Back In Örebro

Hello, Gerstuhl here!

I am backin Örebro, with Mum, my breeders, and the other dogs. This is because I am in heat. Everybody hopes I will get pups. I guess I am with everybody in this instance. Mum says it is nice having pups. She had me, so she must have had a great experience then, at least. 

We will have to see what happens. 

New Telephone

Paula has the same telephone as before, but she is again able to charge it. There was just some dirt in the socket for the charger. 

Daniel, on the other paw, had to buy a new telephone. He has been sitting with it for a long time this afternoon, so I guess he likes it. It is a Sony, so it is from Japan, thus, it must be good. 

Broken Telephones

Daniel’s mobile telephone has been broken for little more than a week. Today, we found out Paula’s mobile telephone did not want to charge. Paula and Daniel will go to a telephone store tomorrow and try to make things better. Daniel may come home with a new telephone. The Internet society is good, but it requires hardware that works.

The King

The King of Sweden celebrates his name day today. This is why it is a flag flying day. The name is Karl, as in Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, and originally for Carl the Great, a.k.a. Charlemagne. 

Real countries have monarchs, as Emperor Charlemagne or Naruhito, or King Carl XVI Gustaf or Queen Elisabeth II. 

Long live King Carl XVI Gustaf!

Sea Food

We had sea food for dinner tonight. Sea food is great. I believe I think so, because I have Japanese origins. They eat a lot of fish and sea foodin Japan, since Japan is located on a couple of islands in the Pacific Ocean. This is a good thing, it is good that land living animals eat sea food, because it shows that land living animals are more evolved and greater than the animalsof the seas. Life with sea food is great.

Council

Daniel is a member of the town council. They had a meeting today, but he was at home. He participated through a video link. 

Apparently, there have been some legal issues on whether the video link systems available are good enough for the decisions taken to be valid. Daniel do not think this will pose a problem for the meeting today. He is a lawyer, so I guess we can trust him in this legal matter.

If the meeting is challenged, the court of law trying the case should, in my humble opinion, consider that it is better for all the dogs whose humans are members of the town council that their humans are at home. 

More Food

Daniel orders most of our dog food on line and it is delivered to our door. Then he buys some frozen food, which is mainly eaten by the smaller dogs. Tonight, he went to buy more frozen food. This was all he did. He often does more, when he goes away, such as buying food to him and Paula, but not tonight. This was odd. I guess the frozen food was so important,it could not wait until he had more errands to make. It honours him that dog food is this important.

Kennel Club

Daniel spent some hours in front of the computer today, despite the fact that it is Sunday and he does not have to work. He used the time for voluntary work for the regional kennel club. This is good, I like time spent on such beneficial work.

Shaved Poodle

Our Poodle friends have this problem that they do not shed their coat. Our humans have to cut or shave it for them. This is one reason I think Poodles would never make it in the wild, however nice dogs they are. 

Paula would shave Momoko today, but decided not to. Then Daniel shaved Momoko instead. Momoko do not like being shaved, but she says the result was nice. She had a little too much coat around her eyes and on her paws, she says. It must be nice to get rid of such obstacles. 

I am glad that I shed coat, and do not have to be shaved. 

Olympic Games Behind Closed Doors?

The 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo was postponed to this hear because of the covid-19 pandemic. It might be that the pandemicis still with us in full force this summer. If so, the Tokyo Olympic Games may be held behind closed doors. 

We would not go to Tokyo to watch the games on site. It must be aired on television just as usual. Still, the TV broadcast will be more dull, if there is no audience around the competitors.

My dear Mommy looked forward to watching the Tokyo Olympic Games, from the home country of our magnificent dog breed. She passed away before the pandemic and did not evenlive to hear of the postponement. I will try to follow the competition in her stead. We will have to see what happens.

Health Check Up

Daniel and I went to the veterinarian today. Paula and Daniel wanted to have a health check up on me, due to my age. I will turn twelve next month, so I guess it was about time. I was never anxious myself, but my humans were. It turned out I went through the check up with flying colours. My joints, my back, my liver, my heart, everything is working great. 

When Daniel and I got home and we told Paula about the result. Paula said it was the best news yet of 2021. I guess she may be right. 

