Leap Day

This year is a leap year, today is the leap day. There is only a 29th of February every fourth year. I am still not old enough to have seen any earlier leap day. It is, however, just like any other day.

There is an old tradition that men are proposing to marry women, not the other way around, except for leap days. On leap days, women can propose to men. I considered this, but there is no dog around whom I want to propose to at this moment.

The nicest news today was that of the robbers who chose the wrong time and place for a hold up, and were chased by fifty bikers. Ha ha! Incidentally, this is what would happen if any burglars would ever break in to our house, facing all the dogs here.

Ticks!

The unusually warm February has some negative consequences. Ticks, these tiny, creepy bloodsuckers, have already been observed on the East Coast of Sweden. Dogs there have already gotten unwanted attention by the ticks. Most bad things in the world come with some good consequences, but I do not know of any good things about ticks. I wish there just were none.

A Real Life Horror Story

Sensitive readers beware! If you do not like pythons or snakes in general, perhaps you should not follow the link in this blog post.

Why did they not kill this evil tormenter of dogs?!

Auntie Linni has relatives in Australia, I hope nothing like this will ever happen to them.

Strange Reasoning by the IOC

Francois Carrard, a former IOC director general, says the Olympic Games which will be held in the Peoples Republic of China, will help to improve the human rights in the country.

"If the Games were not awarded to China the situation would not have progressed," he said.

I think this is a strange way to reason. China is a harsh dictatorship whose government pay very little respect to human rights. I believe that any improvements in human rights before and during the Olympic Games will go away after the Games, when the world's spotlights are directed to other places. Awarding China the Olympic Games and believe this will further human rights is like letting a villain host a party instead of sentencing him to prison for his crimes. I will not be happy about these Olympic Games.

A New Dictator

Cuba has a new dictator. The old dictator Fidel Castro has been succeeded by his brother Raul Castro. Fidel Castro has been in power since 1959. Ironicly, the drink 'Cuba Libre' ('Free Cuba'), is also known by the name 'Fidel Castro'.

I must say that I can see nothing good about the dictatorship in Cuba. It would be way better if this country would be a democracy.

Another Presidential Candidate

I wrote last Tuesday about the names of the candidates for President of the USA, and that I do not know of any dog who shares name with any candidate. There is another person today announcing he will run for President: Ralph Nader. Unfortunately, I do not know of any dog by the name Ralph either. I wish there was a candidate called Hailey, that would be fun!

Visitors

Paula's sister Mia with boyfriend Emil was here this afternoon. The humans had pizza, but none was given to us dogs. Nevertheless, it was fun seeing Mia and Emil. This was the first time Mia and Emil saw our newest addition to the dog pack, Calvin. They liked him every bit as much as anybody else does.

On a side note, the little island Sark in the English Channel, which is a dependency of the Queen of the United Kingdom but rules itself, has turned from an old feudal form of government to a modern democracy. People in general think this is great. I do believe democracy is good. However, I do not have that much interest in what way the humans chose to rule themselves, as long as they take good care of their dogs. In the ancient, feudal Japan, the samurajs and the Emperors revered Shiba Inus. This is proof of a good form of government by my standards.

The Dachshund and the Wolf

A Dachshund living on the countryside not far from us was attacked by two wolves last Tuesday. He survived with minimal injuries, since his human managed to scare the wolves away. While I do like wolves, like I wrote in my blog entry yesterday, it is a bit scary to know they may have killed a dog not far away. I am glad neither the dog nor the wolves were hurt.

Wolves No Longer Endangered

Wolves have always been dear to me. Not that I would like to meet wolves, they may very well be dangerous to a little dog like me. All dogs in the world are decendants of wolves, though, and we are still the same species. The USA is also dear to me, since my Mum and my dear friends April and Calvin are from the USA. In the USA, the grey wolf of the Northern Rocky Mountain is no longer an endangered species. It has been removed from that list, since there are so many of them now. The human authorities have made a terrific job of protecting the wolves from their only natural enemy: the human.

This is great news, but for one thing. The removal from that list means that humans are not forbidden to hunt the wolves anymore. Of course, wise humans would never hunt such a magnificent fellow carnivore as the wolf. Unfortunately, there are too many humans who are not wise. I hope we will not have to see the grey wolf on the list of endangered species ever again.

Lunar Eclipse

Tonight is the night of a total lunar eclipse. Unfortunately, our sky is overcast, we will probably not see a thing of the eclipse. I would have loved to see it, especially since my official name is Aangenaam Lunar Eclips. Mum tried to comfort me, saying that we have a total Lunar Eclips at home all the time anyway. While this was a rather witty thing to say, I still would like to see the real lunar eclipse.

Presidents of the USA

The youngest member of our Shiba Inu pack is named Calvin. He is named for the fashion designer Calvin Klein, but he is also the only one of us who has got the same name as a former President of the USA, that is Calvin Coolidge. In this year's Presidential election, there is John McCain on the Republican side and there will be either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama on the Democrat side. I do not know of any male dogs named John or Barack, or any bitches named Hillary. It would be more fun to follow the election if I did.

