Bloodhound Car

A Brit, who is a Royal Air Force pilot, is working on a project where he will drive a specially built car to break the land speed record. The car is called Bloodhound SSC. The attempt at the record does not interest me so much, but I do find it fascinating that the car is named after a dog breed. It is yet another proof of how important dogs are to man.

Raining Cats and Dogs

In the late afternoon, there was rain. At first a mild and tender rain, but later it poured down and drummed hard on our roof. We do have a strong enough roof to keep all of that rain out, though. Fortunately, none of us were outdoors when that heavy rain came down. I wonder how a Shiba Inu coat would have fared in such a rain. Our coats are good, but they are not invincible.

The rain has stopped now. Rains like this are sometimes described in English with the saying "it is raining cats and dogs". I wonder what that expression comes from. I sure would not want to be a dog raining down from the sky.

Swine Flu Hits Pregnant Humans harder

A recent study from the USA shows that the current swine flu may hit pregnant women harder than the average human. Pregnant women may be four times as likely than other humans of needing hospital care, if caught by the flu. The study only involves thirtyfour pregnant women, but eleven of these were admitted to hospital. This was a rate four times higher than that seen in the general population. It remains to be seen if further studies can confirm these findings, but since this study indicated a number four times as high, I guess it is rather likely that there is a correlation, even though the study was done on just a few humans.

As far as I know, the swine flu does not affect dogs. This is good, considering the plans we have of more puppy litters in the near future.

Cruelty to Pigs

The authorities in Halland (a province in the south of Sweden) have seized 800 pigs. The police have care of the pigs and there are suspicions of cruelty to animals. There were dead pigs lying among the living pigs, and a lot of the pigs were of very bad health. Stories like this make me mad. I hate cruelty to animals, even when it is not cruelty to dogs. Pigs are an important source of meat, and the meat cannot be good if the pigs do not fare well. I hope the pigs who survived will have better lives from now on.

Tacos

This Monday was a rather dull day, until the evening. There was tacos for dinner tonight, and some of the minced meat were left to us dogs. This is among the best thing I know as a supplement to my dog food. It made my day.

Meja Succeeds

My dear daughter Meja was at her very first dog show today. It was a match show, a good place to start. She showed how excellent she is by winning best of breed puppy without making an effort. You just have to look at Meja's picture (below), to see what a worthy winner she is.

BOB

So, Paula was at a dog show today with Calvin and Primus. Primus became Best of Breed among the Pharao Hounds. We all congratulate him for that!

Calvin, on the other side, did not become better than third best male among the Shiba Inus. Thus, Paula never got to go with a Shiba Inu in competition for best of breed. If I would have been shown, maybe it would have been different. I may have become best bitch and then Best of Breed. Noone knows, of course, since I was not there. However, with both a male and a female in the show ring, there is twice the chance of winning the breed, when there are others competing as well. I might have been successful, but, alas, I never got a chance to try. I hope to be shown in other shows soon.

Institut Suédois

There is a place in Paris called the Swedish Institute, run by the Foreign Ministry of Sweden. It is a place where French as well as international visitors can learn more about Sweden and where Swedes in Paris can get in touch with their home country. In an attempt to cut spending, the Foreign Ministry have discussed closing the institute down. These plans have been met with opposition. The plans have also caused the institute to be highlighted in the New York Times in the USA, which recommends its readers to visit it, if possible.

As far as I know, this is the only Swedish Institute of its kind in the world, and it is doing good for the image of Sweden. I have heard that the institute will survive, but the plans to close it down may have brought the positive effect that big news papers like the New York Times have written about it. This is a side effect of public plans to close something down that may cause it to survive. I hope it will survive for a long time yet.

Preparations

Paula will bring Calvin and Primus to a dog show on Saturday. She will go with Primus' breeder Sofie and some of her dogs, and they will leave tomorrow afternoon. I will not get to go. This makes me sad.

Solar Eclipse

There was a solar eclipse in large parts of Asia today. In Japan, a partial eclipse could be seen, in other countries, such as India, there was a total eclipse. It might have been interesting to see, but not so much that I would have wanted to go there. I am Lunar Eclips, and mostly interested in lunar eclipses.

