Brie

Paula and Daniel had baguettes with Brie cheese for breakfast today. After breakfast, Paula gave some Brie to us dogs. It was really tasty. Cheese is always tasty, but there are degrees in the tastiness. Brie is one of the best types of cheese I have had. It is really creamy. Meat aside, I think cheese is one of the tastiest things to eat.

There Will Perhaps Be No Puppies

Paula and Daniel have started to suspect that Mum is not expecting puppies. She shows some signs, such as swollen nipples, but it is possible to show these signs without having puppies in the tummy. The signs and her behaviour is not that which Paula and Daniel would expect if Mum would really be expecting puppies.

Mum says the disadvantage with not getting puppies is that she will not get as much food and candy to eat, even though she claims she deserves just as much candy as if she would have had puppies. Mum surely loves candy. I realise getting more candy is a real advantage with getting puppies, this is why I would want to have puppies in the future.

Play Night

I play with April tonight and have no time to write a long blog post. Stay tuned, more will come.

No Pancakes

According to Swedish tradition, Thursday is a day for pancakes. Nevertheless, we seldom have pancakes on Thursdays, because Paula is not fond of it. She let us dogs taste the meat that she and Daniel had for dinner today. Pancakes are tasty, but as a carnivore I like meat better. I was quite satisfied with today's dinner.

Visitors

We had visitors today, a young couple interested in buying a Shiba Inu pup. They had been here once before this autumn, meeting me and Daniel, so I recognised them as the nice people they are. Paula and Daniel sat for over an hour talking about Shiba Inus with them. This is good, it proves they are serious in their interest. They make a good choice with the Shiba Inu, an even better choice with our kennel. Mum is supposed to get another litter soon, one pup from that litter may very well move to this couple. I believe that pup will get a nice home.

Dad got a postcard today from Daniel's mum, who has been on the Canary Islands. Daniel's mum wrote that the Canary Islands are the dog islands. As far as I can understand, the word "canary" comes from the latin word "canis", meaning dog. My Mum said this is self evident, considering the small birds called canary birds - these come from the Canary Islands, but the name must also imply the birds are supposed to be dogs' birds, thus free for us to prey on.

Christmas playtime.

Neither Dan or Paula forgot us dogs at Christmas. We got a l0t of new toys. I took the time to "collect" both April and Primus toys too. Paula says that I stole them but I was just borrowing them.

Christmas Day

Mum is always annoyed over the Swedish Christmas celebration, since the main part of it takes place on Christmas Eve. We were so busy, I had no chance to write in my blog.

Daniel took us out on the ordinary morning walk, then we all went to bed again. We did not wake up until eleven o'clock, one hour before we were due to arrive at Paula's parents' house. We made it there virtually on time, but it was close. The afternoon was fun. Then Paula and Daniel were invited to Paula's aunt, but all of us dogs stayed at home to celebrate a quiet Christmas Eve on our own. Paula and Daniel did not arrive back home until late, we greeted them and had some more fun before going to bed at one in the night.

This morning, we did not wake up until eleven o'clock, once again. Christmas Day has been calmer and we have played with the new toys we got for Christmas. Life feels good today, I bet it is that Christmas spirit people talk about.

Hi-jacked!

This is outrageous! April, whom I thought was my dear friend, hi-jacked my blog and wrote in it herself. I barked at her that she cannot do this. Not only did she steal my blog, she failed to state that I helped Paula making meatballs. If she wants to blog, she can always start her own blog. It would, of course, take long before her blog would have the same positive name that my blog has received, but I have worked long and hard to achieve this.

I guess I will change my password. Then April's blog entry may stay on my blog, since I am so kind to my fellow dogs, especially the young and inexperienced ones.

Meatballs

Note that, today, this blog has been hi-jacked by Hailey's friend April. Since I lived the first seven months of my life in the USA, where English is the majority language, I consider myself more able to write a blog in English than Hailey is. I grew up as an English speaking dog. Hailey is good at English, I have to give her that. Her Mother Sunni, who is from my American kennel, has taught her well. However, Hailey writes in British English, I favor the simpler and more beautiful American English. This must be a mistake in Sunni's teachings.

Paula is making meatballs today. I have been told this is a Swedish specialty that they always have for Christmas. Paula let us taste and it was really good. Sunni says she miss the Christmas turkey, but since I never celebrated Christmas in the USA, I don't have any relation to turkeys associated with Christmas. If Christmas is much about good food like meatballs and turkey, I don't feel afraid of it anymore. Now I'm looking forward to Christmas.

Cleaning

We are cleaning the entire house for Christmas today. April and I made the bed and there were also other things all of us dogs did. Cleaning is not fun, but the result is nice. With my own efforts, I also help the others to get the energy to clean up more. I also picked up an indoors toy who had ended up outdoors, this little stuffed heffalump was wet and dirty and looked more sad than he usually does. Daniel put him in the bin for dirty laundry.

We thought Daniel would not be home tonight. He told us yesterday he would go out with some of his colleagues, because it was the last day at work for one of them. However, he did not go, he told us they did not have any night out. Many of Daniel's colleagues have relatives in other parts of the country. If most of them left town early in the day to celebrate Christmas elsewhere, it makes some sense the rest of them did not think it was worth it to do anything, even though they made up plans yesterday. I think it is good they did not have any night out, I like it better when Daniel is at home. I told him so - to comfort him, since he seemed a bit disappointed.

Cake, Chocolate, and Ginger Bread

Daniel celebrated that he will soon quit his job to start on another. He bought cake to his colleagues at work. Some of the left over cake he brought home and he and Paula had some. The cake looked very tasty and Paula gave some to each of us dogs. It definitely was tasty, I would have wanted to have more.

Some of Daniel's colleagues gave him some small presents as well. One of the things he got was chocolate. Dad is fond of chocolate, regardless of the fact that it is poisonous for dogs. He stole a piece of chocolate from Paula and ate it quickly. You cannot blame Dad, Paula ought to have looked after her piece of chocolate better. Dad did not mind, of course, and one piece of chocolate is not that bad for him. Even though Paula is the human I know who is closest to being infallible, even she can do wrong on rare occasions. I love her all the same and I do not blame her. After all, she is only human (this is a saying humans use themselves when explaining faults, I interprete it as being as fallible as a human as opposed to a Shiba Inu).

Mum and I went with Paula to Paula's parents later in the evening. Mia and Kesshi was also there, which added to the fun. We made ginger bread for the Christmas holidays. Gingerbread is a must at Christmas, I hope to get a lot. I think I deserve a lot, considering everything I did when we baked them.

The First Snow

The first snow in our town finally fell yesterday. It was about time, it is supposed to be snow on the ground at Christmas Eve. There were only a thin layer of snow, less than one centimetre thick. It felt like a good start, even though it was not thick enough to play in. The bad thing was that it all melted away in the evening. There has been no snow today, even though the temperature has been cold enough. I wish the snow will come soon.

Sometimes, I Don't Know What To Write

The headline says it all. I have been thinking about what to write in my blog most of the evening, but I cannot seem to think of anything. You have to get back again tomorrow, if you wish to read some of my intelligent thoughts. Now it is time to go to bed.

April Is a Bit Worried

April and I have become great friends. I have taught April a lot about Sweden, Swedish culture and language. She has told me some things about America. As we are approaching Christmas, she is a bit concerned, since she has never experienced Christmas before. She wonders whether there is anything about Christmas that hurts. She is so cute, my new little sister, asking questions like that. I have told her that there is, of course, nothing to worry about. I was around last Christmas, so I know. It feels good to be able to calm younger dogs down with my greater experience of life.

Christmas Shopping

Paula and Daniel left us dogs alone at home today, to go Christmas shopping. An important part of modern Christmas is giving each other Christmas gifts, so humans have to go buy them. It is not very fun to stay at home without either of our humans, but we hope we will get a lot of dog candy as Christmas gifts. I hope I get the most dog candy, but I believe we will get equal shares. Given that we will probably get dog candy for Christmas, it is quite all right to stay home alone.

The Middle of December

It is the middle of the Christmas month. Christmas is supposed to be snowy, but we have not seen any snow yet. It is above freezing, even though it has been windy the last couple of days. I look forward to Christmas, but somehow, it was even more exciting last year. By then, I was so young I had only heard of Christmas. Now I know what it is about. The disadvantage of growing older is that you have already seen all the annual events of the year. Maybe Christmas is much different this year than the last, but above all, I hope it will be fun.

Just Another Day

Sometimes, there is so much happening I have no time to write in my blog. That was the case last weekend, when we were at the dog show in Stockholm. Other days, nothing in particular is happening, which means I have trouble making up anything to write in my blog. It is a day of the latter kind today, just like it was yesterday. Daniel was at a Christmas party with his job yesterday evening, but there were no dogs allowed, so I had a dull evening at home. I sure hope tomorrow will be more exciting than yesterday was and today is.

I Did Not Get To Go To Kesshi

Paula went to her sister Mia and my friend Kesshi tonight, but she did not bring me. She brought April instead. I cannot help but being a bit jealous. Why would this newly arrived little pup get to see my friend, when I may not? Life is unfair sometimes. I only wish it was unfair in my favour a bit more often.

After a Busy Weekend

Paula and her sister, Mum, and I went to Stockholm this weekend. It was time for the annual Stockholm dog show arranged by the central organisation of the Swedish Kennel Club. It was an Irish judge who judged the Shiba Inus. This made me somewhat hopeful, because there was another irish judge who made me Best in Show-pup in May. Neither Mum nor I was very successful, however. My brother Jiro was also on the show, he was not succeful at all. I was disappointed, but you cannot hope too much just because the judge is from a certain country.

April got to go to Daniel's work again today. She liked it better this time and there were two of Daniel's colleagues who came in and said hi to her, making her feel welcome. Her opinon of Daniel's work is better now.

