The Lollipop

Paula gave Dad a lollipop this evening, but I got it from him. I snatched it quickly and disappeared under Paula's and Daniel's bed, where I know nobody else can reach me. Dad accused me of stealing the lollipop, but I know he does not have hard feelings about this. He is a good dad. It was fun to lie under the bed and eat the lollipop while everybody else were watching but could neither reach me nor the lollipop. When I had finished the lollipop, I was so happy I danced and bit Paula affectionately in her hands. It was a good little adventure.

Bringing Stuffed Animals Outside

April is mean to our stuffed animals. Whenever she gets out in our yard, she wants to bring one of them, which she drops outside and leaves when she gets in. If Paula or Daniel does not see it, the stuffed animal has to lie outside in the cold until it is brought inside again. This is mean. What if she did this to real animals? Say that she had pups, and did this to them. Sure, stuffed animals do not have any more feelings than those we give to them, but I still think its cruel. Bad behaviour but she doesnt seem to understand why it's wrong to leave your friends out in the cold. Well, she is still very young and she has to learn.

Negative Population Growth

The human population of Japan is dropping. The situation seems to be so serious that a minister in Japan had to resign after making inappropriate remarks on Japanese women. I can hardly believe a polite Japanese saying such a thing. I hope the Shiba Inu population is not dropping. However, with fewer Japanese humans, there may be fewer dog owners and fewer who want Shiba Inus. This is serious. The vast majority of Shiba Inus still live in Japan and are important for the gene pool of Shiba Inus across the world. We just have to hope for a good population growth among Japanese Shiba Inus.

Latin

There is an old European language that seems to be dying out, the language of the ancient Roman Empire, Latin. I guess I do not care much. Daniel think this is sad, given the huge importance of Latin in history. However, he admits he has never made any real efforts to learn Latin himself. It is more useful to learn modern languages, he says. He studied English and German in school.

For my part, I believe it is nice to know English, but I would much rather learn Japanese than Latin. Japanese is a modern language and the official language of the only current Empire in the world, the world's second largest economy, and not least the original language of the Shiba Inu breed. All my ancestors knew Japanese. Paula has expressed some interest in learning Japanese, I hope she can teach me some sometime. It would be fun to know some Latin as well, but not equally fun.

Early Evening - Early Morning

Paula and Daniel decided to take an early evening yesterday, thus Paula turned the computer off before I had the chance to write yesterday's blog post. It was quite all right to go to sleep early, sleep is one of my favourite pass times and one of the things in the world I do best.

However, if you go to sleep early in the evening, I believe it is time to get up early in the morning as well. Since it is Saturday today, Daniel does not go to work and did not take us out on the morning walk a little past six o'clock in the morning. I could easily stand to sleep a little longer than that, I love to sleep long in the mornings as well, but when the clock started to close in on nine in the morning, I had had enough. I started to tell Daniel and Paula I wanted to go out, but they were lazy and wanted to sleep longer. They told me to stay quiet, but I soon resumed telling them I thought it was time to get up. The other dogs agreed with me. When we finally got Paula and Daniel to rise from the bed, they did discover it was a beautiful winter day outside with blazing sunshine reflecting on the snowy fields. How can you be in a bad mood on a beautiful day like this?

We got out before breakfast and I wanted to go out after breakfast as well, but Paula and Daniel thought I had had enough time outside. Perhaps they were right, but then they went out themselves and spent a couple of hours downtown. There is a market downtown this week. Paula bought some candy which we got to taste when they returned home. It was really tasty. If I had any lingering hard feelings about this morning, they sure disappeared as quickly as the candy I got. Over all, this was a good day in my life.

Cleaning and Cleaning

Paula and Daniel never seem to get tired of cleaning. They cleaned the house once again today. I do not mind having toys scattered around the floors, but it is definitely nicer if there is not so much dirt around.

I would have written a longer blog post yesterday, but I could not access Blogger.

An odd occurence yesterday was that we did not get any mail, not the slightest advertising flyer found its way into our mail box. Daniel and I went out late in the afternoon, when he was back from work, to check if the mail was very late, but it was not. In a way, this was comfortable, there were at least no bills. However, it does make you wonder if there is anything strange going on. The mail arrived as it usually does today, though.

