Scandal upon Scandal

The upcoming Olympic Games has been a scandal ever since it was decided which country would host them: the People's Republic of China, a communistic dictatorship. More and more has been revealed about China's breaches against human rights (and dog's rights). Now, there is another scandal, but this time it involves Russians. Seven Russian athletes have been suspended due to doping charges. Five of them were bound for the Olympic Games. Doping scandals have happened in the Olympic Games before, but hardly to this extent even before the Games. A couple of Romanians have also been suspended due to suspicions of doping. On the other hand, perhaps these athletes do not care much, perhaps they do not want to go to the dictatorship China to compete anyway.

My friend Grus and his human Ylva has a new address on their blog. My link to it is henceforth updated.

Girls' Night at Home

Paula and I have a girls' night in front of the TV. We started out with the reality show Crowned, about girls trying to become beauty queens. Then there is the reality show Pussycat Dolls about the girl pop band, followed by the reality show Project Runway about people trying to become fashion designers. The night closes with two reruns of Sex and the City. Can girls have a better TV evening?

Daniel and the boys are at the computer, but I was allowed to borrow it for a little while in a commercial break on TV, to write this blog post. They are nice, our boys.

Visitor

Mia came over to visit us yesterday. We had a chicken and sausage barbecue which everybody enjoyed. Mia did not bring Kesshi, though. This made April and me a bit disappointed, but was actually just as well, since Kesshi and Dad hate each other.

Mia stayed the night, she slept on our living room sofa, which is quite comfortable. In the early night, Auntie Linni slept at her feet. Later in the night, I discovered that Linni had left that cozy place, so I took it and slept there until the morning came - or rather, until such an early hour that Daniel decided that it was morning and time for our morning walk. Mia and Paula, who did not work today, slept until ten o'clock. I slept long with them after that Daniel forced me with him. Well. I did do my stuff outside so I guess that Daniel had predicted this when he made me go with him and the rest of the dogs on the morning walk...

Curse Early Mornings

Daniel started to work again today, after a couple of weeks of vacation. This means that he got up very early. I have always loathed these early mornings and the early morning walks that he takes us out on. Dad loves the early walks, I don't. Today, I simply refused to come along, and it actually worked. I may try it tomorrow morning as well, but I am not sure Daniel will accept it another morning. I would like to sleep in every morning, and I am happy I have no office work like Daniel, where he must be early every weekday.

Warm Weather

April and I went with Paula to a dog show this weekend. We slept in the car in the night between Saturday and Sunday, which was a new experience but went very well. We had no Internet connection, though, so I could not write any blog post yesterday.

It has been a very warm and sunny weekend. We do not complain, if it is hard on us, it is equally hard on the other dogs competing. Unfortunately, things did not go so well as they could have. Both April and I got to the best of bitch finale, but neither of us won either day. It felt nice to come home, to where rain fell this afternoon. There was thunder and lightning, which is rather cool and just what you would expect after several warm days.

Now it is time to get some well deserved rest.

Itunes remix

Im currently helping Paula and April with the remix of some music from itunes. I love to sing and so does Paula and April. It will be nice to have some good cd's in our car when we're going away this weekend.

I will contact Daniel throughout the weekend so he can write how it goes. Primus was supposed to go along but he has been feeling sick for the whole day. Paula and Daniel will not risk anything so he will be home. He can't be a champion anyway at these shows because he only needs a CC from the Sighthound club for being eligable to compete for a champion title. Primus already have 2 CC's from the Kennel club. I know that even if he is sick he and Calvin and dad will cheer for me at home.

Strange Names

Some people believe that dogs often have strange names. A name like mine, Aangenaam Lunar Eclips, is seen as very strange. At the same time, people think it is odd when they hear about dogs that go by names that are common among humans, such as Kjell or Bengt.

Well, humans can have odd names as well, as this story from New Zealand clearly shows.

Humans may change their names, if they want to. Dogs do cannot do the same, since humans chose our official names for us. On the other hand, I know of a lot of dogs who have chosen for themselves what names their humans may call them. One example is my dear Auntie Linni, who was first called Fujin, but decided to listen to humans better when they used the name Linni.

Preparations.

Both April and me will have a good grooming tonight. We are going to 2 days of dog shows this weekend and as usual we want to look our very best. It is always easy for me to look good. Mum says that I'm the best shiba girl in the world. Thus, April indeed have the title "world winner" that prooves that she is the best shiba girl in the world. I guess this only means that beauty is a subjective judgement.

It looks though that the weather will be great and this only adds to the fun of being at dog shows. I'll have to push Paula to take a lot of pictures. I would have done it if I could but I will be too busy trying to look my very best.

