Notes after the May Day holiday (Dad)

I spent the entire Labor Day hol­i­day mov­ing, both my com­pa­ny and my fam­i­ly. It was a very mean­ing­ful Labor Day. My new home does­n’t have inter­net access, so I can’t keep track of my finances for now. Today, I went back to my old place to get online and jot down a few things.
 
May Day hap­pened to be the full month since Hen­ry came to Xiaoy­in’s house, and it was also on this day that they start­ed mov­ing into the new house.
 

At 5:30 in the morn­ing, I was still asleep when I sud­den­ly felt my toes get cold and wet. I woke up and real­ized it was Hen­ry lick­ing me, remind­ing me, “It’s dawn, time to go for a walk!” I did­n’t know whether to laugh or cry. I could­n’t sleep any­way, so I took him down­stairs. Lit­tle did he know that this was the day we were mov­ing to our new home.
 

In his new home, Hen­ry has a spa­cious bal­cony that’s well-enclosed, keep­ing him warm in the win­ter. Besides a nest on the bal­cony, there’s also a mat in the cor­ner of the liv­ing room where he can sleep when­ev­er he wants. There’s also a small cab­i­net on the bal­cony that’s per­fect for stor­ing all his belongings—it’s Hen­ry’s clos­et.
 

But at first, it did­n’t seem to like its new home very much. It defe­cat­ed and uri­nat­ed in the kitchen, bal­cony, and bath­room, and also on the wood­en floor in the liv­ing room. But it grad­u­al­ly learned to use the bath­room in its new home. But it was indeed a lit­tle uncom­fort­able at first.
 

Our new home was twice as big as our old one, but not far away. We only had to car­ry things back and forth our­selves, and Hen­ry tagged along. On the sec­ond night after mov­ing into our new home, I took Hen­ry back to our old house to get some­thing. Once there, he sim­ply lay on the floor and refused to move. I opened the door, but no mat­ter how I called him, he would­n’t come out. I turned off the lights and pre­tend­ed to close the door before leav­ing, but he still would­n’t move. This was unthink­able before. Final­ly, I had to car­ry him out of the room.
 

But he quick­ly adapt­ed to his new home. After all, he has more space to play, and oth­er chil­dren come to play with him every day. Last night, I took him back to his old home to get some­thing, and he was just the oppo­site. He refused to even enter the old house. While I was inside clean­ing up, he wait­ed at the door, as if he knew I was about to leave.
 
At the turn of spring and sum­mer, Hen­ry seemed to be becom­ing more and more bold and more inde­pen­dent-mind­ed.
 

On the morn­ing of May 2nd, Xiaoyin and I took him for a walk. We arrived at our usu­al pool, which was already filled with water and stocked with gold­fish. Hen­ry ran off to the bam­boo grove across the pool. We called him over, wav­ing a lit­tle chick­en strip. He imme­di­ate­ly became excit­ed and leaped into the pool. But he real­ized he was going the wrong way halfway through and swam back, but when he reached the edge, he could­n’t get out. Per­haps his fur was too wet and heavy. We quick­ly rushed over to get him out and ran all the way home to give him a bath and a dry-er. Coin­ci­den­tal­ly, it was time for a bath here, too.
 

There’s a female dog in the neigh­bor­hood that’s been caus­ing trou­ble for the oth­er dogs, caus­ing sev­er­al of the male dogs to become increas­ing­ly dis­obe­di­ent. I often see own­ers look­ing for their dogs these past few days. Per­haps this “love” has the pup­pies “cry­ing out for each oth­er to the bit­ter end,” even dis­re­gard­ing their own­ers. Hen­ry seems to be get­ting worse, and I have to use a leash for my evening walks. Last night, I did­n’t have a leash on, and he ran away, run­ning far away from me. No mat­ter how I called him, he would­n’t come back. I chased him, but he kept hid­ing, as if he knew he’d have to go home if he caught me. After a long bat­tle of wits and strength, I final­ly caught him. This lit­tle ras­cal seemed to know he was wrong and kept hid­ing on the ground, but I still had to spank him twice. It real­ly makes me angry. The lit­tle guy does­n’t know the dan­ger. What if he gets lost?
 
I’ve found out that dog licens­es are avail­able in Bei­jing in May or June. I’m still won­der­ing if it’s nec­es­sary to have Hen­ry neutered.
 

Xiaoyin has been doing a great job these past few days. Know­ing her par­ents were busy mov­ing and did­n’t want to play with their friends, she helped them move and pack, and was also pri­mar­i­ly respon­si­ble for tak­ing care of Hen­ry. She’s a very respon­si­ble lit­tle sis­ter. It’s just that she was so tired at night that she fell asleep as soon as she lay down in bed, so she could­n’t tell Hen­ry’s sto­ry…
 
Dad is writ­ing it down.