New President

The United States of America, home countryof my grandmother Sunni, has got a new Head of State. The new president is Joseph Biden. My grandmother would have liked this, because her humans would have. Grandmom’s humans are Democrats, just like the new President is.

My mother Hailey always said human countries should be monarchies. Sweden, where we live, is a monarchy. Japan, the origin of the Shiba, is also a monarchy. My grandfather Kuro was from Norway, whichis a monarchy, and his father was from Belgium, which is a monarchy. Modern dog breeding and dog shows have their origin in the UK, which is a monarchy. I guess I am a monarchist as well. Nevertheless, I like the new US President, as my grandmother would have done. 

Video Meetings

Daniel is working a lot from home. Thisis due to the pandemic, when humans are recommended to stay at good distances from one another. Instead, Daniel has meetings through video links. He had severla meetings at work during the day. Then he had a meeting with the board of a club where he is a member in the evening, followed by a meeting with his sisters and his brother. There must have been at least five hours of different video meetings today.

I am glad I donot have to sit through video meetings. There os sound and pictures of the ones you communicate with, but no smell. Dogs communicate mich more with smells than humans do, we would need electronic transfers of smells as well. I guess it will take a long time for humans to develop sich an invention.

Shrimp Bomb

For dinner tonight, Daniel brought home something called ”räkbomb”, which litteraly translates to shrimp bomb in English. It is a variation of the Swedish smörgåstårta, sandwich cake, with a lot of shrimps.

I got a piece of it myself, it tasted fantastic. All days that ends with a good meal are better days than other days. 

Bath

Our Poodle friend Momoko had to take a bath today. She never likes this, but her coat was in dire need of washing. She is satisfied with the result now, however.

This is the problem with Poodle coats. They do not have the natural dirt repellant that Shiba coats have, so they need to be washed more often, even when it is really cold outside. I do not know why Poodle coats are like this, but I have a suspicion that it has to do with the Poodle background of being water retrieving dogs. Do not take my word for it, though, this is just my personal theory. 

Our other Poodle friend Laura will be washed another day.

Boring Day

Lazy days are often great. I normally like taking it easy. There can be too many lazy days, however. This was one of those days, when I would have wanted to do more than just taking it easy. 

Daniel cleaned, washed the dishes, washed clothes. This is good things to do, but nothing that involves us dogs. Paula mostly just rested, blaming that she has had a cold this week. While we can accompany her resting, it is not fun when you feel like doing other things. 

I hope tomorrow will be better.

Cold Winter

We thought it was coldoutside, when we got out this morning. However, it was not until we got back inside, that Daniel read the thermometre and saw it said -16° Celsius. This is cold. 

Later in the day, it was not quite as cold outside, but still -10° C. Shiba coats can handle this, but it is cold. Last year was the warmest ever recorded. If this cold weather holds on, I guess we will not see a new record.

Telephone Rediscovered

Daniel found Paula’s mobile telephone today. It took a few minutes for him to find it. Paula had not looked for it at all, it seems, because the telephone was there under the bed. It lay behind a toy, but could be seen if you looked for it. Paula was very grateful to get it back. 

Back to the Office

Daniel went to the office today. It was the first time since before Christmas. When he has worked after Christmas, hehas worked from home. For us dogs, this is a great advantage of the covid-19 lock down, that our humans are at home much more. Granted, Daniel sits amd works, but he is at home. He wastes less time going to and from the office, as well. Today, we missed him, when he was gone, even thoughhe came back in the early afternoon. Life is seldom better than when everybody is at home.

Lost Mobile Telephone

Paula’s mobile telephone has become too mobile. She lost it a few days ago and it is still lost. Fortunately, she has only been at home, so we know it is at home. 

When the telephone is lost, Paula has borrowed Daniel’s tablet. This means I had to borrow Daniel’s mobile phone to blog on. I prefer the tablet.

Fell Again

Daniel slipped and fell again this morning. He hurt his right wrist. However, he says it will heal soon. We have still to see this, but I hope Daniel is right.