Linni on the Web

Concerned fans of Auntie Linni have noted that there is no information on her on our present web site. I would like to calm them down by saying that this is not because Linni has disappeared in real life or anything like that. Linni is as healthy and happy as ever. It is just that when our new web site was launched, Linni decided to take the opportunity to get out of the limelight for a little while. The rest of us do not know exactly what happened, but somehow, Linni was not there on the new web site, and none of us realized it until her fans got in touch with us. Linni is a very valuable asset in our family and we are glad to announce that she will soon return to our web site as well.

Lunar Anniversary

The 20th of July is the 40th anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon. Of course, by Japanese time, the landing took place on the 21st of July. Auntie Linni also points out that the TV photage from the first steps on the Moon were relayed to the rest of the Earth from a radio dish in Australia (home country of Linni's father). By Australian time, the landing also took place on the 21st of July. On the other hand, in space, all timing is by Greenwich Mean Time, and by this the landing was on the 20th of July. Shiba Inus, with our roots in Japan (and in Linni's case also Australia) may disregard of this, however, when it comes to the day of a blog post of this great event.

No other Earthlings than humans (except for the odd bacteria that they carried along) have ever been to the Moon. It is my belief, though, that dogs may be the second species to go to the Moon. Being so closely associated with humans as dogs are has its advantages.

Historic Defeat Coming Up?

The ruling party in Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), may lose power soon. Prime Minister Taro Aso is not well liked and is now even attacked by many members of parliament within his own party. Mr Aso has said he will call a new election in August, but many party officials say it would be asking for defeat if he would lead the party. I ask myself, however: who would be a better party leader? There has been many party leaders over the last couple of years, none of whom have managed to raise the public support for the party. Maybe a time in opposition would be the best, both for Japan and the LDP? The party has held the power for most of the last half century, I believe the democracy in Japan would fare best with a change of powers in the next election. Then the LDP may be able to come back with renewed strength after the next election.

Yet Another Swedish Show Champion

Another one of us have become Swedish Show Champion today. It is Kenny, our dear and beautiful friend who was born and bred in Japan, who managed to take the Swedish Champion title. Well, now Kenny is a champion. Nevertheless, he was beaten by Calvin (father of my pups) and my brother Jiro in the competition for best male. This is not surprising, considering that both Calvin and Jiro are very handsome Shiba Inus too.

After a Short Break

I have granted myself some vacation from blogging the last couple of days. Daniel has been away for some days, so I and the other dogs have had to take a little more responsibility than usually for guarding the house and yard, especially those hours when Paula has been away too. We have been successful, nothing has happened. However, I thought I could take a break from blogging these days. Daniel is back home now and things are returning to normal. Among the normal things are my daily blog posts. Another normal thing during the summer is dog shows, some of us are going to yet another dog show tomorrow. This could be fun.

Tags

Blogger suggests that I have tags for my blog posts. I never have, though. Today, the suggestions were scooters, vacation, and autumn. I have no relation to scooters whatsoever, and as a pet dog, I never have vacations. Autumn is still far away. Thus, none of these tag suggestions were suitable for my blog. However, as the resourceful blogger that I am, I managed to write a short blog post about them anyway. Maybe there will be suggestions in the future which suits me better. If so, I may use them, we will have to see. So far, I have not seen the use of tags.

Going Home from the Show

I went home from the show in the same cage as Calvin, April was with us there as well. (We always go in cages on road trips, for traffic safety reasons.) Calvin's prizes were left on the door to the cage. It was the red and yellow prize for Best of Breed, blue and yellow for CC, red and green for the Champion title, and orange for Best of Group-Reserve. While I am happy for Calvin and the prizes he won, I felt a little awkward, hidden from my place in the limelight. Just look at the picture.

Consequences of Rain

We had a lot of rain on our way home from the dog show yesterday. However, I would never have guessed that it would be so much rain that the road we went by would be closed down this Sunday evening. We went by road 50, part of which goes directly between our home city of Örebro to the small community of Alfta where the show ground was. Between Grängesberg and Klenshyttan in Dalecarlia, the road is now closed off because of the rain. All the traffic is re-routed into smaller roads. The Swedish Road Administration believes that the road will open again tomorrow morning. The dog show was a two day show, we were lucky that our breed group was yesterday. I would not have wanted to go on a re-routed tour down smaller roads, especially since road 50 is not very big in the first place.

