Humphrey and his wife Hildy had ten white sheep, eight black-faced sheep, and five long-legged lambs. Early every autumn, they would drive their sheep onto the ground beside the big, yellow barn（畜棚）. Then Humphrey would hold each sheep still while Hildy cut off the wool.

When they finished, there were twenty-three soft piles of wool on the floor, and twenty-three pink, skinny sheep jumping around happily as they were freed into the field. Humphrey and Hildy collected piles of wool and put them in the house.

The next few weeks were very busy. They finally finished on cold, fall evening. Twenty-three bright, woolly blankets lay in cheerful piles around the kitchen. They would sell the warm blankets when winter came. By the time the snow flew, the sheep’s wool would have grown long enough to keep them nice and warm. Humphrey and Hildy both smiled, content with a job well done, and went to bed early.

The alarm clock went off at 5: 00 a.m. Humphrey and Hildy listened to the local weather report. “The earliest cold air in history,” The announcer said, “has brought a freeze（霜冻）to our area! So put warm coverings, folks!” They stared at each other in horror.

“The sheep!” shouted Humphrey. They hurried to put on their clothes and raced outside. What a freeze it was! The golden autumn grass fell to the ground, and the sheep without wool were shaking with cold painfully. Their pink skins had turned blue.

“What will we do?” Hildy cried. “The barn can’t hold so many sheep.”

Outside the messy kitchen, Hildy had a good idea, eyes falling on the blankets.

Magic was a four-year-old German Shepherd about to be adopted at the animal shelter along with hundreds of other dogs. The reporter announced that the dogs and cats would be put down if no one came by the end of the day. My friend Rosie felt worried about the animals and asked me to accompany her there. So after school we rushed to the shelter to save whoever we could. Finally, she got a cat and I was touched by the poor animals, asking the shelter worker for the biggest dog they had. His name was Magic.

Actually, I lived alone in an apartment. I had to stay in college during the day. So I always stayed out and taking care of a dog at home seemed a challenge for me. Rosie felt uneasy about the dog and advised me to abandon the thought of keeping the dog and send it to a warm home.

But I liked Magic so much, so I didn’t accept her advice and brought Magic home. After learning I adopted a dog, my neighbor below showed worry for I hadn’t kept an animal before.

As it turned out, there wasn’t a lot of trust. Magic would take the food out of his bowl, bring it in front of me and eat it one bit e at a time. My friend Rosie was pretty sure I was crazy and that keeping it would be a huge mistake. But slowly Magic and I got to know each other. We became best friends. For the first time, my apartment felt like a home. We walked together through Central Park every morning and night. Even when my friends invited me to parties, I just wanted to be home with Magic. Our lives were happy. For the first time, I was content.

Unfortunately, a problem appeared. When I was in, he kept calm, but he barked a lot when I was not in, which disturbed my neighbor below.

One day, my neighbor below knocked on my door.

After listening to the problem, Rosie figured Magic barked just because he felt lonely.

Every few years, humpback whales come to the water area in San Luis Obispo, California, for a few days while migrating, which attracts hundreds of visitors and whale lovers. In November 2020, over 20 whales were around, feeding on silverfish. Each one is huge, about 15 metres long.

At that time, I lived nearby and I was always crazy about whales so I invited my friend Liz Cottriel to go out on a ship to check them out the next morning.

“No way,” Liz hesitated. She was scared of whales and sharks, and was worried that the ship would overturn while we were in it. But I told her there was nothing to worry about and we probably would have an unforgettable experience.

Convinced, Liz joined me and we set off at 8:30 the next morning. For the first half hour we didn’t see anything. Then I spotted two pairs of whales, swimming towards us at fast speed. Though it was the first time we had seen the large creatures at such a close distance, we intended not to turn around immediately we met them. Instead, we chose to wait for their approaching.

One of the whales breached (跃出水面), then went down and hit the water really hard, leaving what looks like a layer of oil and also large waves.The boat started rocking wildly. At that moment, we realized it was too close.

All of a sudden, a large group of fish started jumping out of the water into our ship. Their movement sounded like cracking glass around us. I was terrified. Then I felt our ship lifted out of the water – about two metres, we later learned. I figured the whale was going to drag us down somehow, and I had no idea how deep we’d be sucked underwater.

What I didn’t realise at the moment was that Liz and I were in the whale’s mouth.

It suddenly struck me that whales have huge mouths but tiny throats.