411 A Puppy That Needs Little Walking Outdoors (1/2)

Chapter 411: A Puppy That Needs Little Walking Outdoors

Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

While they waited to enter the store, Deng Jie and Liu Wenying had engaged in small talk and teased Yue Yue from time to time. Liu Wenying had learned that Deng Jie and her husband did not have any children, so she especially liked little kids and pets. After entering the store, Deng Jie had watched the Abyssinian cats perform ballet for a little while, but for most of the time, she had been in front of the puppy display cases, struggling to make up her mind. She knew that a ballet-dancing Abyssinian cat was very nice, but she knew she could never afford one, so she hadn’t even considered it since the very beginning.

Zhang Zian wasn’t the only one that had noticed Deng Jie’s indecisiveness — Snowy had, too. After the ballet performance ended, Snowy ran up to her and wanted to help. Since Snowy knew very little about pets, she could barely come up with an idea.

Zhang Zian approached her, ”Sister Deng, which one do you like?”

”Mr. Store Manager, thank god you are here! Sister Deng wants to pick out a dog, but she can’t decide which one, and I don’t know how to help her...” Snowy helplessly turned to him for help.

Deng Jie smiled awkwardly and said, ”Only because I have a limited budget. If I had enough money, I would buy every pet here and open a zoo of my own! How wonderful would that be!”

”Okay, but don’t forget to hire a few professional cleaners when you open your zoo,” said Zhang Zian, pointing to his nose.

The three of them laughed.

Upon hearing the laughter, Liu Wenying picked Yue Yue up and came to them. ”Sister Deng, have you picked one yet? Come on, select a puppy and then let’s go have lunch together. Don’t go home and make lunch, just tell your husband to order take-out today. Let’s go have some fun! You see, me and Yue Yue will not go home until evening.”

Deng Jie hesitated for a moment before she agreed. But first, she must choose her favorite pet, otherwise lunch would become dinner…

As the conversation between the women came to an end, Zhang Zian asked, ”Sister Deng, you are certain that you want to buy a dog, right?”

Deng Jie nodded, ”Yes. A puppy will follow me around all day long, so that I won’t feel lonely.”

”A puppy?” Zhang Zian keenly captured this keyword.

”Yes. The previous fake Shiba Inu was still too big for my house — there wasn’t much room for it to move around…” Deng Jie said, ”I've been considering buying a puppy since then, if the price is suitable.”

Zhang Zian thought for a moment, then asked, ”Which floor do you live on?”

”The sixth floor.”

”Is there an elevator?”

”No,” she shook her head. ”I have been thinking that after I buy a dog, I will take it out for a walk in our neighborhood every day, but...” she said with a wry smile, ”I used to need to climb up and down the stairs twice a day when I was working. But having the Shiba Inu, I had to take it for a walk in the morning and evening, which meant I had to climb those stairs two extra times. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but after a few days, in the middle of the night, I started to get back aches and cramps in my legs. My husband just sat on the couch reading the newspaper and didn’t want to walk the dog. What is there to read in the newspaper that’s so interesting? He sat there all day long.”

She became agitated. ”I quarreled with him about this. And then he said that I am the one who bought the dog, so I was responsible for walking it. That man...”

Feeling that the topic was about to turn into complaining about her husband, Liu Wenying quickly interrupted her, ”Indeed it is troublesome to walk the dog outside. There is an elevator in my apartment building, but thinking about going back and forth to let it outside… it is really troublesome. That’s why I decided to buy a cat in the end.”

Deng Jie sighed, ”Later, that dog got ill, and I took it out no more. Otherwise, I might be the one who got sick...”

”In other words, you want to raise a puppy that needs little walking outdoors,” Zhang Zian clarified.

There were still many old residential areas throughout China. A large number of those residential buildings were designed without elevators. It was inconvenient for residents living on upper floors to raise pets, especially dogs that needed daily walks outside. If the dogs were not taken out for walk, they would become frustrated. Having nowhere else to let out their energy, they would create disturbances in the houses.

Many high-rise tenants did not fully consider these difficulties before buying dogs and at the same time had overestimated their enthusiasm for keeping dogs as pets. They took the dogs back home with confidence and decided to treat them well. However, after the feeling of novelty had passed and they grew tired of walking the dogs, just like Deng Jie and her husband, the dog owners would shirk off the responsibilities, and abandon the dogs or give them away in the end.

Should there be energetic children in the family, the dog owners could let their children walk the dogs. However, in the case of Deng Jie, there were only her husband and herself at home, and neither of the middle-aged couple could stand the extra few trips a day. Luckily, it was winter now. If they were to climb those stairs in the summer, they would be drenched in sweat very quickly.