Pedicure

I had a pedicure tonight. That is, my claws got trimmed. Paula does this once in a while to all of us. She cut the claws of me and April tonight. Last time she cut April's claws, April was so scared she screamed and wriggled like a worm. Tonight, though, April was not such a coward. She does not take it as well as I do, but she is still a pup. I stay just as calm as I always am.

Cold Weather

It is very cold outside. Luckily, we have a warm house to be in. It is fun to play in the snow, but nice to sleep in the warmth indoors. I feel a bit sorry for our wild cousins, the wolves, who have to be outside in this cold weather. I know that they are adapted to the climate and can withstand the cold much better than I would be able to. Still, I cannot help but thinking that even a wolf would feel more comfortable in a warm house, if given the opportunity to chose.

Stove and Snow

This day can be defined by the snow on the ground and the stove which is lit in our living room. There is more than a decimetre snow on the ground. Daniel was out shoveling snow last night and yet again this morning. The snow is not falling anymore, but it is cold enough that it stays on the ground. Paula and Daniel has lit a fire in our stove in the living room to aid the central heating system. It is cozy indoors.

Daniel said he saw a fox just outside our house today. I wish I could have seen it, but the windows are to high up and the fox disappeared rather quickly. It did good in getting away before my fellow Shiba Inus and I got hold of it and punished it for trespassing.

May We Hope for a White Weekend?

There was snow on the ground again this morning. Not much, but enough to make the morning brighter. It was not enough to dive in, though, so it could have been even better. According to the mereorologists, there will be more snow this weekend and mostly freezing temperatures. Daniel does not like the snow, it makes it more difficult for him to ride his bicycle to work. I like it, since it changes the play options outdoors. I hope the snow will stay at least for the weekend, when Daniel does not have to go to work anyway.

Preventive Barking

Auntie Linni usually barks as soon as she comes out in our yard. It does not matter if neither of us can see, hear, or smell any stranger or vicious animal close by. Auntie Linni calls this preventive barking - she barks to make sure anyone who may threaten us will know that she is around and not to be played with. Paula and Daniel do no like this. I do not blame them, I think it is totally unnecessary to make any preventive barking. The yard is a fun place where I run around and play, I have never felt threatened there. Linni, on the other hand, claims that it may very well be her preventive barking that makes the yard safe for me. I hope she is not correct in this matter.

Our Veterinarian

It is Tuesday, when our veterinarian is in the back room of a pet shop attending to drop in clients. Paula brought me, Mum, and April there today. He is a really nice guy. I did not have reason to bark at anyone but a child running and poking at all the bags of dog food in he store when we waited for our turn.

Our vet concluded that April has sneezed just because of a common cold and said I was in perfect health. Then he confirmed our suspicions that Mum will not get any pups this time. It feels good to be correct in one's assumptions, but at the same time it feels a bit sad that I will not get any small siblings to play and boss around with. Well, in due time, I will get pups of my own, that is when I can be really bossy.

Water

Daniel worked today, Paula works tonight. They do all they can to earn money. I miss them when they are away, but it is good that they earn money so they can buy dog food and candy. One could ask whether it wouldn't be good if they would also buy us dogs something good to drink. We like some of the soft drinks they buy, but they always prefer if we drink water. Water is nice, but one recent event in Mum's home country shows that you can actually die if you drink too much water, at least if you are participating in a water drinking contest. On the other hand, I do believe any Shiba Inu is smart enough not to drink that much, regardless of the prize at stake.

My Successful Mother

The Swedish Shiba Inu Club, Shiba No Kai, has a competition on the best dog of the show ring of the year. We learned this evening that Mum came in seventh for last year, despite being sparely shown. This is a good result.

It looked like it was planned, but was only a coincidence, that we had lasagne for dinner tonight - as you may recall from previous blog posts, Mum Sunni's pasta nickname is La Sunni. The news came after dinner.

Dad Is Home!

Dad is back home again. Now we are all gathered, as we are supposed to be. Life is calmer with Dad around. He protects us from any danger. He does not like too much domestic trouble either, we know that, so much so that he never has to say so. It is as if his mere presence make a difference. I love Dad, I am glad he is home.

Snow

Snow fell this Wednesday night. It has since snowed again. Finally, it looks like Christmas, now that Christmas is just about over.

Dad will come home tomorrow. We are all looking forward to it.

