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.

Stupid Railway Employees

Trains were late again. Daniel was more than two hours late, because some stupid railway employee had shifted the train onto the wrong track before it reached Eskilstuna. That train was half an hour late, too late to make the connection with the train from Arboga to Örebro. Another stupid railway employee refused to order a bus for those who missed the train from Arboga, even though it is said buses shall be ordered if traffic is that late. I feel sorry for Daniel. I feel even more sorry for Paula, who waited with the food even though she would work tonight. She became stressed because she feared she would be late for work. Sometimes, there seem to be tremendous consequences due to human stupidity. A Shiba inu would never be so stupid.

Explanations

There are sometimes an urge to explain too much in the world. humans have even deviced a lot of methods to deal with explanations, like science and theology. I do not need too many explanations. Some things cannot be explained. Life is unjust sometimes, and you cannot explain the injustice. So is football/soccer, as we can see in the World Cup. I have a daily blog, but I will not explain why I did not write in it for a couple of days last week. My faithful readers can see this as a welcome relief from all the explanations you are served all day long, whether necessary or not. I hope, in some way, you can enjoy this.

It has been very warm for a couple of days. I run around as usual when we take walks, but the adult dogs are not as keen as usual to come along, run, and wrestle. I don't care, I run around as much as usual anyway. Running is fun.

Paula Is Home Again

Paula went away to a dog show yesterday without me, but it was not a dog show where Shibas were shown. She came home today, we were all happy to see her.

Paula did not see the USA play Italy in the World Cup. We hoped Mum's home country would win, off course. It was a match where a lot of things happened. One Italian and two US players had to leave the field. Italy scored once, the USA scored twice, but the latter US goal was rejected due to off side. The rejection was probably correct, we were more upset with the fact that the USA did not get a penalty when one of the Italians took the ball with his hand and then kicked it away in front of his own goal. The italians played well, but the USA should have gotten that penalty and won by 2-1.

This afternoon, Japan did not play well against Croatia, but did not lose. The result was 0-0. However, we fear the Japanese team will not get to the eighth final.

Pickled Herring

A couple of days ago, Paula and Daniel ate pickled herring and let us dogs taste. I like it. I went with Paula to her sister Mia and Kesshi, and I got pickled herring there. I thought I would tease the others when I got home, since they had not had any herring. However, Daniel gave them blood pudding, so they also got very tasty food. To bad, I had nothing for teasing them, then.

A Hedgehog

We met a hedgehog on one of the walks today. Hedgehogs are fun looking animals, and they walk with a fun stroll. Paula did not want us to play with the hedgehog, though. It may sting and it may be infested with lice. I like hedgehogs anyway, but I guess I have to be a fan of them from afar.

Losing

Mum is disappointed today. The USA lost its first game in the World Cup. The Czech Republic beat the American team 3-0. I am disappointed as well, since the USA is one of my favourites beside Sweden. Auntie Linni has mixed feelings, but mostly happy. The home country of her father, Australia, beat the home country of the Shiba inu breed, Japan. The rest of us hoped for Japan in that game.

Hot Summer

Daniel says you must not complain about the weather being too hot in Sweden, considering our long winters. The adult shibas do complain, they do not want to run around outside in the warm and sunny hours in the middle of the day today. I follow Daniel's advice. To me, running around is so much fun I do not care it is hot. Inspired by the World Cup, I played a lot of soccer today (Mum says soccer is the correct word, even though FIFA calls it football). The only boring thing was that none of the other shibas wanted to join me in the game.

In the evening, I got my own football. It is an official mini football from the FIFA partner McDonald's that Daniel gave me. I played most of the evening with this terrific gift, while we saw the Mexico-Iran game on TV.

World Cup

The FIFA World Cup of football started yesterday. Sweden played for the first time today. The opponent was the small West Indian country of Trinidad & Tobago. This ought to be an easy task for the Swedish team, but it was not. The result was 0-0. This is not good. Perhaps we will have to hope for other teams?

New Design

Everyone who has read my blog before can see that it has a new design today. I have to thank Paula for this. She has the eye for designing web pages and I think it looks good. As you know if you have followed my blog, I am more into redesigning shoes.