Even though Daniel is away I have some fun from time to time. Yesterday I went to visit my brother Jiro at a unofficial dog show in his hometown of Koeping. Some friends of mine were also there so I ended up competing in junior handling with a lovely girl named Ronja. Mum was also with me so we took the opportunity to take a mother-daughter-son-photo. People say that mum and Jiro are smashing look a like. What do you think? My family rocks!

Daniel Is Away

Daniel is away from home this weekend, so Paula have to take us on the morning walks. That is OK with us, even though we do miss Daniel. The best days are those when both Paula and Daniel are home at the same time. Daniel will not even be home on the 18th of February this year, the date when he and Paula celebrate the anniversary of their engagement. I guess this is all right with Paula, and if it is, it is all right with me as well.

We Saw Kesshi

On the morning walk today, we saw Nils Olov. He was out walking Kesshi. I had not seen Kesshi since his accident last December, so I really wanted to meet him. However, Dad was with us. Dad and Kesshi do not get along very well, it has got something to do with them being males close in age. I have always believed this is a little silly, but have not cared much apart from that. Now that Daniel told us to walk on without having the chance to meet Kesshi, I got really disappointed. I just have to hope I can see Kesshi soon in other circumstances, when my stubborn Dad is not around.

Too Bad They Have to Be Away

Daniel works weekdays, Paula works many nights. Occasionally, there is more time when some of them are away from home than when they are both here. Daniel worked today and Paula works tonight. I do not like it, it put higher demands on us dogs to protect the home. We are more allert and may bark more when only one of our humans is at home. They do not always like it, but it is for their own good, so they have to accept it. I wish bot Paula and Daniel could earn money without being away from home.

Song Contest

The first part of the song contest leading up to the final where a Swedish song for the Eurovision Song Contest this year was held yesterday. We were generally dissatisfied with the low quality of the songs. Perhaps it will be better in the upcoming parts, like it was last year. I sure hope so.

You have to be at least sixteen years old at the Eurovision final to be ble to compete. Few dogs get that old, I suppose that is one reason no dogs ever participate in the contest.

Volcano

A volcano has erupted in Ecuador in South America. This is a natural catastrophe and may be worse still, but must be a magnificent sight. Mum and April has lived close to volcanoes in America, but we do not have any in Scandinavia. I hope to see one, someday. Meanwhile, I hope all the people and dogs living by this erupting volcano will make it all right.

By the way, Mitt Romney, whom I wrote about last Tuesday, has dropped out of the race to become a Presidential candidate. I am glad, a man who has been cruel to his dog shall not have the most powerful job in the world.

High Life

Paula has a cold and rested in the bed a lot today. Some of us took the opportunity to play around in the bed to entertain her.



We really had some fun.

Auntie Linni as a Video Game Heroine?

Auntie Linni's real name is Fujin. It is a Japanese name that means 'feminine'. She reminded me about her real name today, showing me an advertisement next to an article on the Wall Street Journal's home page:



Linni, of course, tapped with her claw on the screen next to the name of the character in the middle of the picture.

It may be a coincidence, but it is a nice one. I noted, however, that while Linni did click on the link, she did not read much about the game. I may read more about it myself, perhaps the Fujin character is a villain? Maybe Linni did not really want to know and was satisfied enough with seeing her name on the advertisement? I did not pursue the question. Pehaps it is best just to be glad about the advertisement.

Super Tuesday

This is an exciting day. It is called Super Tuesday in America, but you can call it Super Tuesday in Sweden as well, though from a different reason.

In the USA, almost half of the States have primary elections today. It may be settled who will represent the two major parties in the Presidential election this autumn. The contest is very close among the Democrats, where Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are almost equal in many polls. Among the Republicans, it seems like John McCain will gain the most support. I hope John McCain wins over his closest contestant Mitt Romney, since Romney has a history of being mean to his dog.

What makes this a Super Tuesday in Sweden as well, is that it is the premiere for the semla, the Swedish specialty eaten from this day until Easter. It is a sweet bun with whipped cream and almond paste, and it is great.

Snow

Snow fell yesterday (Sunday, but this was posted Tuesday instead of Monday). At last, we had snow enough to play in. However, when Daniel had shoveled snow from half our drive way, rain fell and we noticed how the snow started to melt away. Daniel's work proved to be unnecessary. There is still snow left, but not much. While it may be several degrees below freezing, we still have to wait for a good layer of snow.

Potatoes

I got to go with Paula and Daniel when they went grocery shopping tonight. For some obscure reason, dogs are not allowed in grocery stores, but I watched the car instead while Paula and Daniel made the purchases.

We stopped by Paula's parents on the way home. It is always nice to see them, too bad it was only for a short while this time. Paula borrowed a special device that she wanted to use to cut potatoes for the dinner dish. It was an old, orange device that she remembered from her childhood. Unfortunately, the device did not work, so Paula had to slice all the potatoes by hand. The result tasted very well, nevertheless. Complicated devices are not always the answer. If they were, dogs would use them to eat instead of our sharp teeth.