April Went to Daniel's Job

April got to go to Daniel's job today. She was there for less than an hour, perhaps fortunately, because she did not like it and does not want to go back there. She also told me there were none of Daniel's nice co-workers visiting her in Daniel's room at the office. I ensured her that Daniel's co-workers are nice, but she said she is of the opposite opinion until proven otherwise. How anyone can prove otherwise if she does not go back there, she could not say.

Well, April is still a pup and a recent immigrant, not nearly as experienced as I am. I have to give her that she has the experience of having been abroad, born abroad as she is, but in this matter I believe I know best. I know Daniel has got nice co-workers. We will have to see if Daniel brings April to his work again soon.

Paula Is Out Again

Paula left us again this evening. This time it is only for a short time, she is working tonight. She told Daniel she was not really up for working, but she earns money doing it. Money is good, money is the thing humans trade for dog food, candy, and all the other, less important things. It is, therefore, rather good that Paula is working, even though we miss her.

Dad is acting a bit weird. I do not know why. It is not because Paula is gone, because he was acting this way much earlier today. As soon as we are let out in the garden, he runs to the gate and wants to run away. Paula says that maybe there is a bitch in heat somewhere in the neighbourhood. I do not react to any such smell. I guess Dad, as a male dog, has a better nose for sensing such a thing.

Returning to Normal

Life is returning to normal after Paula's journey. I am getting to know April more and more. She is a nice girl. It feels good not to be the youngest Shiba Inu.

Paula Is Back, With a New Friend

A lot of things have happened the last days. I had no strength to write anything in my blog, after a terrifying adventure that ended well. Dad ran away and we were out looking for us for more than two hours in the afternoon and early evening. Daniel called the police, who had received a tip that Dad was back in the park in our old neighbourhood. We took the car and went there too look for him. Paula's parents helped, her dad on bicycle and her mum by car. It was Paula's mum who finally found Dad, as he was on his way back home. We believe Dad was looking for Paula, who had certainly been gone long enough, but he did not want to say anything himself.

Paula came back yesterday. We were all very happy to see her. She brought another Shiba Inu, a female who is a bit younger than I am. This Shiba Inu's name is April. She will become a part of our family, but I cannot tell you so much about her yet, since I am just beginning to get to know her. She seems to be a nice fellow, but then again, which Shiba Inu is not?

It is a more normal day today, when Paula is back home. The only thing out of the ordinary was a great rainfall. It was not nice to get out in the pouring rain, but once you are wet, it is not so bad.

I Am Not Sure What To Do

A little while ago, I changed into the Beta Blogger for my blog. This is a new version of Blogger. As such, it is naturally supposed to be better. I have not discovered a single new, better feature in the new version. The only new thing I have discovered is that I now has to log in with an e-mail address along with my password, instead of a user name and my password. This annoys me, because I have not chosen to change user name, and the e-mail address is longer and due to its @ a bit more difficult to type.

I have another web page where I could start to publish my blog posts instead. I may do that in some days, but I have to figure out how to get the same links there that I have on my Blogger page. Stay tuned for more information. - Another disadvantage with Beta Blogger is that I now have to type the links manually. There used to be a convenient button on the screen to press, then you just added the link. It is a good thing Daniel knows a little about HTML, he helped me a bit here.

Over all, I am satisfied with Blogger, but I do not understand why it should be changed without any obvious improvements.

Pasta

Paula and Daniel use to call us Shiba Inus a number of different things besides our normal names. Some nicknames have a theme, so that each of us has a nickname of the same sort. My favourite theme is the pasta theme. Pasta is food, and food is always good.

These are our pasta nicknames:

Mum Sunni, from lasagne: La Sunni
Aunt Linni, from tortelini: Tortelinni
Dad Kuro, from macaroni: Makuroni
Our friend (but Dad's rival) Kesshi, from spaghetti: Spakesshi
Myself, as Hailey, from tagliatelle: Tagliahailey

This week, we have been thinking about what pasta nickname the new Shiba Inu in our family, April, will get. It has to be derived from a fairly common pasta. Maybe farfalle could be Faprille, but I am not sure this is really good. If any of my readers has a good idea, please let me know by writing a comment to this blog post. I promise to forward any suggestions to the others in my family, we will take every suggestion into consideration.

Dad Is Going Crazy

Mum is still in heat. This is driving Dad crazy, because he senses it but is not allowed to do anything. Mum has already been bred, not by Dad this time. Dad is whining, he is not the strong male I envision him to be. He tells me he cannot help this, that this is another side of being a male. I guess it is only fair Mum can be bred to some other male, considering how many other females Dad has bred over the last year. As for myself, I hope for more younger siblings.

Long Walk

As Paula is away this week, Daniel comes home early in the afternoon. We used the daylight today to take a long walk through the forest behind our house. It was exciting to discover new paths, sights, and smells. We were walking for almost an hour, but I could have walked longer. As usually, though, Mum was glad to come home and did not want to go any further than to the bed to lie down to rest. In this aspect, I have taken after Dad, who could also have walked longer.

Paula Went Away

Paula went on a trip to visit friends. She will be gone a couple of weeks, so now Daniel is the only human at home. I miss Paula already.

Mum Is Back Home

Mum came back home today. She had a pleasant trip and there is a chance I will get younger siblings in about two months. It is nice to have Mum back home.

Visitors

There was a younng couple of humans here today, interested in buying a pup from our kennel. I thought they were nice people, so did Daniel who talked to them about dogs, Shiba Inus, and our kennel and breeding for over an hour. These had no first hand experience of Shiba Inus since earlier, but a lot of experience with dogs and had read about Shiba Inus. They were about to move to a bigger flat soon and felt ready to get a dog. We assured them that Shiba Inus can have a great life in a flat, after all, I and the other Shiba Inus of our family had that for quite some time. Daniel and I agree that these are the kind of people we want as puppy buyers. I hope they will get a Shiba Inu, from us or from any other kennel.

Mum Went Away

Mum went away today. She will meet a male Shiba Inu to make me another batch of half-siblings. Paula and Daniel hope that there will be cute puppies who will spread the good name of the kennel. Mum looks forward to the greater amounts of food she will get while expecting pups and nursing them. The thing I look forward to is having more younger siblings who must look up to me as an older, wiser big sister. I will probably have to teach them to look up to me. This is not strange, pups must be taught most things that we grown ups take for granted.

Mum will come back on Monday, I will tell you more about her journey then.

Early Morning

I was the first one who wanted to go out for the morning walk today. This is not a new habit, I just had to this morning, that is all. I believe Daniel recognised this on the morning walk. When I had done what I had to do, I felt much better and was the same happy dog as I usually am.

Daniel wants us to take a rather long morning walk every morning, but Mum wants to take a shorter trip that is about as long as the traditional morning walk we walked in the old neighbourhood. The downside of Mum's preferred walk is that we walk for a while on a path without street lights. Daniel is not so fond of this, but I and the other Shiba Inus agree with Mum. We think we can persuade Daniel to take this as our traditional morning walk. The walk will them be around half an hour long, which is long enough.

Beta Blogger

I thought the new version of Blogger would be better, but so far I have only discovered one difference from the old version, and it is less good than it was earlier. It is a bit more complicated to log in now than before. I cannot tell why it is, but I have to log in twice, the first time I am just redirected to a new page stating that my account is moved to the new Blogger and I am asked to log in again. It is the same thing with the address http://beta.blogger.com that I have been instructed to use. This is weird. I might be able to figure out what page I am supposed to go to in order to log in directly, but I have not received any information on this, nor have I understood why I cannot log in from the same page I have always used.

Well, as my readers, you don't have to care. Just read on, I will continue to write my blog entries.

Bloody Early Mornings

It is Wednesday, yet another work day when Daniel gets up early and want every dog in the house to accompany him on a morning walk in the dark. It is not even the last work day of the week. Dad is always eager to come along, Mum is mostly just as eager. It is only auntie Tiffy and I who are reluctant to get up, I am the most reluctant one. It is in mornings like today, when I feel even more sleepy than usually, that I ask myself if I am really my parents' daughter.

Sure, everyone tells me I am my parents' daughter. I am registered as such by the Swedish Kennel Club and Paula and Daniel were present when Mum gave birth to me. I do believe it is so 99 % of the time I am considering the issue. Given that this is true, from whom have I inherited the trait to be so tired in the morning? If any of my blog readers know any of my ancestors, maybe you can give me an answer by giving a comment to this blog post.

Rude Neighbours

We do not have neighbours as close to our house as we did to the flat were we lived before. One of the neighbours on a little distance is a dog pension were they take care of dogs whose humans are too busy during the day. Today, when we went out in our garden, there was a non-ending barking from over there. The other dogs and I barked back at them to tell them to keep quiet, but they did not. Instead, Daniel asked us to be quiet.

The garbage truck was here today to fetch our garbage. This is a good service. After asking us to be quiet, Daniel went down to the road to fetch the garbage bin, since it looks too ugly to have it standing by the road all the time. When he was away, we tried barking back at those neighbours again. The only result was that Daniel came back and told us again to be quiet. All we tried to do was to tell those rude other dogs to shut up some time, it did not feel good to make Daniel mad about us for trying. Sometimes, I wish it would be easier to tell humans of your aims. Anyway, it feels good to know we have better manners than those other dogs, because all of us fell silent when Daniel asked us to.

We Have Got Internet

The Internet connection in our new house is now working. This means I can resume my daily posts in the Daily Hailey blog. I am quite satisfied now. It is amazing that humans and dogs have been able to live without Internet for ages. What did the dogs do, who wanted to express themselves on a daily basis before the Internet was invented? Did they type on typewriters, or prior to that, did they write with goose pens? Dogs would be able to catch geese to get the old kind of pens, but what about the ink? How did they publish their work for a greater audience? I rather not think about it.