Falling to the Ground

We got mpre snow today. It is still not mich, bit the roads are slippery. On the morning walk, Daniel slipped and fell to the ground. He got up almost as quickly and he was not hurt. Some would say it looked funny, as a slap stick joke. I am just glad I did not have to feel sorry for Daniel for being hurt. 

Over all, it was a nice and calm Sunday.

Icy Roads

Since the snow came, our roads have become slippery. There is ice on them. As dogs, we have a low centre of gravity and four paws,one on each side of this centre. We manage well. Daniel was nearly slipping to the ground a few times today, though. It is good that he has learned to walk on ice since his early childhood in this country. Winters in Sweden are beautiful and nice, but the ice on the roads is a hazard. You have to take the good things with the bad.

Snow

We finally have snow on the ground that stays put. It fell last night and with freezing temperatures all day it has stayed. It is not much, less than a centimetre, but it still makes the world brighter and more wintery. This night, we noticed that there was a little more snow falling from the sky. I wish we will have a reall winter now. The autumn seemed to go on for far too long.

An Argument Over Music

Paula and Daniel do not always agree about what music is good. They agree about a lot of mjsic, but Daniel cannot understand that Paula can like hip hop, and Paula thinks the same about Daniel when he listens to synth music. I do not think music is very important, but I understand my humans do. I cannot take sides, though, because I do not know enough about it. Nevertheless, Paula and Daniel never have anything but a fight with words over their music tastes. This is good.

Electricity

When I borrowed Daniel’s Ipad to write my daily blog post today, the battery was down to 17 %. I had to start by connecting it to a charger.

We live our lives through electronic devices in these days and ages. This is good, and bad. The good thing is that we can accomplish a lotof things through the electronic devices. Blog posts are just one of these things, The bad thingis that we are dependent on electricity. This would be very well, if we could just get electricity in an environmentally friendly way. Daniel says we cannot, because one of the political parties in the coalition that forms the government are more opposed to nuclear power, than they are opposed to getting electricity from sources like coal and oil, that polites much more and makes the climate warmer.

I am not sure I follow Daniel, when he talks about this. All I want is enough electricity to write my blog posts. Be that as it may, while Ihave written this blog post with the charger attached to the Ipad, it is up to 18 %. This is fine. 

Stay tuned for more blog posts.

Cold

Paula has had a cold the last few days. She slept through dinner tonight, despite Daniel’s attempts to wake her up.

We are glad itis just a common cold. There is nothing that suggest it would be covid-19.

Dogs are generally healthier than humans, I believe. We seldom have colds. I think we are more adapted to the cold Nordic climate. This is something that makes me calm.

Back to Work

After two weeks off, Daniel is back to work. This does not mean mich tousin thepandemic. He is working from home, thus, it is almost as if he is free from work. I like it that Daniel is at home. Paula is also at home, I like this as well. There is one good thing with the covid-19 pandemic, itis that dogs get to have their humans at home more often.

A Shiba Who Saved Her Human

You may very well say I cannot be impartial, when I claim the Shibais the best dog breed there is. After all, I am a Shiba myself. There are, however, many examples of Shibas who have done great things. Allof these examples are pieces of evidence that goes to prove my point. Today, I would like to recommend this story about a Shiba in Japan in the 1930’s, who saved her human when caught in avalanches, twice. She was a hero. 

Bad Connection

We usually have good wifi connection in our bedroom. It is two rooms away from the router, but this usually does not matter. Once ina while, however, the wifi connection is bad. We have to wait and wait for pages online to load et cetera. Today is such a day. It is not a huge issue, but we cannot help that we still get annoyed by it. I wish the wifi connection would be good all the time, I just do not know to arrange it. When we get a new router sometime in the future, it may be better; at least I hope so.

Pizza

Paula and Daniel had some pizza for dinner tonight. Paula did not want all of her pizza, so she divided it among us dogs. It was nicely done of her.

A lot of Swedes eat pizza on New Year’s Day. It has almost become a tradition. I like it, since pizza is tasty. 

New Year Celebrations

We celebrated so hard before new year, that I forgot to write in the blog for the last day of the year. Now I have to write this past midnight, early in the morning of the new year. I have to get better at keeping the blog daily this year. Please stay tuned!