Until the next dog show in Alfta, I hope road 50 will be better. I know this is hardly going to happen. There is not enough tax money going to the roads in Sweden, and mending or rebuilding roads take a lot of time. I can still hope, though.

A New Show Champion

Calvin, father of my pups, has aquired proof today that he was worthy of becoming their father. He was showed at a national kennel club show in Alfta, Hälsingland, and became a show champion. This title will show up in new pedigrees of the pups to whom we are parents and any pups that they may get. I was a champion already when we got the pups. One of my requirements for a father was actually a champion title, but I consulted with Paula and Daniel and we agreed that Calvin would become a champion in the future. Today, he proved us right. He has made me and our pups proud.

Beautiful Roads

When you go to a lot of dog shows, you see many kilometres of roads. This is because most dog shows are far away from home and the most convenient way of getting there is by car. Roads can be of different standard, good standard is naturally the most comfortable to go by. There are also differences in how beautiful different roads and their surroundings are. A trip down a beautiful road is, of course, a more pleasant experience than a trip down an ugly road. We are therefore pleased that the Swedish Road Administration has an annual prize for the most beautiful road opened the last year. The 2009 nominees are now chosen. There are thirteen candidates from all across the country and of different kind. Judging from the pictures I have seen, my favourite is Road 87 (candidate no. 3 in the page I have linked to). We will have to see which road wins the prize.

A Fox?

Daniel claims he saw a fox running across our lawn this evening. I do not know if I believe him. None of us dogs where out in the yard at the time, witnessing the fox outside the fence. Would a fox not stay away from the scents of all of us close by, or would it not care? I hope it would care and would stay away. Foxes are not the same species as we, but they hunt for more or less the same prey. We want that prey to ourselves in our lot. I told Daniel that if I would have been outdoors and seen the fox, I would have barked at it to make it run away. Daniel just told me he thought it was lucky I was not outside. He is more concerned about not disturbing the human neighbours than protecting the lot. However, the human neighbours respect the borders to our lot, that fox obviously did not - if indeed it was there.

RIP Michael Jackson

More Rain

We have had more rain today. In fact, it has been overcast the whole day. This is a change from the recent weeks, when we have not seen a cloud in the sky some days. Rain is nice once in a while, but I do not like it when I go outside. It is better if the rain falls in the night when we are all indoors sleeping. Well, unfortunately, it is not like we can do anything about the weather. I wish I could, but there are things that not even I can do. We have a nice and dry climate indoors, though.

Not so Hot Anymore

It is raining today and the weather has been far from as hot this weekend as the previous weeks. This is really nice, for a change. Coincidentally, the lower temperatures outside comes at the same time as I start to end my season in heat. The boys have been way too interested in me for me to feel comfortable, so I am glad this will soon be over.

Mourning and Celebration

Dad's old aunt Ranko in Norway passed away yesterday. We all mourn with him.

Today is the American national holiday. Sunni, April, and Calvin, who were all born in the USA, would normally celebrate today, and drag the rest of us along with them. With the sad news from Norway, the celebrations today have been of the more modest kind. Still, it has been a good day.

Thunder and Lightning

We had thunder and lightning on the late Friday afternoon, so Paula and Daniel decided to turn the computer off. This is a safety precausion to save the electronics from lightning induced electronic spikes that may damage it. Nobody turned it on again for the entire evening, thus, there never was a Daily Hailey. So be it, I can just blame the forces of nature, can't I?

New Images

The new US lunar probe sent back pictures from the lunar surface. It was images of a region in the highlands to the south of Mare Nubium. There was no lunar eclipse obscuring the view, but an interested Shiba Inu called Lunar Eclips (me) watching them here on Earth. Science can be very interesting.

We also got some new images of my baby sister Suri today. However, these were not digital photographies, but printed ones, so I cannot yet show any of them on the blog. We would have to scan them first. Suri has grown, but is just as cute as ever.

Birthday

It is the first of July and Dad's birthday. He turns seven years old today. My pups are half a year old now, Dad is, of course, their grandfather. We all congratulate Dad today. Among other things, he got a big Pingu, as you can see in the picture.