A New Thermostat

The heating works now, we had a person at home today who put in a new thermostat. It is good that this was done before the winter.

New Blogger

I have moved my Blogger account to the new Blogger. It is supposed to have more and better features, something which I will maybe look into in the days to come. No matter what features the blog program have, I think the main thing is that the blog posts are worth reading. I do believe many of my posts are worth reading, I have never heard any complaints.

We still don't have an Internet connection in our new house. I am at Daniel's work today, though, and borrows his computer to write this post. Daniel uses his computer a lot in his work, but not all the time.

Grus is also here. He said hello to me with a bark when I arrived this morning. I have to check the possibilities of getting his company on at least one of the walks today, that would be fun.

The Washing Machine That Washed the Floor

Paula turned the washing machine in our new house on for the first time this Saturday. The machine immediately started to leak and water ran out on the floor of the bathroom. Paula, on the verge of panic, turned the machine off and switched the water off. The machine still leaked for a while. Luckily, the floor is covered with a plastic mat that stands water and when the water was dried up the floor got cleaner.

In the evening, Paula talked to her mother, who knew what to do. There is a vent in the lower end of washing machines that was probably left open when the bathroom was cleaned before we moved in. Paula located the vent and closed it, then she could turn the washing machine on again. Now everything worked.

However, in the early morning Daniel discovered a huge amount of water on the bathroom floor again. He dried it up and realised the water hose for the water exiting the machine had fallen off, but this was easy to mend. Now our washing machine is fully functional.

Internet

We do not have a working Internet connection in our new house. This means I cannot post my blog entries as usual in the evenings from home. Shiba Inus are resourceful, so I manage to post entries anyway, but since my habits are disturbed the entries may not come on a daily basis until we have an Internet connection again. First, we will have to get a telephone line. This will be operational from tomorrow morning, when a man from our telephone company will stop by and make the connection. The TV does work now, which is good.

Yesterday, a man from our insurance company visited us. He inspected the heat and water systems and found no signs of damages. He did suggest some things we could do to make the house better, but over all he thought we had made a good deal when buying the house. This made us feel good.

We Have Been Very Busy

I have not been able to post anything in my blog for the last couple of days. We have been busy moving to our new house. There has been some difficulties along the way. First, the previous owner had not cleaned the house, so we could not start to move in until this Sunday afternoon, despite owning the house since last Wednesday. Second, the heating did not work, so Daniel had to get maintenance yesterday who got it working but realised the thermostat was not working. The heat works now, but until the thermostat is replaced, we cannot turn it, because the heat will turn of again. Third, the TV does not work, first Daniel had to go back to the store to replace the programme card which was malfunctioning, then Paula realised the remote control does not work, which means we cannot install the programme card and get the TV channels we have paid for. Fourth, the telephone company still has not installed our telephone line.

Nevertheless, it was a good feeling to wake up this morning in a house of our own. There are no more dog hating and generally disturbed neighbours living close by. No one can live close by, because our lot is so big. Now we can make noises while playing without being afraid we will disturb the neighbours. I believe that when all the troubles we have had at the start are over, we will have a wonderful life in our new house. It is quite possible it will feel even better than if there had been no troubles at all, now we know we can overcome anything (I and the other Shiba Inus knew this all the time, since Shiba Inus will always overcome anything, but Daniel and Paula know now).

Other happy news: Harley has come home again. He has not made a full recovery yet, but his chances look good.

Chewing

Paula went shopping today. The best thing she bought was some dog chewing bones. I can spend my entire evening chewing on such bones. They are such a great pass time, I wonder why the humans never chew on them. Maybe it is just another example of how humans cannot really appreciate the good things in life that dogs know of.

Harley Is Getting Better

I am happy today, because my friend harley is getting better. He has eaten meatballs, so he has got his apetite. This is good. I hope he is on his way to full recovery.

My Friend Is at the Hospital

Our thoughts today is with my dear friend Harley, the Basenji who is my best dog show buddy. He had to go to the emergency room at the animal hospital yesterday and is still there, fighting for his life. Just as Harley is my dear friend, his human Sofie is a friend of Paula and Daniel. Sofie has written more about Harley in her blog in Swedish.

Harley seemed to be in perfect health, but suddenly, this happened. Never take your dog for granted, show him that you love him every day!

We Will Move

Daniel and Paula finished the purchase of our new house today. We will move there in just a few days. I wonder what it will be like. The house is supposed to be about as big as where we live now, but we will also have a big garden to play in. There will be no neighbours disturbing us by using a common staircase. I believe it will be great in the new house.

Satsumas

We have a little taste of Christmas today, eating satsumas. It is a fruit I remember from last year, my first Christmas. I am bigger now, so I hope I will get more satsumas this Christmas. I certainly got more today than I did last Christmas.

Jiro Succeeds

I am both proud and jealous of my brother Jiro, but mostly proud. He became BOB, Group 1 st and BIS 2nd today in a big (albeit unofficial) dog show in his hometown Köping. It is wonderful, I wish I had been there to congratulate him. He was also elected the most beautiful dog in Köping.

It was a wonderful, sunny morning today. We did not take a long morning walk, however. We did yesterday, without Tiffy and without Mum, who does not like the long walks that much.

Packing

We have spent a lot of time today packing. We will move to our house soon. This is something we are all looking forward to, but it involves a lot of work. I wish we had already moved and had all of that work behind us. Then we could play around in the garden with clear consciences.

Anniversary!

It is exactly one year ago today I made my first post in this blog. It has been a nice year while I have grown from a little pup to a young female. There have been times when I have thought that I would quit writing in the blog. I am sometimes disappointed when Paula says friends of her have had positive feedback on the blog which they have told her, but have not written in the excellent comment feature of the blog itself. I would be happy if more of my readers would comment my blog, this would help me knowing what to write more about and what not to write so much about. Please make a comment today!

I am also very happy that I am featured on the Internet in a photo album from the walk in the forest I participated in with Daniel's colleagues. My picture is on the lowest row, second from the right, of the first page. It is a great picture. Thank you, Ylva, for shooting and publishing it!

A Cut in a Finger

When preparing dinner tonight, Daniel sliced cheese, but since the cheese slicer was so slow, he slipped and cut himself. It was not a clean cut in the finger, but parallel to the skin and a small piece of the tip of the finger was cut off. The blood poured, but with the help of Paula, Daniel stopped it. He said it never hurt, as a matter of fact, Paula seemed to be more upset than Daniel. I was a bit upset too, it was not nice to see Daniel hurt.

If you want to see something nice, to get the picture of a cut finger out of your head, take a look at the present front page of our kennel homepage. There is a picture of me there, when I was five weeks old. Was I cute, or was I cute?

Sushi!

I wrote about good things to eat yesterday and the day before yesterday, so I really had my mind set at writing about something else than food today. However, I changed my plan when Daniel and Paula decided to have sushi for dinner. Sushi, this great Japanese contribution to the culinary heritage of the world, one of the greatest things from Japan after the Shiba Inu. Unfortunately, Paula and Daniel love sushi just as much as I do, so they ate everything themselves. I think this was a bit cruel. Mum, Dad, auntie Tiffy, and I have Japanese heritage, thus, sushi would be better used to feed us than Paula or Daniel. I hope they consider us the next time they decide to have sushi for dinner.

Chewing Bones

I am too busy to write much today, I am chewing bones.

Candy Bears

Tonight I got to taste small sweet candy bears. Me like! I didn't realize that there were such good tasting candy before. Dad didn't like them but he don't like my friend "the Bear" either so I wasn't that surprised. Mum, auntie, Primus and me ate them instead. It was a good thing that Dad didn't want any though we got a bigger amount of candy bears. My Dad is really nice and sweet to me.

Another Long Sunday Morning Walk

We were out on an hour long Sunday morning walk this morning, just like last Sunday, Daniel, auntie Tiffy, Dad, Mum, and I. This time we explored other parts of the neighbourhood, not towards the centre of the city but out where there is a farm with horses. There were not many horses, we saw only one, but there was a Jack Russel Terrier who barked at us when we walked by. Tiffy barked back at the Terrier once, except for that, we did not care.

I liked the walk and hope Daniel wants to turn this into a Sunday tradition. Mum did not like it. Just like last Sunday, she was the one most anxious to get home as soon as possible. In this aspect, I am certainly not my Mother's daughter. I hope I will be as good a Mother as she has been, though.

Competitions

I came along when Paula and my Pharao Hound friend Primus went to a dog show outside of Stockholm. Primus was the one who competed, it was a small official dog show and he competed as a pup. He became Best of Opposite Sex-pup in his breed, whereas the Best of Breed-pup went on to become Best in Show-pup. This must be regarded as a good result for Primus.

This afternoon was important for the Örebro football team Örebro Sportklubb. They needed to win their game today in order to get back to the prime league of Swedish football. They did, too. Equaly important was that their greatest opponent in the fight for a place in the highest league lost its game. Daniel does not think this is such a big deal. He is from Stockholm and a fan of the Stockholm team Djurgården. Dad and I like the Örebro team, however, because they play in black and white colours, almost like the furs of us black and tan Shiba Inus. We are glad they made it back to the highest league.

Daniel Has Got a Cold

Daniel does not feel well. He is coughing a lot and feels more tired than he usually does. He claims it is just a cold and that he will be well in a couple of days. I think it is wise of him to take it easy this weekend to be well until next week. When a dog coughs, it can be really serious. It is called Canine Infectious Tracheobronchitis or kennel cough, and is one of the diseases all dogs get vaccinated against. Thus I was very concerned when I heard Daniel cough. However, I have to trust him when he says a human can cough a lot and it is still just a relatively harmless cold.

