The Year 2007

This has been a fairly successful year in the show rings for me. My brother Jiro beat me to the goal of becoming a champion, but I am happy for him.

These are my results:

Six CC's,
four CACIB, one reserve-CACIB,
one Best of Breed, and
two Best of Opposite Sex.

My new year's resolution is to keep up the good work.

New Light Devices

How many scientists does it take to screw in a light bulb? Well, soon you will not need any. Some Glasgow University scientists have developed new technology for light sources that will be brghter and use less power than the most energy efficient light bulbs on the market now. This is good news for humans. It does not make much difference to dogs, though. We have much better night vision than humans as it is, so we have little use for light bulbs one way or the other.

Does Father Christmas Exist?

A Russian TV advertisement said that Father Christmas, Santa Claus, does not exist. This made the authorities mad, so they banned the advertisement. The Russian authorities thought that the advertisement would break the rule not to discredit parents and teachers. Declaring that Father Christmas did not exist implied that parents were not telling the truth, thus undermining childrens' trust in them.

Personally, I am not sure whether Santa Claus exist to bring Christmas gifts in this day and age. I have never met him, though I have received Christmas presents. It is clear to me that he did exist at one time, as Saint Nicholaus, but does this mean that he brings presents at Christmas in our time?

I have not seen the Russian TV advertisement. Nevertheless, it seems to me that it was wrong to ban it. Are not children supposed to believe more in their parents than in TV advertisements, anyway? I know I did as a pup.

Free Trade

The US Congress has ratified a free trade agreement between the USA and Peru. Next in line is a free trade agreement with Colombia. This seems to be good ideas. Trade gets you what you want, free trade even more so.

Other happy news is that Kesshi comes home today! Do I need to say more? I will be back with more news on Kesshi later.

Visitor

We have a visitor here tonight. Paula's sister Mia will stay the night on our living room sofa. Her dog, our friend Kesshi, will probably come home from the hospital in a few days. He has healed quicker than anyone thought possible. Then again, Shiba Inus are fighters and will never give in. I am looking forward to seeing Kesshi again.

The Things That Can Happen if You Don't Have a Dog

There are many burglaries in Sweden during the Christmas holidays. One news paper wrote about couple whose home had been burglared, where the thiefs opened up all the Cristmas gifts and stole those that they liked.

I believe the burglaries depends on the fact that there are many people who are not at home at Christmas. If you are not at home, you cannot protect your house from a burglary. We have always had someone at home in our house. Any burglar that comes to us has to face many dogs. If you do not have dogs, your house is much easier to break in to. This is but one of the many advantages of having dogs.

Kesshi

We are getting daily updates on Kesshi. He is making progress.

Meanwhile, we have a fairly good Christmas without Kesshi. There is, however, no snow on the ground and we had some rain today. It is not like your typical post card Christmas. However, some people say that rain is tears of the angels, maybe the angels shed tears over our friend Kesshi's injuries. He may be making progress, but we are all sad about his fate.

A Christmas prayer to my Kesshi...

Kesshi was attacked by a terrier two days ago. Unfortunatly, he was badly injured and became paralyzed in his back legs.

He was under emergency surgery last night at a big animal hospital. Luckily he survived the surgery. Now we pray for Kesshi to recover. All my thoughts goes to Mia, Paulas sister and her Emil. They are devestated, as you normally would be if your beloved dog would be severily injured.

Therefor. My Christmas vacation from the "Daily Hailey" ends in sorrow and grieving. I so hope for a Christmas miracle. I want Kesshi to be well again. I want to kiss him and play with him soon. Im so sad. I will only update this blog due to the state of Kesshi.

The last thing I'll do now is to send a Christmas prayer to my Kesshi. Get well, you are loved by me.

Crackers

It is customary to fire off crackers at twelve o'clock on New Year's Night in Sweden. Nowadays, however, some people start to fire crackers weeks before New Year's Eve and keep doing it for many days afterwards. Some dogs are deadly afraid of crackers. None of us in our family are, fortunately, but this does not mean we like crackers. Some crackpot just fired off a load of crackers in our neighbourhood, and we competed with each other to bark the loudest back at that person. Daniel got mad, he did not want us to bark, but the cracker noise did stop. Daniel does not believe our barking made it stop. He cannot prove that, though. What we do know is that the noise stopped when we barked. I take comfort in believing that our loud barking did make a difference, no matter what Daniel says.

