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6.2.98

I cannot believe how fast time is flying by.  One minute its May, the next its June.  Wow.

A small update on Xin at work.  Well, one week has passed by and there is no word from his lawyer on his work Visa.  Apparently, it was a little more complicated than people thought.  He was actually working here, legally, on a ‘student’ Visa.  Although he already has a Master’s degree and was working, again…legally, as an extended internship, he was signing up on a ‘work’ Visa.  All this is too complicated for me, but nonetheless, the transition was supposedly a routine process that occurs between graduation of college and joining the workforce.  I am not sure where the red tape crossed and people got tangled.

Reportedly, he is doing fine and rumored to have taken a spontaneously induced vacation to France where the World Cup of International Football is being played.  He is a really big international football, or soccer, buff.  And also, other rumors are that he is filthy rich due to his family’s businesses and his wife makes a descent killing at Xerox Research here in Rochester.  But of course, when people are absent due to some high profile incident, rumors are always guaranteed to fly about.  Nonetheless, my heart does go out to him – it is never fun being restricted in any sense, in this case – work --, especially if a whole country seems to be against you.

Well, the end of May marked the end of Beejing’s puppy class – it was a six-week venture into training your new puppy.  Initially, Liz and I signed up hoping that this would give us pointers in teaching him how not to urinate / defecate in the house, but instead, the class centered around how to train your dog to do certain things when you call out certain words; commands.

Through the six weeks, we went through commands such as “come”, “sit”, “stay”, “down”, and “heel”.  Additionally, we learned how to treat a puppy and what to expect.  One aspect that we easily overlooked was that this class was geared toward puppies ranging from three to six months old.  At the beginning of this program, Beejing was about one and a half months.  Therefore, exhibiting a more playful attitude during class, or slight retardation, depending how you look at it.

The class initially started with four puppies, but it quickly dwindled to two in the final weeks – which of course, included us.  Hey, I figure – we had no idea what we were doing and needed all the help we could get, and we already paid for it all.

Well, the housebreaking problem took care of itself as we continually walked him outside.  But, in class – taking into consideration of his mental capacity due to his young age, he has done well.  There were times when he caught on, there were other times that he rather urinate on the floor.  Overall, he knows his commands, but forgets them often.

Wednesday night was the big night of his graduation.  One of the ceremonious things that we had to do was parade him around and exhibit the commands that he had learned.  I rushed home from work, greeted Beejing, brought him upstairs and left him in the study for a second while I retreated to the bedroom to change.  I was thinking how I should take him downstairs, to the backyard, and do a quick rehearsal for our ‘thing’ tonight.  Upon returning to the study, I noticed – there he was, up against a comforter propped up against the ground, humping it.

*I mean…he was really humping it.*

All I could do was just to call him over.  So I started, “Beejing come!”  But, I quickly noticed how stupid that must have seemed, so I reverted to the more masculine whistle and wave technique.  He rushed over and that was the end of the humping.

A little while later, Liz and I were pulling into the parking lot of PetSmart, the place where the puppy training was held.  As we exit the car, I remember the humping incident and I told her about it.  She reacted in shock and total disbelief.
     “Humping?  Humping?  What do you mean by humping?”
     “Like humping,” I answered.
     She still did not seem (want) to understand, “Like, what was he doing?”
     “He was humping… y’know? Like, humping.”
     “What?  How?”  she questioned.
     It was at this point where I threw my stiffened arms to my sides, my feet a few inches apart and legs parallel, I started jutting my hips back and forth, hoping that my charades version of ‘humping’ would ring a bell.  Needless to say, there we stood in the middle of the parking lot, with Liz holding Beejing at the end of a leash, watching as I display ‘humping’.  This continued until she told me to stop.  She got the message.

Moments later, there we were in puppy class.  With our instructor present, Liz practices some of the commands with Beejing.  Suddenly, Beejing leaps and does a full body hug on her leg.  I swore that he was going to start humping, but a second passed, and he did not.

<Anyway> To make a long story short, Beejing recognized the “come” and “sit” commands.  And gloriously, he received his certificate.

Yes, we are proud of him too…the little humper.
 

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