Gymnastics

I was watching the World Champions in Gymnastics on TV. Some of the competitions are aired live on Eurosport from Aarhus in Denmark. The interesting thing is to try to figure out how they do all the special effects needed to make humans look like they are flying, turning around in mid-air, making multiple twists and flips et cetera. It got to be advanced technical equipment doing this, especially since the competitions are broadcasted live.

I guess you have sometimes seen documentaries on how they make these kinds of special effects in motion pictures, when they let actors look like they are flying by hanging in small threads, invisible in the final movie. My educated guess is they use the same technique in gymnastics. I tried to see the threads in the Gymnastics World Championships, but I never caught any with my eyes.

There must be other special effects used as well. I really would like to see a documentary on how they do this when it comes to gymnastics. Maybe Eurosport will have a documentary like that after the final day of the Championships on the 21st of October. I have to keep my eyes open for it.

The Pug

A new dog has moved in to our home. It is a cute pug whom I have already played with a lot. He is nice and quiet, he comes along on everything I want to do. It would be strange otherwise, considering that he is a teddy dog. He cannot object to my ideas. I like him.

You can see a picture of me and my pug on the front page of our kennel homepage. I like the picture. The only sad thing about that is that the nice picture of Mum as a young girl, which I wrote about as late as yesterday, is not there anymore.

Mum When She Was Young

Let me suggest a visit to our kennel homepage. There is a picture there now of my Mother when she was a young girl. You can see she was beautiful already in 2000. She was one year old back then, about the same age as I am now. This is strong evidence I come from a great line of bitches. I hope I can live up to this. I actually believe I can, but you can never be really sure.

Dark Morning

The mornings are getting darker. It feels like it is too early to get up when it is still dark outside. The other dogs and I feel like we must fulfill our duties to Daniel and come along on the morning walks with him. We managed to go on morning walks in the dark all of last winter, so I guess we can do it this winter as well. It is just that it would be nicer to sleep when the Sun has not risen yet.

Long Walk

I had planned on writing in my blog after the evening walk yesterday, but Paula had already turned the computer off for the night when I got back home. To be honest, though, I had no great subject to write about, only some lines about the Saturday being a day when we took it easy.

This morning, Mum, Dad, auntie Tiffy, Daniel, and I took a long walk. We are usually out for about half an hour even on weekdays, but today we went further and were out for a full hour. It is nice to discover new parts of town and we have a terrific, sunny autumn day as made for long walks. I really enjoyed it. Mum, who never likes long walks, was the one who wanted to go home first of all. I am glad we did not turn and take the usual morning walk route that she wanted us to take. It is also much sweeter to take a nap after a really long walk than after a normal one.

Anonymous Critizism

There is an anonymous person who has written in our kennel's online guestbook. She has been really rude and seems to have a strange concept of what we really say on the kennel homepage.

I cannot understand why you would want to critizise anyone while being anonymous. What is the point? What does she think she can gain from such critizism? If I want to critizise anybody, I face him or her face to face and growl or bark. If I would critizise anyone publicly online, I would never do it anonymously, I am not a coward. However, I believe most critizism should be delivered between four eyes. Since the person critizising our kennel is anonymous, I cannot growl, bark, or send a personal e-mail to her, so I have to write down my thoughts in this way. I hope we don't get any more rude posts in our guestbook.

Sold Flat

As I have mentioned before, Paula and Daniel have bought a house, so we will move in November. Today, they sold the flat we live in now. I have mixed feelings about this. It will be nice to have a huge garden to play in at the new place, but I will no longer live in the place where I was born. My brothers Jiro and Kiko will never be able to come back here either. On the other hand, I am the only dog I know who has never moved from one place to another. I know that I am not the only dog staying at the kennel where he or she was born, but every dog friend of mine has at least moved from the kennel where they were born to a new human family. It will be interesting to see what it is like to live in a new place.

Trekking in the Deep Forests

I went along to Daniel's work today. It started out as a normal day at the office, Daniel at the desk and I on the floor. In the afternoon, though, we went by car out on the countryside, to the forested hills to the northwest of Örebro. There were about twenty people from the office and two dogs, myself and Grus.



Grus is the Welsh Springer Spaniel who works at Daniel's office much more often than I do, whose homepage I have a link to. It was nice to get to know him better, though it took me some time to get him to play with me.



We walked for about 5 kilometres on everything from narrow, rocky paths to wide gravel roads. There were many nice sights here and there. For most parts of our trek, we followed a brook. Grus wanted to get down in the water several times. As the more sophisticated Shiba Inu that I am, I carefully avoided both the brook and the mud that sometimes lay in the middle of the way.

After little more than half the way, we took a break were there was a nice view over a pond. The humans ate sandwiches and I had some dog food and salami treats.

It was a nice walk, but when we got back to the cars I eagerly jumped in to our car and laid down to rest for the ride back to Örebro.

The Flying Doctors

There are reruns of the old Australian TV show The Flying Doctors on one of the TV channels we have. Auntie Linni likes it, in part because her father is from Australia. She knows it is a fictional show, but she still thinks she learns a little about her father's home country. Both Linni and I like the nice English they are speaking.

Mum, on the other hand, doesn't like their way of talking, since she is used to American English. Mum also thinks American TV-shows are the only ones worth watching. Linni and I don't care, it is Mum's loss, we say.

Curious About Paula's Exercise

Paula has bought something she calls an exercise card. She went away this evening to do some exercise. I wish I could have joined her, I was very curious about what she would do and she seemed to feel so good when she came home again. Perhaps I will be allowed to come along some evening. There's a saying that curiousity killed the cat, but I have never heard of it killing a dog.

Harley

My friend Harley is now older than nine months old, so he will not be able to compete for Best in Show-Puppy titles anymore. However, he goes on to even more prominent victories. He won Best in Group in the adult classes today, competed for the adult Best in Show title ad became fourth.

It is too bad Harley is a Basenji dog. If he was a Shiba Inu, I would have wanted him for my husband.

My Friend in "Hundsport"

My basenji friend Harley is depicted in the latest issue of the Swedish Kennel Club magazine Hundsport, number 10 2006, p. 82. His picture is not as big as mine in the July/August issue. On the other hand, he has won many Best in Show-Pup finals, whereas I thought one such victory was enough.

Birthday Hike

It is auntie Tiffy's birthday today. Last time she had her birthday, I was such a little pup I did not understand what was going on.

Paula took Tiffy, Mum, and me for a long walk with Flexi leaches. Flexi leaches are fun, you can run longer back and forth in them since they are rolling in and out depending on how close to your human you are. Tiffy liked it, but as usual, I was the one who ran back and forth more than anybody else.

Tiffy also got to feast on meatballs and ham. The rest of us dogs also got some, so it was a good birthday not only for her.

Paula Has a Domain of Her Own

Paula has a own domain: http://www.shiba-faraohund.se. Eventually you can see my space on it along with her and Primus.

i think it is really good. BTW, can you see who's on the header (to the right)?

New Buildings

There will be new buildings erected in our neighbourhood. Mum is disappointed, they will build houses on the Field Mouse Meadow. This was were she had one of the best experiences of her life, when she found an inhabited field mouse dwelling and took care of the inhabitants. We are lucky Paula and Daniel has bought a house a bit further out from the centre of the city, were we will have a large lot to ourselves. Mum hopes there will be field mice living there.

Nice Looking Cat

There is a cat in our neighbourhood whom I meet sometimes on my walks. I met her again today. Unfortunately, she is afraid of me and my dog friends, so she tends to run away every time I want to talk to her. She is mostly black, but has white fur on her chest and legs. Thus she looks a lot like me, a black and tan Shiba Inu. I think this is nice, but since she always runs from me, I have never been able to commend her on her fine fur colours. I wish she would realize I am a very gentle dog who just want to be her friend.

Documentary That Was Not Very True

Late last night, there was a documentary on TV about breeding of dogs, on the TV show Insider. The documentary addressed the issue that some dog breeds have inherited illnesses, their examples were of some of the breeds with the biggest problems. Then they tried to prove the point that all breeding of pure races lead to unhealthy dogs. This is, of course, not true. The Shiba Inu breed is but one example that could refute their story.

In the documentary, they also interviewed a woman who was involved with a club for human owning mix bred dogs. She claimed that the focus on pure breeds in the Swedish Kennel Club is racism. She is wrong. Pure breeding of dogs cannot be compared to racism among humans. Dog breeders have no prejudices against other breeds, they don't consider other breeds to be worth less. It is just that different dog breeds are good at different things and fit different people. Among humans, there are so small differences among the breeds that you cannot say any human is better than the other at anything because of his or her race. Many biologists even say it is unscientific to talk about human races, because the differences are so small and often don't follow the borders between what you would often say was one race.

The breeding of pure breeds is about preserving a heritage and knowing what you will get. You never know what a mix bred dog will be like. The documentary did not explain this at all. In short, it was really bad.

It Works Today

I could not publish anything in my blog yesterday. It does not work every day. I have a free blog, so I don't complain.

This was what I wrote for my blog yesterday:

It was dark outside on the morning walk today. This is the first time since the spring it has been so dark. We did go on a walk earlier than usually today, since Daniel would leave early for a business trip to Jönköping. Still, it is evidence that the times are getting darker. It will be winter again. I wonder how long it will take.

However, after publishing this post, I realized my post had been published yesterday. You cannot even trust computers to malfunction sometimes.

Dark Morning

It was dark outside on the morning walk today. This is the first time since the spring it has been so dark. We did go on a walk earlier than usually today, since Daniel would leave early for a business trip to Jönköping. Still, it is evidence that the times are getting darker. It will be winter again. I wonder how long it will take.

Apple

Paula ate an apple today. I got to taste it. It tasted good, so I wanted more, but paula would not let me. She said too much apple could hurt my stomach, since it has got so strong juices. I guess I believe much stronger in the abilities of my stomach than Paula does. It is nice of her to look out for me in this way, but I really think I am the best judge on what I can eat and not.

