Trends

The BBC has done a piece on Facebook trends. The most important trend was the saving of dogs. This is good, saving dogs is the best anybody can do.

Dreamhack Open

There were live broadcasts on TV tonight from something called Dreamhack Open in Jönköping. We watched for a little while, just to see what it was all about. As far as we could understand, it was some sort of computer game competition, people who played computer games versus one another. There was a rather large audience there too, watching the competitions on site.

I think it is good. People follow this, just like people follow dog shows. Dog shows are vastly more important than computer game competitions, since it is about dog breeding and thus the future of all dogs. If Dreamhack Open can be broadcasted live on TV, they should be able to broadcast important dog shows live on TV too. I am looking forward to this.

Conference

Paula is away on a conference with politicians in the Örebro region. We hope she has some fun, but we miss her. Friday evenings are usually better than this. She will be back tomorrow, though.

I have thought of going away on a conference myself sometime. It seems interesting, when Paula or Daniel does. However, I do not know what type of conference I could attend. I might think of aomething in the future.

Gingerbread Cupcakes

Paula and I baked some gingerbread cupcakes this morning. These are soft cupcakes with the spices and taste of gingerbread. It smelled nicely in the kitchen for the rest of the day. Part of me wanted to eat a lot of these cupcakes right away, but I held back. They were baked for a purpose. Paula will give most of them to colleagues at work. I hope I will be mentioned, when she talks about how they were baked.

Grades

Paula came home happy tonight. She told us she had succeeded on a course, where she got Very Good. We were sceptical to the joy, comparing this to the dog show prize Very Good. At dog shows, this is the second best quality prize, not good enough to allow you to participate in competition class. Paula explained, however, that at her university, Very Good is the very best grade you can get. I think this is a bit confusing. They should use Excellent, Very Good, Good, Sufficient, just like everybody is used to from dog shows. It would be much easier, if everybody used this scale for their grades. There would be no confusion this way. Well, I guess many people think they can come up with better ways of grading things. You can do that, but it is confusing.

The Sun

This month, every day has been overcast, until today. We saw the Sun again today. It was a pleasant surprise. November is usually a dark month, but this November has been darker than usual. This made the rare visit of a clear aky even more welcome. November can be beautiful, for instance when the Sun is shining from a blue sky. This was the case today. We enjoyed it. I wish more days could be like this.

Music

Hello, Orange here!

Humans have this thing called music, which is a certain, rythmic form of sound. Paula even uses it on her telephone sometimes, when playing a game on it. I have never quite understood the purpose of music. It does affect my mood, but is this it? Is there, perhaps, other purposes as well? I know humans do not quite understand the idea of howling, I guess it is the other way around with music. Well, the world is mysterious in many ways, maybe it is supposed to be that way.

World Champion

Today, Briton Lewis Hamilton won the Abu Dhabi GP and his second Formula 1 championship. We congratulate him. It has been an exciting season, even though it has been a fight between just two drivers, Hamilton and his team mate Nico Rosberg. It was undecided until the final race, which is always good. I believe Hamilton is the better driver, but I would have wanted Rosberg to put up a fight, without the technical problems leaving him far behind in the field. He did finish second in the championship, though. Now we just hope some of the other teams will be able to compete for the title next year, to make it even more exciting.

Questions

Hello, Orange here!

Life is full of questions. I often wonder where Paula and Daniel go, when they are not at home. They go to work sometimes, places where they need to go in order to earn money to buy food and other things. I still do not understand what they do at work. Today is Saturday, so Daniel is at home most of the time, but Paula was at work. Then Paula came back, and they both left again for a while in the evening. The question is what they do. I wish I could come along more often, because I like being with them.

Choking

Hello, Karstuhl here!

Dogs are resourceful. Sometimes, some of us eat what humans consider garbage. I certainly do. I have the ability to pick pieces of garbage that can be chewed upon and used. Some dogs do not. Some dogs just chew on anything they get their paws on, sometimes swallowing it. Thisö is not good for them. Iam glad I have better judgment. I do hope most dogs do, even though some of my friends do not. You just have to be careful what garbage you eat.

Arthur Has Come To Sweden

The dog Arthur, who teamed up with the Swedish multisport national team on the world championship in Ecuador, has arrived in Sweden today. If I could, I would welcome him to his new homeland. I guess he knows Spanish rather than English, so he might not be able to read my blog, even if he would have known about it. I like the fact that a dog who help a Swedish national team can be rewarded with a new life in Sweden in this way.

Need to Sleep

We need to sleep. Now.

Cold Winter

Cold winter weather has hit North America. Meanwhile, we are experiencing a very mild November. There is a rule of thumb that when the winter is cold here, it is mild in other parts of the Northern Hemisphere, and vice versa. Now it is cold there, so it moght very well stay mild here. I would like it to be very cold for a couple of days before the first snow, this would kill a lot of ticks. Apart from this, snow is fun. We will have to see when we get snow.

Ironing

Hello, Orange here!

Some evenings, Daniel puts up something called an ironing board, and with the help of an electric thing in plastic and light metal, curiously called an iron due to historical reasons, makes his shirts look presentable. He did this tonight. I am not envious of him. I shed my coat twice a year, the rest of the time it is just as beautiful as anybody could wish for, without me doing anything. It must be hard being a human sometimes. I am glad I am a dog.

New Team Member

The Swedish national team in multi sport have been in Ecuador for the world championship. They met a stray dog there, who decided to come along after getting a meatball. He boosted the team morale, even though he made the team go slower. Now the team is considering bringing the dog to Sweden.