Besides, Daniel got word from Grus today, my Welsh Springer Spaniel friend from Daniel's former work. Grus has had some trouble with one of his hind legs, but was at the animal hospital today. It proved to be just a muscle injury, which is good because these heal easier than many other injuries. I like Grus and wish him all the best!

At Kesshi's

I went with Paula to her sister Mia and Kesshi tonight. Mia would not be there, so we would keep Kesshi company.

Kesshi is somewhat of a coward when it comes to cutting claws, but Paula cut them anyway. He whined a little, but Paula told him that it would be over sooner if he would only allow her to cut the claws swiftly. You may think Kesshi is a sissy, whining like that, but he has explained to me that he cannot help but being over sensitive of his paws since one of his paws was badly cut by glass hidden in snow a winter in his youth. I think Kesshi is a nice male Shiba Inu anyway.

Candy Bones

We are all missing Dad, who is away the whole week to live with another bitch (Mum's word, she means it metaphorically as well as litterally) with whom he will make pups. Paula gave us some candy bones to chew on. This is somewhat comforting, but I still wish Dad was back home.

Towards the End of Christmas

It said in the local paper today, that there were festivities in Wadköping yesterday for the end of Christmas. (Wadköping is a part of Örebro where old houses are preserved.) They were several days too early. I pity the children whose parents' dragged them there and made them believe Christmas is already over. Any reasonably learned person knows Christmas is not over until the Twentieth day of Christmas, the day of Canute (the English form of the name Knut). This is on the upcoming Saturday. Most humans are free from jobs and schools on Saturdays, why could they not have planned festivities for Canute instead?

April has laid all her fears for Christmas way behind. Now she and I are both sad that Christmas will soon be over. Christmas means a lot of good food and candy, for dogs as well as for humans. We will soon have to look forward to Easter Eggs filled with loads of dog candy instead, indeed a vision of a happy future.

Busy Day

We had visitors today as well. Paula's parents and grand parents came to see us. It was the first time Paula's grand parents were in our new house, they thought it was nice. Paula and Daniel served pie with different kinds of cheese. It smelled good, I wish I could have tasted it. I got some ginger bread afterwards, at least. Ginger bread is also good.

Later in the afternoon, a friend of Paula, and a friend of the friend, stopped by for a little while. This gave us dogs a second reason to stay allert in the same day, but these visitors were also friendly.

It is not often we have to do our duty as watch dogs twice in the same day like this. Since there were only family and friends visiting, I do not mind.

Daniel's Family Were Here

Daniel's parents, his sister Linda, brother Elias, sister-in-law Heidi, and Elias' and Heidi's dog Pontus were here today. They are all nice. It was their first visit to our new house and they agreed with us that we made a good deal when we purchased it. Pontus came in and started to play with our toys, so we barked at him until he went out to rest in the car. He stayed there for the rest of the visit. I like Pontus, but those are our toys.

Fun in Gothenburg

While those of us who are at home have spent hours this afternoon to clean the house, Paula and April have had fun at the dog show in Gothenburg. April had so much fun, she won best of breed pup and went on to become Best in Show Pup-reserve (i.e. fifth in the finals). This is a really good result and she deserves all the congratulations she can get. You could not expect that she, on the very second day of her Swedish dog show career, can do what I did in Hässleholm and become Best in Show-Pup.

I could not connect to Blogger yesterday, that is why I did not post anything then.

Visit

I visited Paula's parents this afternoon. It was rather fun, but Paula's dad had another visitor whom I did not really like. I barked a little, though I was not allowed to. What was I to do, nobody told me that I would not be the only visitor there? Well, Paula's parents like me anyway - of course.

Packing

Paula is packing to go to a dog show. This time, I will not come along. I did not feel like being shown anyway, it is not the season for it. Dog shows are supposed to be outside in summer weather. Besides, since I am staying home, I am relieved of the duty to pack my bag.

April will go with Paula, but she is not as nervous as you would think. She said she has already been to dog shows in America, so she knows what it is all about. I hope she will get a good result, but I do not think she will do as good as I did in Hässleholm, where I became Best in Show-Pup.

A New Year

I am in on the third year of my life, if you count by the calender. I am not yet two years old, but was born in 2005 while it is now 2007. Numbers and mathematics are fun sometimes.

One of my new years resolutions is to keep writing this blog. I do not know how many readers I have. I suspect it is not many. However, I enjoy writing the blog, that is the main thing for me. Stay tuned for more blog entries throughout the year.