An apple is a fruit and not meat, thus it may be less healthy for carnivores like me. There is a saying that "an apple a day keeps the doctor away", which is meant to show how healty apples are. On the other hand, the saying doesn't go "an apple a day keeps the veterinarian away". Nobody has made up any saying about apples being healthy for animals. Maybe they are a little less healthy for dogs than for humans. Nevertheless, they taste good, so I am sure I can eat a lot of apples. Maybe I can have more bits of an apple tomorrow?

Waffels and Music

Dad Daniel is in the kitchen making waffels for supper. Mmmm me like! Waffels are a good thing. Especially with some whipped cream and strawberry jam.

I'm a music freak. Mum Paula often buys music from the itunes for her ipod we shibas got for her 28th Birthday last autumn. Today I'm listening to Beyonce Knowles. Shw sings very good and looks amacing. Although she is not a b/t shiba girl like me!

"I don't think you
Ready for this jelly
I don't think you
Ready for this jelly
I don't think you
Ready for this
'Cause my body too
Bootylicious for ya babe"

A Quiet Day

Daniel has a cold, so he has taken it easy the whole weekend. It has been a quiet day today. It can be OK sometimes, but I have played around anyway. Daniel has not said it has been too much, so I know he has not become upset.

Shiba Inu Meeting

Mum and Linni got to go with Paula on a Shiba Inu meeting. I stay home with Daniel, since I have started to be in heat. There will be male dogs there who may not be able to control themselves when smellig the woderful me. I would have liked to come to the Shiba Inu meeting, it would be fun, but I stay at home to ease the pain of the male dogs there. Dad is also at home, but he will not be interested in me, his daughter, in that way.

Mia Has Been to Greece

Paula's sister Mia was here tonight. She did not bring Kesshi (fortunately, since he and Dad are not the best of friends), but she brought some gifts from Greece. She has been to Greece for a week on a vacation. The presents were great. Paula got some herbs, moisturising lotion with olive oil, some magnets, and a cake. Daniel got a ship in a bottle which he liked very much.

Similar to a Shiba Inu

On the veterinarian show on TV, they patched up a Finnish Spitz who had been injuried when hunting with her human. It is amazing how similar to Shiba Inus the Finnish Spitzes look. They are almost as nice looking as we are.

The ruling party in Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), has chosen a new leader, Shinzo Abe. Parliament is expected to confirm him as Prime Minister next week. Daniel thought that the Social Democrats in Sweden had been in power for too long before they lost the election last Sunday, since they had been in power for twelve years. The LDP has ruled Japan almost without interruption since 1955. I wonder what Daniel would say, would he have been from Japan.

Dogs Find Cancer

There was a very interesting documentary on TV today, disclosing that dogs are better on finding cancer in its early stages, sniffing with with their noses, than any other methods are. There are proofs of this according to three different scientific studies. This goes to prove, once again, how important dogs are for the human civilisation. I believe that this is such a great breakthrough that it should be the ground for a Nobel Prize.

Cleaning and watching

Mum Paula is cleaning and I Hailey is watching for unauthorized personel to enter our house. At least Paula says so.

Im at a stage in life where I tend to see things a bit scary. It feels much better when I bark at stuff outside. The other shibas don't react and neither does Primus. Am I that weared? Do the other dogs have problem with their hearing?

I will look into this matter really carefully. Both mum Paula and dad Daniel have high hopes for me to stop barking. I feel that some more candy can make me stop bark. I have to say this to them. Maybe they will hear me out.

It Doesn't Feel Different

So, now I am a year old. It doesn't feel different. I feel just the same as before my birthday.

I have had monthly birthdays before, which felt more different the younger I was. As a little pup I even counted weekly birthdays. The celebrations has thus been fewer over the last months. I thought that because of this and because it was the first real birthday, that is annual birthday, this would really be a change. It was not. Auntie Linni even reminded me I am still a junior in dog show contexts for three more months, until I am 15 months old.

Maybe I feel a bit disappointed that I don't feel different, because I have been looking forward to this birthday so much.

Well, I had a wonderful life before my one year birthday. The fact that my life does not feel different after the birthday can therefore be described as a good thing. If a good life does not change, it is still good. Thus, my life is good.

My birthday!

It started out really well. I got some treats for breakfast and a new toy. It was a orange crab but he "died" quickly. My brother Primus helped me to kill him. We had a great time doing it. Mum Paula was'nt that happy 'cause she had to clean the living room floor from all the leftovers of the crab.

This evening was'nt fun. Primus got injured during a playtime (not with me or the other shibas) and dad Daniel had to go with him to the vet. Luckily, my Primus is such a great puppy so he is sound and safe at home now. He is for the moment not the Primus we usually know but the vet told mum and dad that he will be fine soon. Kuro, Linni, Sunni and me all wish Primus all the love and caring we possible can. I have to say that I was afraid for a while 'cause I love my Primus. As a evidence of that I quickly decided to prospone my Birthday party until Primus is feeling better. It is important that the ENTIRE family can 100% join me in the festivities. Why bother having a Birthday pary unless...

Events This Week

This Sunday is an election day in Sweden. The Swedish humans elect Parliament and region and city councils. There is general elections once every four years, very exciting according to Daniel and Paula, but these are the only two things this event has in common with the Olympic Games and the World Cup in fotball. Otherwise, it is a completely different thing. It is not entertainment, but as serious as it can get, because it is about making laws and governing the state, region, and city for the upcoming four years.

Still, I am more excited about my birthday tomorrow. I have never had an annual birthday before. I want to know how that feels.

Upcoming Birthday

It is my one year birthday this Friday. Since I am a very simple dog who do not demand too much of life, I do not wish for much. All I want is some new toys, nice meals, a lot of dog candy, and generally a happy time. I hope my brothers will have a nice birthday as well.

Ben & Jerry's

Paula bought some ice cream of a brand I had not tasted before: Ben & Jerry's. It is a luxurious ice cream brand from Mum's home country America. We got to taste some and I really liked it. Mum said it was so good because it was American, she said only Americans can make so good things. I guess she may be right, I have never tasted ice cream so good.

Citroën

This weekend, we did not go to the dog show with our own BMW, we borrowed Paula's parents' Citroën. It was bigger, which was good, but did not accelerate as fast. Paula liked it, because of the bigger space, and talked about exchanging our car for such a Citroën. Daniel did not like it, because of the bad acceleration and the gear box, which he felt was too spongy. Daniel unloaded and cleaned the Citroën this evening and turned it back to Paula's parents. It remains to be seen whether Paula can convince Daniel to buy such a car. I like our BMW, it feels more luxurious, thus it is more fitting for a Shiba Inu.

Dog Show at a Royal Castle

This weekend has been spent on dog shows in Helsingborg. I was shown on Sunday, at the International KC show in the park of the Royal Castle Sofiero.

The judge was incompetent, giving me a bad prize just because I do not have such a fine fur for the moment. I have to come back when my fur is thick and shiny again, to claim the prizes that are rightfully mine.

I met two of my younger half brothers at the show, Molle and Chikai. This was fun. Chikai won best of breed puppy, just like me when I was his age. He was also Best in Show-Reserve (fifth) puppy!


Chikai


Molle

Vacation!

Tonight we will leave for a two day dog show in the south of Sweden. I will cheer for my buddy Primus on Saturday. Neither me or my mum can be shown at that show though we are not sighthounds. But I will probably be shown on Sunday at the KC all breed show. I'm not jealous. I want Primus to be best in show too, as i were 3 months ago. Otherwise he can't be a member in my and Harley's exclusive club.

September Birthday

I went with Paula to her mother tonight. We congratulated Paula's mother on her birthday. It is September, the best month for a birthday. I know, I was born in September myself. (I will celebrate my birthday next week.) It is always nice at Paula's parents' place, even more so when celebrating a birthday.

The Succession Is Saved!

Great news reach us from Japan via BBC. The succession to the Imperial throne is saved through the birth of a baby boy by Princess Kiko, wife of Emperor Akihito's second son Akishino.

The succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne (菊花紋章; kikukamonshō), as the Imperial throne of Japan is commonly called, is only inherited by legitimate male decendants. The prince born today is the first male born of the Imperial house since his father in 1965. This has given rise to discussions on a future constitutional crisis with the lack of an Emperor, and discussions to change the order of succession to allow female decendants to inherit the throne. Apparently, there were popular support for ideas of changing the order of succession. I say this should not be done unless the crisis is imminent, which it never was. Otherwise, it would be like allowing other dogs to get the pure kennel prefix Aangenaam, even though they were not born and raised at our kennel. A human family line is male, just like a dog kennel prefix depends on the kennel.

Now the monarchy and the Imperial line is saved. I am happy it is. Japan is saved from a future constitutional crisis.

Meat Sauce

We had some meat sauce for dinner. Paula made it for her and Daniel, then there was some left that went into our food bowls. It was tasty. I would like to have had more, but I did not. Still, Paula and Daniel agree that I should build some more muscles. I just wonder how I can do that if I don't get more food. They say I get a lot of food, and that this is enough, but I know I can eat more. Is it enough, even though I do not feel quite full?

We Will Move

Daniel and Paula has bought a house today. This is their biggest purchase ever (though not the most important, in my mind the purchases of auntie Tiffy, Dad, and Mum were all more important). The house is not very big, but it comes with almost 3 000 square metres of land, a guest house, and a barn. It needs repairs, but all of us dogs are looking forward to having the big lot to run around and play on. We will be able to move in on the 1st of november. It is a long time until then, so I will have a lot of more opportunities to tell you about the house.