Paula at Work

Paula has been studying all my short life. During the summer, she will not study, but work. She will work nights and the night between Wednesday and today was the first night. We all missed her when it was time to sleep, even though there was more room in the bed. However, when she got home, we got to sleep with her until noon while Daniel went to his work. That was nice.

Shoes

A shoe is the best of food
if you are in the mood
I chewed on shoes Wednesday
there is not much more to say

National Holiday

Today is the National Holiday of Sweden, commemorating the day when Gustavus I became king in 1523, ending the Denmark-dominated union Sweden had been a part of since the 14th century. One hundred years ago to this day, the present day Swedish flag was officially hoisted for the first time, having previously had a mark for the union with Norway of 1814-1905.

The day also commemorates the enacting of the former constitution of Sweden, which was enacted on this day in 1809. This is a bit silly, since this constitution was replaced with another about 30 years ago.

It is customary for towns and cities of Sweden to greet new Swedish citizens welcome this day. Last year, our home town Örebro would have greeted Mum in this way, had she been a human. They do not greet dogs who have become registered in the Swedish Kennel Club, though. Mum was a little disappointed, she would have loved to have been given a lot of good food in the town hall. However, she thinks she got some revenge when the Örebro County Kennel Club, a regional division of the SKC, gave her a huge prize for her Swedish Champion title this winter. After all, becoming a Swedish Champion is a much larger feat for a dog than becoming a Swedish citizen is for a human; far from all dogs are good enough to become champions.

Whit-Monday

The last few weekends have shown that I am a dog show star. Then, yesterday, it was a Sunday when we were not on any dog show. It was relaxing, but at the same time a bit disturbing. Nothing special happened, so I did not know what to write in my blog. I have decided to have a daily blog, but if I cannot think of anything to write in it, it must be a waste of my readers' time to write some gibberish for them to read, just for the sake of writing in the blog.

Well, there is another explanation for the lack of a blog entry yesterday, as well. I just did not find the time to read the news and comment on that or anything. We slept until late in the day, took long walks, watched a movie (Must Love Dogs, starring Diane Lane and John Cusack, and some dogs - I can recommend it), and then the day was pretty much gone. I have come to realize that, sometimes, you have the most trouble getting things done when you have the most time available.

This Monday has been more like an ordinary day. Daniel has been to work, even though he says he does not like it. Up until recently, this would have been a holiday in Sweden as the Whit-Monday. Now the 6th of June is a holiday instead, as a National Day of Sweden. This is like trying to force Swedes into being more patriotic, which is the wrong way to go.

Sweden has a national anthem, even though this song has never been officially recognosed as such by Act of Parliament. This is an example of true patriotism, a national anthem that just is there, in the hearts of the people and dogs of Sweden.

Daniel does not dislike his work, on the contrary, but he rather work on the National day, thus supporting the GNP of Sweden, than on a day which is a holiday by long tradition. As for me, I have my duties as a pet any day, even the days I rest from the dog shows.

Another Show

Another dog show today, another best of breed for pups. However, I got no prominent position in the Best in Show final.

Mum is a veteran now, in shows, since she is over seven years old. She became best of breed among veterans. She did not succeed i the veterans' Best in Show final either.

However, we had a nice day and warm summer weather.

The Last Samurai

We watched the American movie The Last Samurai on DVD tonight. Mum says this movie is good, because it can be compared with kennel Taichung in the USA, where she was born and raised. Just like the main caracter in the movie, Captain Nathan Algren, Laura Perkinson at kennel Taichung is an American who helps Japanese to preserve their national heritage. Capt. Algren did this by fighting for the samurai way of life, bushido. Mrs. Perkinson does this by breeding the Japanese national breed Shiba Inu. The fact that Algren is a Swedish name can be see as a symbol for the cooperation Taichung has got with our Swedish kennel Aangenaam. - It is quite fun to read a lot of meanings into movies that are not supposed to be there.

Summer

If you go by the date, it is supposed to be summer now. June is a summer month and it is supposed to be warm and sunny. It was neither on the first of June in our home town, where it was overcast and rain now and then. We do not have to care that much, all our days are Sunni days, since my Mum Sunni lives here.