Hurricane

There will be a hurricane in Texas. Mum has lived in Texas, but she is glad she does not anymore. She is happy to live with us in Sweden, she says. When there is a hurricane allert in one of the two states in the USA where she has lived (Washington is the other), this becomes even more true. On the other hand, Mum often tries to say to Paula and Daniel that she got more food and more treats in the USA. Paula and Daniel do not really believe her.

In Sweden, petrol has been very expensive this summer, making it expensive to go to dog shows. This is partly due to heavy taxes on oil products. In Vietnam in South East Asia, there has been government subsidies to the oil industry instead, keeping the price of petrol low. The government has now decided to scrap the subsidies, thus the petrol price jumps 31 %. This puts the price of petrol in Vietnam at about $1.15 per litre. This is still considerably lower than in Sweden, but about the same as in Vietnam's neighbouring countries. I do not know how many dog shows there are in Vietnam, but I guess going to them will be more expensive now.

Dog to the Rescue

In New South Wales in Australia, a pet dog has saved a woman from an attack by a large kangaroo. The woman was at her own farm, when the kangaroo just jumped and launched at her. However, her son's dog heard her screams and came to her rescue, chasing the kangaroo off. Normally, kangaroos are not dangerous to humans, but they can be big and the woman suffered a concussion.

Auntie Linni says that if her mother would have migrated to Australia, instead of her father from Australia to Sweden, she might be a dog rescuing humans from kangaroos as well. I believe that. Linni is a great watchdog and fearless of many things.

It would be interesting to see a kangaroo in real life sometime, but Australia is far away and I do not think the long trip there would be worth the trouble.

Exclusively Me

I was the only one of the dogs who got to come along with Paula and Daniel to Paula's parents today. It feels good to be picked for something fun like this. One of the first things that happened there was that Paula's mother Gertrud gave me some water melon, something I believe tastes great. Later, Mia, Emil, and Kesshi showed up, which made the evening even better. We had a lot of fun and Kesshi and I got some treats. I wish more days could be like today.

Rain, Rain, Rain

It is raining cats and dogs (I like the last part of that saying) and we are taking it easy indoors. Paula and I watched a TV show called Show Dogs Mums and Dads, about humans whose dogs are very successful. Understandably, it was a very nice show.

In the absence of myself...

My best friend April (CH WW-08 Taichung Spring Affair) wins yet another victory!

This day in Köping. The judge mr Hans Lehtinen awarded April BOB and a CACIB along with an great critique. This judge was not giving out anything for free so it felt really great that he loved my sweet April.

In time for the group finals the rain was pouring down. It was also some heavy thunder and lightning. April did the best she could do but today she was not placed in the finals.

I was happy at home. Paula brought home some nice comfy blankets for us dogs. They look like the Stars and Stripes so they will match our international doggy family great I think.

I'll rest my beautiful me until next weekend. Then Paula will have a full car as she will bring Primus, Calvin, April and myself to two days of shows near the Norwegian border. Let's hope for some nice show results then, shall we?

The garden

We have an old bird bath out in our garden next to some bushes. Paula and Daniel have decided to take away the bath along with the bushes. This in an attempt to make place for a parking lot. Im just on my way out to help Daniel with this now.

The New Place

We were at Mia's and Kesshi's new place today, where Emil lives too. It was Paula, Daniel, April, and I who were there and had a little evening meal. It is a nice flat in two stories, and even nicer now that the furniture and things are finding their places.

Later in the night, we watched a movie: No Place for Old Men. The only thing bad about it was that some dogs in it were killed. Yet again, it was that kind of movie and there were more humans than dogs killed. It was a good movie, I can recommend it.

Bicycle Race

The worlds largest bicycle race, Tour de France, is held these days. Dad is happy today, since he is from Norway, and Norwegian Kurt-Alse Arvesen won today's stage. However, Australian Cadel Evans still holds on to the yellow jersey that shows he leads the whole race. This makes Auntie Linni happy, because her father was from Australia. Mum, on the other hand, who is from the USA, says that there is still none who can compete with American Lance Armstrong, who won the whole tour seven years in a row. I just stand by and do not really care, because there are no Swedes who seem to have a chance at winning.

No New Champ

Primus did not become champion today, though he did well on the show. As I wrote yesterday, it is hard to get that final CC. We have to look forward to future shows instead. Now it is time to rest for a while.

Vacation

Daniel has had a summer vacation lately, and it is still not over. I decided to follow his example and take a vacation from my blog. However, I find writing in my blog to be such a great thing to do, that it is hardly work. It is only once in a while that I find it hard to come up with things to write about. After two days without blog entries, I did not want to keep up the vacation anymore. Thus, I am back again.