What is more important is that we have received Christmas cards from my brothers Jiro and Kiko. Everything is well with them, for which I am very thankful.

Travelling in Europe

Nine new countries join the border free area in Europe under the Schengen agreement today, an area where humans may travel freely without stopping at border checkpoints or showing passports. Sweden has been a member for several years. Among the new members are Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland on the other side of the Baltic Sea.

The open borders for humans does not mean the borders are open for dogs. Sweden and Norway are rabies free, which Finland and continental Europe is not. This means that dogs who will go to Sweden or Norway from other countries has to be vaccinated agains rabies and have proof that the vaccine works. This affects Swedish dogs as well; if we want to go abroad to another country than Norway, we have to have the same vaccination and paperwork in order to be able to come back to Sweden.

It is a happy coincidence then, that our veterinarian had the time to give me my first rabies shot today. I am thus on my way to get vaccinated and get the paperwork that allows me to travel Europe as freely as a human. This feels great.

Egg Nog

Since Christmas is coming, Daniel had an egg nog late tonight. It is a drink often had for Christmas. I am usually interested in anything edible, but it was too late for me to feel any urge to try the egg nog. It felt a little strange, but if you are tired, you are. Consequently, I cannot say whether it was good or not. Daniel said it was, though.

Christmas Is Getting Closer

It is Christmas in less than a week. We all look forward to it this year. It is not like last year, when April was less than a year old and I had to teach her about Christmas so she would not be afraid of it.

At the same time as I think it has been a long time since last Christmas, time has flown away. It all depends upon what I am thinking about. The dog show season was long and I have a lot of memories from it to think about, but at the same time, dog shows are so much fun that it feels like it was over too soon. The every day life does not leave many memories to dwell upon, so it seems like it has gone by quickly, but at the same time I know how long an ordinary day can seem when there is less to do than on other days. Not that I have many days that are slow, I usually have a lot of things on my mind and a lot of things to do, but there is such a slow day once in a while.

We may go to Paula's parents the day after tomorrow to prepare for Christmas celebrations. I am looking forward to that.

I'm Happy Again!

If somebody would have asked me yesterday afternoon if I thought mum, April and Primus would come home soon I'd probably said no. I was so bored and felt upset beeing left at home. Honestly, I was a bit jealous too.

Late at night I was happy again. Mum burst into the house and straight to the cookie jar. We all barked of happiness. The family was together. At last. Daniel gave us all cookies and we were happy.

In two weeks I will go to a big show with mum. Haha. I wonder what April will say then. Supposivly she will not be so stucked up as she was yesterday. My sweet baby sister could be such a brat sometimes. Even though she is so sweet and nice. She is forgiven. I love her anyway. We are family and should stick together. If somebody would be mean to her I would cover her back. I know she would do the same thing for me.

Waiting for the Others to Come Home

Paula went to Stockholm for a dog show yesterday. She brought Mum and April, but I had to stay home. We know that they will be back tonight, but it is half past seven and we have not heard from them for a couple of hours. I want them to come home, it is more fun when I have April to play with and feels better when Paula and Mum is around.

The show was neither a great success, nor a total failure. Dad's breeder Christen Lang won very much with his dogs, so Dad is pleased with the results. He says it only goes to prove you have to come from Norway to be really successful. I guess Mum would not agree, considering that Mum is from America and is Swedish and Norwegian champion, while Dad is neither. Well, I let Dad brag about his home country. After all, I am half Norwegian myself through him.

I will go to dog shows again next year. I am looking forward to it already.

Will Bolivia Split Up?

Tension grows in Bolivia in South America. The four provinces Beni, Pando, Santa Cruz, and Tarija want greater autonomy, especially since President Evo Morales has stated that he want more central control over the provinces and more political distribuion of wealth. The army and police is on allert. Will the country split up? Personally, I believe it would be interesting to see new countries formed. I think a province should be able to become independent, if the people really want it to. The most important thing is, though, that the people treat their dogs well.