Ongoing Planetary Dispute

The issue on which celestial bodies should be considered planets, described by me a week and a half ago, is not over. There are astronomers and planetary scientists who has signed a
petition to change the officially recognized definition at the very next IAU General Assembly in 2009. Thus, my hope that Charon, the celestial body named after a mythological dog, will be recognized as a planet, still lives. I want a planet named after a dog.

An ordinary Saturday?

No it's not. My Daniel is not at home. He had to visit his parents in Stockholm. I can understand that he want's to. Not everyone has such luck to live with the parents for the whole life. I'm lucky though, both mum and dad are always with me. We are a big family together with Paula, auntie Tiffy and Primus.

As you can see, auntie has changed her name from Linni to Tiffy. I like the new name alot. It sounds like a pink poodle but is not. Tiffy say's that she is fed up with only small pink poodles with funny names. She wants everybody to see that a adorable shiba also can have cute names. I like my name Hailey too much for changing it. Sometimes Paula calls me Pepsi and that is ok. If it makes her happy so let it be. I don't care for my own sake but for her. Sometimes your family is kind of crazy...

At Work

I went with Daniel to his work today. It was interesting. I remember the room where they have their coffee breaks since I visited the place with my brothers as a small pup. Most of the time was spent in Daniel's office, were I helped him working on important cases. We took a lunch walk by the castle and the great square, this is close by in the centre of the city.

The most disappointing thing about my day at Daniel's work was that Grus, the dog who is often at the office and whose homepage I have a link to, was not there today. Grus lives with the humans Ylva and Pär, Ylva is the one working at the office. Today, Pär was at home and wanted to have the company of Grus. I understand that. What I did not understand was that Grus came to the office late in the afternoon, was Pär tired of him? Anyway, he was there for such a short time I did not get the chance to say hello to him. We will have to meet another day.

Popsicles

Paula loves a popsicle called Piggelin. So do I. When Daniel was shopping groceries today, he bought a packet of Piggelins. Paula and I had a feast on them. I probably got more out of Paula's popsicles than she wanted to give me, but it isn't my fault popsicles melt in room temperature and fall apart in uneven pieces. I just took the pieces that fell into my mouth.

My Baby Sister!

This is my lovely newborn baby sister. I don't know if Dad and her mum have decide the name yet but I have a suggestion: Honto-No Ayano Hime which means colourful princess.

My baby sister is my half-sister. We share the same dad but she's got a different mother, Saga. Saga is a sweet Shiba and is indeed the sister of my uncle Kesshi.

Along with my sister came two more brothers. That is a thrill though I have collected nearly a entire soccer team of brothers by now. And I love to play soccer.

Drive In and Drive Through

On rare occasions, Paula and Daniel buy hamburgers from hamburger restaurants to eat for dinner. I came along in the car when Daniel bought hamburgers from the Swedish hamburger chain Max today. According to the sign outside the restaurant, we were using the drive in, but it looked more like a drive through to me.

As far as I have understood, a drive in restaurant is one where you drive in and park on one of many parking lots by the restaurant, then get served and eat while sitting in your car, and back out and drive away. In a drive through (in Amerca often called drive thru), you drive by one window or microphone were you place your order, then go further ahead to another window where you pay and get your food, and drive off right away. Sometimes there is one window where you pay and another where you get the food. I guess the drive in is designed to be comfortable, while the drive through is designed to be as expedient as possible. It was the latter kind of service at the restaurant were we bought our hamburgers. Am I wrong, or are there people in charge of that Max restaurant who do not know the difference between drive in and drive through? I may have to investigate this further.

Insurance

Paula and Daniel has insurances for all their dogs. It is important to have this. If one of us gets injuried, it is not so expensive to pay the veterinarian, thanks to the insurance.

I have today learned another thing about insurances that proves how important they are. Paula's dog died at a very early age due to an illness. His premature death meant Paula got money from the insurance company. She and Daniel used this money to buy a new dog, who happened to become my Dad later on. If it would not have been for that insurance, I might not exist. Remember this, insure your dogs, and ensure that you will have future dogs as well.

Paula, Mum and I visited Kesshi and Mia tonight. This was fun, as always.

Upcoming General Election

There will be a general election to the Swedish Parliament on the 17th of September. The Swedish Kennel Club has asked the major political parties some questions regarding dogs and politics. The questions and answers are in Swedish, but I know I have readers who know Swedish and I guess all of my readers who are eligible to vote in the Swedish Parliament election know Swedish.

The celebration of Paula's birthday continued today, when her parents, grandparents, sister, and sister's boyfriend was here for dinner. It was fun. Paula deserves party many days and it means good food for us dogs as well.

My friend April.

I got an email from the US today. It included a fresh picture of my new shiba friend April who will come and live with us in december. As you can see, she is also very intrested in computers and the Internet. I hope that she will maybe co-write stuff for my blog next year...

No New Planets

The IAU did not extend the definition of a planet (see my previous post). They narrowed it down instead, depriving Pluto of the status of planet. This means that Charon, named after a dog, is not a planet. I am very disappointed.

New Planets?

The general idea is that there are nine planets in the Solar System. From the orbit closest to the Sun and out they are Mercury, Venus, Earth (where dogs and humans live), Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

There is an international organization of astronomers who decide upon new names of further objects discovered out there in space, the International Astronomical Union or IAU. They currently have a General Assembly in Prague that will decide on how to define a planet. I guess you could compare this to the decisions on dog breeds made by the General Assembly of the FCI. There is a proposed resolution to the IAU General Assembly to extend the definition of the word planet. With the new definition, there will be twelve planets in our Solar System: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon, and 2003 UB313. The object 2003 UB313 has a provisional name, it has not yet been assigned a better name.

I really hope this resolution will pass. All the current planets are named after ancient gods of the Roman empire, all of whom have human form. Then there is Charon, so far considered a moon of Pluto, that is named after a god in the form of a dog. Planets are always considered to be the most important objects of a star system, except for the star (or stars), so it would be nice for all the dogs in the world to have a planet named after a dog.

There is a famous cartoon dog called Pluto, but this dog is off course named after the planet, not the other way around.

We Celebrate Paula!

It is Paula's birthday today. We celebrate her all day long.

Paula is the most important human in my life. Daniel is important as well, about as important in the everyday life. However, if it was not for Paula, I would not exist. Paula was the one who had a dog when she met Daniel, thus igniting his interest in dogs. Paula was the one who had a friend with a Shiba Inu, who got Paula and Daniel in touch with their first Shiba Inu breeder Helene Nordwall at Kennel Honto No, where they got my auntie Linni. Through this breeder, they got contact with the breeder Christen Lang at Kennel Enerhaugen in Norway, who provided them with Dad. Paula was also the one who got in touch with Laura Perkinson at Kennel Taichung in the USA, who generously offered Paula and Daniel to have Mum. Without Linni, there would not have been any Shiba Inus in Paula's and Daniel's family. Without both Mum and Dad, obviously I would never have been born. Understandably, I have all the reason to be really nice to Paula today, on her birthday.

Congratulations, Paula!

New Links

I have updated the link section to the right of my blog posts. Feel free to visit the homepages I link to.

I Used To Be So Small

Paula was going though old stuff in a closet today. One of the things there was my first necklace. It did not come much more than half way around my neck. I seldom think of how small I really was, yet it was less than a year ago.

There was a thunderstorm in Stockholm today and it rained 46 millimetres. Lightning struck the Colombian embassy, which caught fire. Fortunately, there were no casualties in the embassy, not humans and presumably no dogs either.

Harley Did It Again

Harley was Best in Show Puppy at another dog show today! It is incredible! I would have wanted to be there and congratulate him for the victory, but Paula is sick, so we stayed at home. We will see each other in September, on the 9th and 10th when there is a dog show in Sofiero close to Helsingborg in Scania. I love to play with Harley, and we will hopefully both do well in the show ring. I did well last time I was at a dog show in Scania, when I was Best in Show Pup in Hässleholm.

Harley lives at kennel Enigma north of Stockholm. I have a pharaoh hound friend from that kennel who is a pup and who wants to become a member of mine and Harley's BIS-pup club. We will have to see if he meets the requirements. He was born in May, so he will be a show pup in the winter, when there are few dog shows. This will make it harder for him to make it, but I have hopes for him. The fact that he is a pharao hound talks in his favour, pharaoh hounds often do well in the Swedish show rings.

The picture of me in this blog is new as of today. I grew a bit tired of seeing a picture of me as a tiny pup. This picture shows what I look like now.

A Fellow Best in Show Puppy

I have a Basenji friend whose name is Harley (Faraoland Bluetooth Enigma). He has done what I did in Hässleholm in May, being Best in Show Puppy at an official dog show. We have a special club toghether, in which only Best in Show Puppy-winners are welcome. Harley has won his fifth Best in Show Pup today, but I am not jealous. I am still very special with my only such victory, being the only Black and Tan Shiba Inu ever to have won such a prize. The good thing about Harley winning more than one Best in Show Puppy is that fewer other pups have won it, thus making our club even more exclusive.

Veterinarian and Politician

Today, Daniel told me about something rather unusual, a veterinarian who is also a prominent politician. His name is John Ensign, and he is a US Senator from the State of Nevada, representing the Republican Party. He is up for re-election this fall, and will compete against the Democrat Jack Carter. I think it is rather nice that a veterinarian decides to go into politics, not that I know much about his politics and ideas, but he cannot be bad for animal protection and public policy on veterinary medicine.

Paula Has Got a Blog

Paula has started a new blog. It is interesting to read, for those of us who know Swedish.

I have a feeling that I get to know even a dear friend like Paula in a different and more complete way when reading her blog, than I can do when simply spending all the time I do with her, eagerly listening to everything she has to say. I know I write some things in my blog that I do not tell anyone in any other way, regardless of how much time I spend talking to them. The blog gives you time to ponder over a certain subject. An oral conversation, on the other hand, can take the most interesting detours, but the detours may be the cause that you forget to say some things or decide not to tell them because they do not fit into the conversation anymore. Sometimes, you never get the right opportunity to talk about some things, but then you can put your thoughts in your blog instead.

