho­to pro­to­type (the orig­i­nal has been stored in the archives of the Cap­i­tal Pub­lic Secu­ri­ty Bureau)