About Formula 1

Fernando Alonso went from McLaren to Renault a few days ago. This made us wonder where Renault driver Heikki Kovalainen would go, and who would take Alonso's seat in McLaren. Today it turns out that Kovalainen goes to McLaren. This means that there are two drivers from Finland in the two strongest teams, Kovalainen in McLaren and of course Kimi Räikkönen in Ferrari. I guess we must not wait very long for another Finnish world championship.

Where are all the Swedish drivers? How can it be that Finland, with little more than half the population of Sweden, have so many more great formula car drivers? Sweden has not had any since the 80's and has not had any good one since Ronnie Peterson in the 70's. Why can't there be at least one, when Finland have two? While I wait for a Swedish driver, I guess I have to hope for success for the Finnish and Japanese drivers.

Barking at Lucia

We celebrate St. Lucia in Sweden today. On the morning walk, we saw some young people walking in a St. Lucia procession, singing Lucia songs. Daniel got really mad when I barked at them and told me to stop. I did, of course, but I could not stop glaring at them. I was the only one who barked, so I was the only one Daniel got mad at. Was I the only one who heard that they sang out of tune?

Grooming

We have a huge show on Sunday in Stockholm called "HUND2007" or Dog 2007 in English. This year the show is also the Nordic Winner Dog Show which means that every BOB and BOS gets the official title "NORDV-07". Well. Here in our house we have several dogs entered. This means that some lucky Shibas will have to go into the bathtub tomorrow. We will all be bathed and groomed to perfection. It takes a long time for each of us, standing still on the grooming table, waiting for Paula to get us dried and groomed. I do not mind the grooming part. I love to feel pretty and be in the centre of attention. Paula is also so nice that she gives us a lot of treats every now and then so we can feel even more pretty and not so bored.

Me and my gals at home thought that even our "mama" Paula needed a grooming session. We want to have a sparkling handler so we can be a perfect match. Today we sent Paula to town and her favourite hair dresser. It took 3 hours, some boring time waiting for her to come home (which I by the way used to bark at the neighbour horses) and some chewing bones until she found her way home. The result is splendid, if I may say so. Paula was satisfied and this was the main purpose. She also told us that she too got some snack while beeing groomed (haircut and colouring). I'm not jelous because I know that tomorrow, I will get some nice treatment too.

I guess that on Sunday it will be one sparkling handler and some sparkling Shibas from our household. It seems appropriate to say that: "In our case, It is polite to stare".

Daniel's Name's Day

It says Daniel in the Swedish almanack on the 11th of December. Thus, we celebrate our Daniel. He got some Swedish "ostkaka" (litterally cheese cake in English, but that is something very different), which he really likes. I wish I had a Name's Day, but as is normal with dogs, I do not have a name that is common among humans or come from an important human saint or member of the royal family. Maybe there could be a dog almanack in the future with common dog names in it?

Nobel Day

The Nobel Prizes are handed out in Stockholm today. I was not invited to the festivities this year either, but then no dogs ever are. The King is handingout the prizes, but not even his dogs are allowed to come. I can watch it on TV instead, it is calmer.

From the world of sports we can note that Fernando Alonso returns to Renault, the Formula 1 team with which he became world champion in 2005 and 2006. He got a two year contract with Renault. I guess it is good for him, but he may have given up on his old goal to become champion in at least two different cars in his career. The future will tell.

The Day of Rest

Sunday is normally the day to rest on. But this was not to be today. I woke up early on with a lot of things on my mind. I let Daniel and dad out so they could rake the lawn and clean it from all the leaves laying around. Me myself was very busy, helping Paula clean the house inside. I had to watch the young "kids" April and Primus from making too much of a mess. They can be hopeless sometimes. In the afternoon I thought it was time for dinner so I made it with a little help from Paula and mum. Needless to say, I'm proud over myself today. Not resting but helping around here at home.

Saturday!

It is Saturday, which means that Daniel does not get up early to go to work, and that he does not drag us dogs up almost as early to take a morning walk. I cannot understand how Dad, for example, is always so eager to go right away. I would rather sleep for several hours more. I try to tell Daniel every morning, I am always the one he has the hardest time to wake up, but I always come along anyway. Today I could sleep much longer, since it is Saturday. This is one of the reasons I love weekends.