Normally, I do not like the import of stray dogs. It is better to help dogs where they live. This dog has, however, helped the Swedish national team. He has made an effort for Sweden. This should be rewarded. I hope he can come along to Sweden and get a good life here.

A Wolf in the Neighbourhood

A wolf has been seen in the northern outskirts of our home town. We are lucky to live in the southern outskirts. I like wolves and support their cause, but I rather not meet them face to face. They are the same species as me, so they would be competitors for the territory which is mine. Way to go wolf, but  stay in the more uninhabited areas of our country.

Risk of Rabies

There are a few countries in the world that are declared free of rabies. Rabies is a deadly disease, and we are happy Sweden is one of the rabies free countries. This freedom from rabies is, however, constantly at risk due to illegal transport of dogs with falsified papers.

The UK is also rabies free, and there, a charity now warns of rabies transferred by smugglers of dogs. I feel sorry for the smuggled dogs, it is not their fault. At the same time, I do not want these dogs to come to countries like Sweden or the UK.

It is important to fight rabies anyway we can, keeping some countries rabies free is part of this fight. I wish the whole world would be rabies free, but smuggling of dogs jeopardise this vision.i wish no humans would buy smuggled dogs, then there would be no economic benefit from smuggling. However, unfortunately, I doubt the smuggling will ever stop completely.

Night Out

Fuji ran off last night. He disappeared into the darkness and we all worried about him. This morning, Paula's mother Gertrud helped looking for him, found him, and carried him home. The night without Fuji was a horror to all of us, since we did not know what had happened and where he was. It turned out, however, he was in our immediate neighbourhood. He was happy when he returned, to him, there had been no horror. We all owe Gertrud a huge thanks.

Good Food

We got special food today, full of meatballs. There was no special occasion, it is just that sometimes, our humans like to spoil us without there being a special occasion. This is good. In a way, I like this better than the special food that we may get because of special occasions. Nice surprises like this are just great. We could get it more often, but at the same time, it need not be so often that it would be no surprise. The surprise is part of the greatness, of course.

Red Hair

Hello, Orange here!

In one aspect, humans and Shibas are the opposite of one another. This is the hair colour. While most humans in the world are black haired, and the rarest colour is red, Most Shibas are red, but a minority is black and tan. It is said that the human population where there are the most people with red hair are the Udmurts, who live in Russia, Close to the eastern limit of Europe. Maybe they would like us red Shibas more than other humans do, just for the colour of our coats? Humans generally do like all Shibas, but there must be something special with having the same colour, I believe. Udmurtia is far away, though, I do not think I will ever go there to find out. Besides, I am very comfortable living where I live, anyway.

Further Thaw, Japan-China

At a summit of many Pacific nations, the leaders of Japan and China met. prime Minister Abe of Japan tried to do some small talk while shaking the hand of Chinese President Xi, but Xi did not reapond. Still, a handshake between the main political leaders is a step forward. The two countries have agreed not to pursue the territorial dispute over the Japanese Senkaku Islands, which China claims. It is a step in the right direction. I like this.

It Should Have Been Prison

A woman has ben sentenced to fines and a suspendend sentence, after mistreatment of 21 dogs in he small flat. The dogs were never taken outside, they lived among filth and their own wastes, were stressed by loud music, and even pups from unplanned litters lived in the miserable conditions. Eight dogs had to be put down. The court thought there was no need for a prison sentence. I am of a different opinion. I think the woman should be inprisoned in a cell with no toilet.

No Snow

Hello, Orange here.

There is no snow anymore. It melted away today, just as I predicted. I am good at predictions sometimes, if I may say so myself.

Snow!

Hello, Orange here!

We got the first snow of the season today! I like it. Many of us do not. I guess it will not last for long. It was not deep enough to play in, either. Still, snow is always snow, something to enjoy. I ran around in the snow to get a feeling for it, since it has been a while. This made me happy for the rest of the day.

Late Work

Paula did not come home until a little past ten in the evening today. She is doing a part of her education that takes place at the hospital, and the evening tour ends at ten. Daniel also sat working until about ten in the evening, even though he sat at home. You could say they worked until late. They do not, however, have the twentyfour hour pet duty that dogs have. Working around the clock is the real late work. Not that I complain, duties as a pet are not hars. It is just that you always have them.

The Best Whisky Is Japanese

According to the experienced whisky tester and author Jim Murray, the best whisky this year is not from Scotland. Scotland is widely considered the home of whisky, though the Irish claim they invented it. According to Jim Murray, the very best whisky in 2014 is a Japanese single malt whisky from the distillery Yamazaki. I think this is nice. I never drink whisky, dogs do not do that, but I love Japan as the home country of my dog breed. Just as the best dog breed ever, the Shiba, is from Japan, nobody should be surprised the best whisky is also from Japan. The Japanese people know how to make things with excellent quality, this is one more proof of that.

Studies

Paula is studying to become a specialist nurse in intensive care. I am helping her with hers tudies today. This also keep my mind focused on other things than the wound, which is good. I have to go back helping Paula now.

Wishing It Was Over

Well, I was back at the animal hospital today, my wound not healing as it should. I wish this would be over.

Wound

Hello, Karstuhl here!

Mommy is in no mood to write in her blog. She had surgery last Monday, and some of the stitches have given up, so she feels down. We all feel sorry for her. It is not her fault, not in any way. We are lucky Paula is a nurse and knows how to take care of wounds, until a veterinarian can help after the weekend. I do think everything will work out fine in the end. One of us will keep our blog readers updated.