In the best of worlds, your friends and family will read your blog and pick up the subject you have written about and start a conversation about it with you. I will try to do this for Paula.

By the way, I met my friend Amadeus, the Bernese Mountain Dog, tonight. It has been a while since we met last time. Amadeus is really big nowadays. When I first met him, he was smaller than I was. I have grown, but he has grown much more. Ever so friendly, he lied down on the ground to be able to come nose to nose to little me. It is amazing what differences in size there are between different dog breeds.

Midsommer Murders

There is a great British TV show on every Tuesday, a criminal show called Midsommer Murders, after the imaginary English county of Midsommer the murders are committed in. Today's show was one of the better I have seen, but for two things. One was the fact that a dog owner tried to commit suicide in front of his dogs, poor fellows! The other was that one of the suspects was called Hayley. That is such an ugly way of spelling my beautiful name that I wanted her to be the murderer the whole show. I will not say whether she was or not, I won't spoil the show for those who have not yet seen it.

Haircut

Humans are like some dog breeds, they have to cut their hair once in a while so it will not get to long. Daniel had a haircut today. Now his hair does not have to blow down in front of his eyes anymore.

Fortunately, Shiba Inus have so good genes, we never have to have haircuts.

Paid to Work at a Dog Show

Daniel worked as a ring secretary on the dog show yesterday and today. He was paid for his efforts.

In my mind, personell like ring secretaries and judges does not deserve the highest pay, the dogs do. A dog show is about the dogs. The show is there for people to see us. We are the stars, while a ring secretary doesn't do more than the back stage personell on a theatre. Stars like Mum and me should get more payment than just a few treats. The fact that we enjoy dog shows is no cause for not being paid.

Well, I don't see payment for the dogs in the foreseeable future. I enjoy the shows and do not need payment, but you can always wish for it.

Jiro the Victorious

My brother Jiro was the most successful of us at the dog show today. While I got a first prize in quality and honourary prize, and Mum got a CK and was reserve in best of bitches, Jiro got CK, his second certificate, and was second best male. We congratulated him.

In theory, Jiro does not have to go to any other dog show before he is two years old. In order to become Swedish Champion, you need three certificates, at least one of which is won after the second birthday. Well, this is if you count becoming a champion the only goal of your dog show career. There are so many other things about dog shows. You can win Best of Breed, you can meet interesting new and dear old friends et cetera. I like many aspects of dog shows appart from the quest for certificates. One aspect is meeting my brother Jiro. I would not like for him not to come to any more dog shows where I can meet him, until after his second birthday. Besides, I would like him to be there and congratulate me to my fist certificate, which I am sure I will not have to wait too long to get. Victory will come to me as well, I am sure of that.

Bath

I prepared for this weekend's dog show by taking a bath. This is a necessary evil if you want to look your best. This dog show is as close to home that we can get for an official Kennel Club show, in Askersund some kilometres south of Örebro. It is our regional kennel club that arranges it. Mum and my brother Jiro will be there to compete as well. I hope some of the three of us will become best of breed, but there are eight other Shiba Inus there, so we do not know what will happen. We will do our best, our best is at a high level.

On Site in Gothenburg

Paula's dad, my dear friend Nils Olov, is watching the European Championships on site in Gothenburg. Sports is his main interest in life, so he must be very happy to be there.

Sometimes, the TV cameras take pictures of the people watching the competitions. So far, none of us at home has seen Nils Olov. There are so many people there, we cannot expect much, but it would be fun to see him.

Tuna Sandwich

Dad is my true hero. This morning, Daniel had made a tuna sandwich for lunch at work and had put it in his briefcase by the entrance. The entrance is off limits for us dogs. However, Dad managed to sneak in, open Daniel's briefcase, and eat the whole tuna sandwich. Daniel could not be angry with Dad, because the sandwich was already long gone when he discovered the theft. Dad told me afterwards that he was in greater need of that sandwich than Daniel was; I believe that.

Updates on the Formula 1 Result and Inauguration

The BMW Sauber driver, Polish Robert Kubica, finished seventh this Sunday in Hungary. It has since come to my knowledge that he was disqualified from the results since his car was found to be underweight. This means that Michael Schumacher was moved up one position in the results table, thus earning one point in the World Championship standings. This means that the results were in favour of Schumacher in his competition with Fernando Alonso for the Championships, contrary to what I wrote right after the race. I was not wrong, the results were changed some time after the race, just so you know.

The BBC published a piece on Alvaro Uribe's inauguration as President of Colombia last night. They also had a piece on Alvaro Uribe's inauguration speech today. This is interesting for all of us who are interested in Colombia.

Athletics in Europe, Presidential Inauguration in South America

The European Championships in athletics has started in Gothenburg, Sweden. Since it is a European championship, neither American nor Japanese athletes can participate. Because of this, Mum has stated that she could not care less. Dad hopes that the Norwegian athletes will be most successful, the rest of us hope for the Swedish athletes.

Meanwhile, in South America, Alvaro Uribe has been sworn into office for a second term as President of Colombia, Paula's country of birth. The constitution of the Republic of Colombia was recently amended. Previously, it was not possible to be re-elected as president, but it is now and Uribe is re-elected. Most Colombians must think it was a good thing the Constitution was amended, since they re-elected him.

The Japanese National Anthem on TV

In the Hungarian Grand Prix of formula 1 today, the British driver Jenson Button won in his Honda. Since he drives a Japanese car, the Japanese national anthem was played after the British when he stood on the podium after the race. This was a treat for Shiba Inu ears!

It was an exciting race in rain, and the result was interesting since none of the main contestants for the 2006 world champion title scored any point. Fernando Alonso did not finish and Michael Schumacher finished ninth, just short of a single point which is awarded the driver finishing eighth. Alonso leads the championship, while Schumacher has scored most points in the last races before this one, so I guess this result is most advantageous to Alonso.

Barbecue

We were at Paula's parents place today, except Dad and Auntie Linni. Dad does not like flying bugs, that the air is full of this time of the year, so he prefers to be indoors anyway. Linni made him company. They did not miss much. The humans had a barbecue and ate grilled pork, but they did not give us dogs any. Too bad, what's the point of being invited to a barbecue, when you don't get any grilled meat? Well, we had rather fun anyway running around on the lawn.

Smorgastarta

Paula and Daniel had smorgastarta for dinner today. As you can see in my blog entry of the 8th of February, it is a delicious dish. It is Paula's absolute favourite and I love it too. Unfortunately, I did not get much of it. I have to admit, though, that it is such a delicious dish that I cannot imagine ever getting enough of it.

Someone Who Knew What Teddy Bears Are For

The British newspaper Daily Mirror reports that "Barney the Doberman Pinscher is in the doghouse after savaging more than 100 antique teddy bears that he was supposed to be guarding at an exhibition in Somerset". One of the teddy bears are said to have belonged to the late singer Elvis Presley.

I really feel sorry for Barney. He was a trained guard dog, but the teddy bears were teddy bears. Without having the whole story, I blame the humans giving this job to Barney. He only did to those teddy bears what teddy bears are made for: to be played with. A dog plays viciously with teddy bears. I say they should let Barney free.

Source: BBC

Organization

Paula and Daniel cleaned the floors today. This is, of course, not out of the ordinary. It is nice to have a floor free of dust. The downside with floor cleaning is Daniel's and Paula's sense of organization with regard to the dog toys. While i and the other dogs prefer to have our toys scattered around the floors for easy access to toys anywhere we may be, their idea of organization is to put all of the toys in plastic boxes. I cannot see how toys are of any use lying in these boxes. However, it usually does not take long before the combined efforts of us dogs put a lot of toys around the floors again.

Crayfish

Late Tuesday evening, we got treats fitting for this time of the year in Sweden. We had crayfish to eat. Crayfish is really tasty. It is a Swedish tradition to eat crayfish in August. Years ago, you were not allowed to catch it or sell it earlier in the summer and the tradition holds on. We did not have a traditional Swedish crayfish party, but that can wait until later in August and the traditional crayfish premiere.

Rain!

Rain was falling on the evening walk. This was the first time we have had a real rainfall for weeks, and it had to begin just when we were out on a walk. We shook and shook ourselves, but were still soaking wet when we got indoors. In English, you sometimes say it is raining cats and dogs. I guess it was like that tonight. Fortunately, this is a figure of speech. If real cats and dogs would have rained upon me, I would have been outraged.

Hail

While we have a hot summer, there is winter on the southern half of the Earth. There was a hail storm in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I prefer taking my walks in the hot summer Sun we have had today.

Disturbing News from Washington

Mum is upset, I understand her. There has been a shooting in Seattle in her home state of Washington. One woman died and five others were wounded as a man shot several rounds at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. The alleged shooter is supposed to have said, "I'm a Muslim American, I'm angry at Israel".

Sure, I know most people in Israel are Jewish, and Israel is currently at war with some Muslim terrorist organizations in its neighbouring countries, but I cannot understand why anybody would want to shoot any jew - in this case not even one living in Israel - just because Israel is at war. If an American would be angry at Sweden, would he shoot people whose ancestors emigrated to the USA from Sweden in the 19th century? If an American would be angry at Japan, would he shoot Shibas born and raised in America?! It is insane, but then, the shooter might not have been sane.

There is more about the shooting in The Seattle Times.

Superman and His Dog

There is a new movie premiering this week, Superman Returns. I am so young, I have never seen any of the previous Superman movies, so I am not very interested in watching a movie where he returns. Whether he returns or not, I would rather see a well made movie about Superman's dog Krypto.

Slander? Doping?