Idol 2007 finale!

Tonight is the season finale of Idol 2007. A music competition that is aired on channel 4 on Swedish television. Daniel and all of us dogs don't care so much, but Paula is. We love Paula so much so the entire family will support Paulas wish of watching the Idol. I can always bark if somebody sings off tune or too bad.....


My biggest idol is my mum. Mum always covers my back. We are a team. One day I hope to be such a successful show champion as she is. Im on my way though. Winning 6 cc's, 3 cacib's, 1 BOB, 2 BOS. Im currently no # 3 shiba in Sweden according to both the Swedish Shiba Club and the private site shibainfo.com. I am the only Swedish born non-champion of top 10*. That's hot! Mum is in place # 6 and April is placed as #7. Mum and April are the only imports listed of the top 10. That is cool!

My beloved mum Sunni.

* April is the other non-champion.

Finland's Liberty Day

On the 6th of November 1917, exactly 90 years ago today, the Finnish parliament voted in favour of a bill on national sovereignty from Russia. It has since been celebrated as Finland's national holiday.

Finland had been a part of Russia since 1809 with very limited rights to decide its own destiny. The latter decades, Russification had taken place. The people of Finland deserved its freedom, but they had to fight for it in three wars: a civil war against communists in 1918 and two wars where they defended the country against Soviet aggression in 1939-40 and 1941-44. Our thoughts go to the brave people of Finland today. Hurrah to the home country of the Moomin trolls!

Christmas Party

Daniel spent the evening at work. They had a Christmas party there. I think it is too early to celebrate Christmas on the 5th of December, but Daniel said it can be like that on workplaces. Nevertheless, I am certain we had a better - non-Christmas - evening at home.

Not Always Easy Being Rich

A white Maltese called Trouble inherited $ 12 million from her human last August, and is thus probably the richest dog in the world. I am not jealous, however. There are only so many treats you can have in a day. Trouble is in trouble for other reasons too, she has received several death threats and is now in hiding. I wonder whether she would have received so many threats, had she not been rich. It is not always easy being rich, even though some money helps in life.

Hearts

I read in the news that on this day forty years ago, i.e. in 1967, South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed the first successful human heart transplant. This must be a great thing to commemorate for humans. It did not say when the first successful heart transplant was made on a dog, though. I looked into the matter and found out that the first succcessful heart transplant on a dog was made as early as in 1960. This is half a dog's lifetime before the same feat was performed on a human. Some would say that the humans only used dogs for practice. I, however, prefer to see it as proof that humans are concerned with developing dog surgery too, because they care so much about us. This is a better interpretation of history, I believe.

Beowulf

Last night Paula and Dan was away and watched Beowulf on the big screen. Both told me that this was an extraordinary movie. One of the best they have seen in a long time. The music was fabulous. Well we had a blast at home. Playing and resting waiting for them to come home.

This is the lyrics of the closing song of the movie. To listen to the song, click here.

Out of the mist of history
He'll come again
Sailing on ships across the sea
To a wounded Nation
Signs of a savoir
Like fire on the water
It's what we prayed for
One of our own
Just wait
Though while he may roam
Always
A hero comes home
He goes where no one has gone
But always
A hero comes home
Deep in the heart of darkness sparks
A dream of lies
Surrounded by hopelessness
He finds the will to fight
Theres no surrender
Always remember
It doesn't end here
We're not alone
Just wait
Though while he may roam
Always
A hero comes home
He goes where no one has gone
But always
A hero comes home
And he will come back on the crimson tide
Dead or alive
And even though we know the bridge has burned
He will return
He will return
Just wait
Though while he may roam
Always
A hero comes home
He knows of places unknown
Always
A hero comes home
Someday they'll carve in stone
"The hero comes home"
He goes and comes back alone
But always
A hero comes home
Just wait
Though while he may roam
Always
A hero comes home

Dad Is Upset

Dad heard on the radio today that Russian authorities did not want to accept fish imported from norway. The Russians claim there are health issues due to lack of hygiene in Norway. Dad does not believe this for a second and cursed at the Russians. He asked me to write about this in my blog, so I did.