We are going to a dog show tomorrow, but none of us Shiba Inus will be shown. It is a Pharao Hound specialty. Our hopes goes to Primus, who has a chance of becoming a champion. The last certificate always seems to be the hardest to collect, so we will not take anything for granted. If you do not take anything for granted, you are not as disappointed if things do not go your way, and you are more happy if they do. We will see what happens.

Relaxing

We feel like we still are not fully recovered from the World Dog Show. Today, we rested a bit. April and I will go to more dog shows later this summer, and this weekend it is time for Primus the Pharao Hound to go to a specialty show. Primus has just one CC to go for a championship, just like me.

I think it is nice that I will not have to compete with April for the CC's anymore, since she is already a champion. I do think I am the better dog of the two of us, and should have become champion first. This is not to say April does not deserve the championship, she really does, but there are degrees in how great a dog you are. Well, I just have to accept that my fans and I have yet to see a judge who will give me a CC after my second birthday, and I know it is just a matter of time.

New Home

Mia and Kesshi has moved to a new flat in the northern part of our town. Today, April and I got to go with Paula and Daniel to visit them there. It was a nice flat in nice surroundings, and it is always fun to meet Kesshi. Emil will move in tomorrow.

We have also read about a happy end for a stray dog found by the police in town about a month ago. The dog was about middle age, healthy and fine, but nobody has contacted the police to claim ownership of it. Now, a family has volunteered to adopt the dog. This is good, the police did not have the money for its upkeep and if nobody would have taken the dog it would have had to be put away.

After the Big Show

We came home late after the World Dog Show yesterday and nobody wanted to put on the computer. I guess I will have to write about it today instead. Mum, April, and I were shown at the WDS from our family. It went OK for me and Mum, but extremely well for April. She won the competition for CACIB and thus received the title World Winner '08. This means that whenever you will se her name in the future, in dog show catalogues and so on, it may be accompanied with the title "ww08". This is a fantastic result. It is a good thing April has had Mum and me to learn from to become such a good show dog.

Ingrid Betancourt

While all the world looks to Sweden for the World Dog Show, important events occur on other places as well. In Colombia, politician and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt was released from her captivity two days ago. She has been held captive by the leftish Farc rebels since 2002, when she was abducted during her presidential campaign. Ms. Betancourt has dual citizenship, she is Colombian and French. She arrived in France today, a country where she grew up and that has helped setting her free.

Paula also has dual citizenship, Colombian and Swedish. I am glad she has never returned to Colombia. It is considered one of the most dangerous countries to live in, though the situation has improved during the last years. What if Paula would have been abducted by Farc? I would rather not think about it.

Besides world news and world dog show news, we have celebrated the US national holiday today. Mum, April, and Calvin are from the USA, so it feels natural for all of us to revere this day.

The Circuit Show

It went all right at the circuit show today. I got the prize very good, as one out of a great many Shiba Inu females in the open class. The judge today considered April better, she was the only one in open class who received the higher prize excellent. It was a small wonder, then, that she won the class. Out of over twenty good looking Shiba Inus from all over the world in the class, this was a very good result. We have celebrated with April this evening.

Show Preparations

Tomorrow is a Shiba Inu specialty show in Stockholm, a circuit show as the World Dog Show starts tomorrow and continues until Sunday. Shibas are shown at the World Dog Show on Sunday, but April and I will be shown on the specialty tomorrow as well. We have made preparations for the show today. Both of us have bathed and been groomed. Our full coats sparkle, if I may say so myself. There will be a competition never heard of before in Sweden on the World Dog Show and the shows around it. April and I believe that we are competitive, but we take nothing for granted. We go to the show mainly to have fun and meet new and old acquaintances. No matter what the result in the show, we will have fun, though we will do our best to get good results.

Dad's Birthday

We celebrated Dad's sixth birthday today. Dad got a new ball, a big, green one. He played lovingly with the ball for a long time. I wanted to borrow the ball, if only for a little while, but Dad would not let me until late in the evening. When I did get hold of the ball, it did not take long for it to be punctured. Everybody blamed me, but why was I to blame? Sure, I had the ball in the second it was punctured, but Dad had played with it for a long time and must have worn it out. Maybe Dad let me have the ball, because he knew it was soon to be broken? I do not want to think Dad would be that bad to me, he usually is not. Still, I cannot shake the conviction that I am not solely to blame for puncturing the ball.

Nevertheless, Dad had a great birthday with good food and his loving family. Congratulations to him!