Rumour has it, the American winner of Le Tour de France, Floyd Landis, is caught being yet another bicyclist taking performance-enhancing drugs. The test positive for drugs is said to have been taken during Le Tour. Mum (who is American, in case you have not read much of my blog before) says she does not believe this, she says American athletes never have to take drugs to be the best. Landis has disappeared, he did not show up for competitions in the Netherlands yesterday and Denmark today. Is the rumour just slander? I am not so sure. Too bad if it is true, for bicycling, Landis, and America.

Environmental Hazard

A Swedish court of law has ruled that golf is an environmental hazard. Flying golf balls can cause injuries and fear. This sounds like a rather funny ruling, but I believe the court was right. We live nearby a golf court. I wonder whether they will change any of their routines around the players.

For those who can read Swedish, you can read more at Norstedts juridik.

Too Hot Weather

Daniel claims you must not complain about the heat in Sweden, since this country lie so far north that it has long and cold winters. I do not care what he says. It feels too hot both indoors and outdoors, therefore I write that it does in my blog. Sometimes we can hear thunder in the distance, but there is to little rain falling on our neighbourhood. Too bad there is nothing we can do about the weather.

The Price We Pay

It was a hot day today. Paula said she did not feel comfortable even after taking a shower. She did not feel like going to work tonight. I do not blame her, I would rather have her here at home with us. Nevertheless, it is when Paula and Daniel are off to work they earn the money with which they buy food and candy for us dogs. The price we have to pay to eat good stuff is not having our beloved humans with us at all times. It is sad, but a fact of life. Daniel will start working at another place this August, where dogs are allowed. I might have the opportunity to come along to his work some day. The best thing, however, would be to have both Daniel and Paula at home all the time, earning money for dog food and candy anyway. I only wish I knew how! Smart as I may be, I cannot answer any question.

My Victorious Brother

I went with Paula to a dog show in Västerås today. I would not be shown myself, but my brother Jiro would, so we were supporters of him. He ended up as second best male dog and got a cert (certificate). A cert is the first step towards becoming a Champion. We are so happy for Jiro. Imagine that, he got a cert before he was even one year old.

My only regret now is that I was not shown in this dog show. When the judge liked my brother so much, perhaps I could have won a cert too. Well, this makes me more eager to make good results in future dog shows. If you visit the dog show in Askersund on the 12th of August, look for me in the shiba ring!

Mum is also glad that an American won Le Tour de France even in the absence of seven times winner Lance Armstrong. This year's winner is Floyd Landis.

A New Tent

We were not at any dog show today, but we did put up a dog show tent. Paula and Daniel has bought a new tent for dog shows and put it up as a test today. It went well. This tent is bigger than the older one, therefore more fitting for prominent Shiba show dogs like Mum and me.

We ate tomatoes tonight. One might think tomatoes are nothing for carnivores like us Shibas, but remember that there have been more than one movie made about killer tomatoes.

Sleeping in the Day

While Daniel is away from home during the day to work, Paula is working in the night. We sleep in Daniel's company during the night. Then, when Paula is at home, she needs to sleep during the day and we make her company in the world of dreams as well. This is very nice. Sleeping is one of my favourite pass times.

"Unfaithful Dogs"?

There is some kind of armed conflict going on in a part of the world called the Middle East. (This part of the world is not to be confused with Middle Earth of the English author J.R.R. Tolkien's books.) In this context, I have been told that some humans in this part of the world use to insult other humans by calling them "unfaithful dogs". I have trouble believing this. I mean, any human who knows dogs knows that there is noone who is more faithful than a dog. Such an insult would thus be very weird, since it has got nothing to do with reality. Oh well, the world is a strange place, so maybe the story is true after all.

Older

I am getting older. We all are, I know. It is just that sometimes you discover signs that make this eternal fact more obvious. I had my ten months birthday last Saturday, but I completely forgot about it. We were not at home and I spent the day at the dog show, but this is only part of the reason I forgot about it. The older you get, the less you think about birthdays. The fact that I forgot is thus a sign of me getting older.

It is soon autumn. I will celebrate my first annual birthday in less than two months this autumn. This is something to celebrate.

Back to Work

Daniel has started to work again. This is sad for us who has gotten used to seeing him more during his weeks of vacation. The good news is, he will not work in another town for more than three weeks more, then he will go back to his earlier job at the County Administrative Court of Örebro County here in our home town. We will see more of him at home, because he will not have to travel so far back and forth to work. It is good for him too, he will see more of me...

CK

Back from three days of dog shows. I got first prize in quality and won the Junior class every day. One of the days, I also got CK, this means champion quality. It is rare that such a young dog as I am gets CK. I got HP one day, too. We are happy for the results, they reflect that I will probably become a champion when I am older.

Three Days of Dog Shows

We are leaving home this afternoon for three days of dog shows, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The dog shows are located in a place called Högbo bruk in Gästrikland north of where we live. Paula and Daniel spend this day planning and arranging the luggage. I am preparing myself for another appearance in the show rings. This is something I am getting quite good at.

My Picture in a Magazine

If you have the magazine Hundsport from the Swedish Kennel Club, number 7-8 of 2006, you can see me and Paula on a picture on page 93, second lowest to the left. This is the offical report from the dog show in Hässleholm where I became Best in Show Puppy. It is nice to be recognized in this way.

Progress

I am making progress as a show dog. This weekend, we were at a dog show in Halland, a province on the west coast of Sweden. I got a first prize on Saturday and a first prize plus an honourary prize on Sunday, when I won the junior class. It is not very common for a dog of my age to get a honourary prize. Results keep getting better.

Today is a day of rest after the dog show. I like that. We celebrate Paula on the Andrea name's day today. Andrea is Paula's second name.

The World Cup is over, the final was played yesterday. Italy won, France got silver, and Germany bronze. Daniel liked the result of the final game, a European team now has almost as many gold medals as the best South American team, Italy has four versus Brazil's five. There are now as many European World Cup titles as there are South American (Italy 4, Germany 3, England 1, France 1 v. Brazil 5, Argentina 2, Uruguay 2). Now we can concentrate on other things on TV.

Summer Heat

It is so hot outside, none of us want to be outside longer than necessary. It is warm indoors as well, but not as warm as outdoors. Cold weather was sometimes an obstacle in the winter, now I understand that warm weather can be as well. Nevertheless, being a Shiba means staying cool in any situation, so we manage.

Known from TV

The veterinary TV show I have blogged about before was on tonight as well. One of the veterinarians on this show works on Gothland, his name is Håkan Onsjö. I met him on the dog show on Gothland this weekend, when he examined me at the entrance to the show. It is fun to see a face you recognize.

Dog Show in Visby

I have been away this weekend on a trip to the largest island of the Baltic Sea, Gothland. This is an island in the centre of the sea and a part of Sweden. There is a beautiful old city with city walls there called Visby, where Paula and I went to a dog show. This was my first appearance in the official, adult classes. I won first prize in quality, but did not win any cert or honourary prize (HP). Nevertheless, Paula and I were satisfied with the result, which is good for such a young bitch as I am.

From now on, I will take a short summer break from my blog. Stay tuned, I may start blogging again before you know it!

Furniture

Daniel and Paula took a round table away from the living room today. They arranged a new place for us dogs to lie and rest instead. That was very thoughtful of them.

Veterinarians on TV

There was a TV-show on veterinarians and the animals they treated today. This is my favourite kind of TV-show. The best thing is perhaps that I am not one of the animals who need treatment.

One of the sick animals was a horse with a limp. Dad said the best thing would be to send it to the butcher. I agree with Dad, horse meat tastes good.

Playing Football

I played football myself today. It was fun, but would have been better if the other Shibas would have joined me. Partly, I was inspired by the World Cup.

Out

Sweden is out of the World Cup. Sweden lost against Germany, one of the best teams through the ages of the World Cup. Given Germany's World Cup history, this is not a loss to be embarassed about. Given how badly the Swedes played, however, it is.

Evidently, it is interesting to follow the rest of the games anyway. Paula and Daniel are watching Argentina playing Mexico now.

Midsummer

Paula wanted to take a nap, and wanted all the dogs to do the same. She likes us, that is why she wants us to be close. I was too restless, however, so I got to leave the bedroom. This gave me an opportunity to write in the blog instead. I do not like sleeping as much as the other Shibas.

The summer solstice was two days ago, but in Sweden, we celebrate Midsummer Day on the first Saturday after the summer solstice. I agree with Daniel, who thinks this is ridiculous. In the artificially lit society of our time, most people do not care what night is actually the shortest, but Daniel does. What is the purpose of celebrating Midsummer a couple of days too late? The magic that people of old times associated with Midsummer night must already have passed now, because the magic cannot care about a decision by the Swedish parliament to move the holiday. Oh well, I am a Shiba, I do not need a special night to experience magic, since I am magic myself.

Festivity Day

According to the Swedish calendar, it is Paula's festivity day today. We celebrate with great food: chicken and chips (or French fries, as Mum says).

Mum is sad that the USA did not manage to reach the eighth final in the World Cup. However, she says this only goes to prove what kind of unimportant sport soccer is; the people of the greatest power in the world is not interested enough that they can assemble a team that become one of the sixteen best nations in the soccer World Cup.

I have been allerted that Blogger will have an outage for maintenance this Saturday. This means I may not write anything in the blog that day. It is nice to get a warning about the outage, this means I will surely not have an outrage.

Everything Is About Football

All over the news, almost all the talk between Paula and Daniel, is about the World Cup. It is not that interesting, I think. Dad is not interested, since Norway is not playing. Mum is not interested at all, even though the USA is playing, since soccer is not of any interest to Americans. Maybe they have influenced me. I play with my toys or lay down to rest and think about other things when there are games on TV. TV was more interesting in the early evening today, when they had a show about an animal hospital.