Birthday

Today is the first annual birthday of my pups Meja and Bagus, from my first litter. It has been an exciting year. To me, the most exciting time was the first months, of course, when the pups lived with me. I have since received many reports from them and I know they live good lives in their respective families. Meja has also started a dog show career and made some progress in the show rings. There is no better subject for this final blog post of 2009 than to congratulate them on their birthday. Congratulations!

Cold

It is very cold outside now. We took our normal morning walk, but have since only been outside in the garden for short periods of time. Luckily, it is warm indoors. I suppose the snow will lay on the ground for a long time this winter. It has been cold for a long time now, so the temperature regulating seas must also have become cold, thus keeping the weather cold for a long time in the beginning of next year. The snowy landscape is really beautiful on sunny days like today. I rather like this weather.

Production Is Up

The production in Japan continues to rise. In November, it rose for the ninth month in a row, this month by 2.6 %. I believe it is safe to say Japan and the world is on its way out of the recession. This is promising for next year.

Another Happy End

A year and a half ago, the cat Linus disappeared from his home and humans on the Åland Islands in Finland. On Christmas Eve, he suddenly came back. He was dirty and tired, but recognized his humans and is now reluctant ever to go outdoors. I am glad he found his way back home.

Did Anyone Believe Scandals Where Over?

The Japanese voted for a change of government this autumn, after many decades of having the same party at power. Being too close to power for too long time is never good. However, officials of the new governing party has now been involved in a scandal regarding election funds. Well, who would have thought there would be nothing wrong with the new government? I still believe it is a good thing for Japan that there was a change of power, but no people at power are flawless, new or old.

A Lot of Snow

We had a heavy snowfall last night, and the snow kept falling until late in the afternoon. While I and the other dogs had fun in the snow in the dog yard, Daniel struggled with removing the snow from the driveway. He managed quite well. Some people who chare the start of the driveway with us came just a few metres more on their snowy road, then they had to put in the reverse and go away again, whereas there were no problems whatsoever to go on our driveway. It is fun to play in the snow, but it is enough for a while now.

A Dog's Life - As It Should Be

This is a story worthy of Christmas. The mix breed Oscar has been fortunate, and his fortune has been spread to many other dogs. He was saved from a dog pound when he was up to be killed, and his new owner was so inspired that she took him on a journey around the world to make people save more dogs. In total, 15 000 dogs have been blessed with new homes - and as many homes has, of course, been blessed with these dogs. Words are not enough to say how happy I got when I read about this. May more people be inspired!

Christmas Eve

It is Christmas, and I would like to wish all of my readers a merry Christmas!

We have a white Christmas here this year. It is fantastic, with over 10 cm of snow to play in and enjoy the white reflections of. The snow is really making this dark time of the year much lighter.

We started to celebrate Christmas early today, eating meatballs for morning snack. It was nice.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, the biggest festivity day of Christmas in Sweden. It is also Hibiki's ninth birthday, if you go by the number of weeks there has been since he was born. Hibiki asked if this would mean he would have two celebrations, one for the birthday and one for Christmas. I answered that this was not the case, that weekly birthdays are not commemorated for dogs when they are older than eight weeks old and ready to move to their new family. Hibiki would have to ask his new humans for celebrations, once they get around to taking care of him. April defended her son, though, saying that I should not say anything about new humans not taking care of a pup, since I have stayed with the same humans who bred me. Well, this is not because nobody else wanted me, it is just that Paula and Daniel wanted to keep me, so it is not comparable situations. Nevertheless, I made peace with April and told Hibiki that we would all have a great Christmas, him included, regardless of his age.

Spam

I have decided to make it harder to write comments to my blog. This is due to recurring spam comments that I am getting tired of erasing. I hope tose of you who make true comments about my blog posts will keep doing so. Spam is just such a nuisance.

Rug

Our Pharao Hound friend Primus has such a thin and short coat, that he uses a rug to keep himself warm on the cold winter days that we have now.

Shiba Inus never have to use rugs in the Swedish climate. While we do not have quite as thick coats as, for example, Samoyeds, we do come from Japan, which has a climate rather similar to that of Sweden. Thus, we have coats adapted to cold days in the parts of Sweden where we live. To us, the idea of wearing a rug actually seem a little stupid. If you cannot cope with the Swedish climate, are you of a dog breed that should live here?

Well, I like Primus. He is a friendly and nice dog, whose fellowship I would definitely miss if he would decide to move south. I do not care that he uses a rug in the winter. On the contrary, Primus' rug is black, just like most of my black and tan coat. I think it is nice that he uses a rug that makes him look a little more black and tan, than the usual red of his natural coat.

Advantages of the Cold

There are some advantages with the cold temperatures that we have today. For one thing, Paula and Daniel think it is perfectly reasonable not to force us dogs out on long walks on their days off. Well, I normally want to go on long walks, but once in a while I prefer not to. When it is this cold, I always prefer not to. Then it is good that we do not take long walks.

Another advantage is that frozen groceries can be stored outdoors. Daniel turned the freezer of this evening to defrost it. A defrosted freezer runs better, can store more food instead of ice and snow, consumes less energy, and is thus cheaper in the long run. All the groceries from the freezer are currently stored in bags outdoors, while water drops from the shelves of the freezer.

The dripping ice makes me think of the alarming reports on the climate and the thawing ices of Greenland and Antarctica. World leaders are debating climate issues and what might be done about it i Copenhagen right now. This is ironic, since the weather is so cold in all of Scandiavia just as this summit is held.

Cold Outside

It is below -10 degrees Celsius outside. I do not like it when it is that cold.

Sally Has Left the Building

April's pups turn eight weeks old today. This means that they are old enough to move away from home. Her daughter Sally did that this evening, Sally's new family just could not wait another day to get her. I can understand why. Sally is a very cute and charming little pup. She will now get to know my brother Jiro very well, since he lives with the same humans.

April's son Hibiki, on the other hand, will stay with us over Christmas. It is not that his new humans do not want him as eagerly as Sally's, but they live at a greater distance and just could not make it earlier. This is all right with us, Hibiki is a charming pup as well.

More Snow

Snow is falling. Snow has been falling all day. It has been thin flakes, far in between, but they have fallen constantly, and we have a fairly deep layer of snow on the ground now. It is fun to play in, especially for April's pups. It also makes the surroundings look less dark, since the white snow reflects much light. It is supposed to be temperatures below the freezing point for many days now, so we can really hope for a white Christmas this year.

Snow

Snow is falling, and April's pups experience snow for the very first time. They did not think much about it, did not seem surprised at all, but wanted to go indoors a little earlier than they have usually done. Maybe this was due to the snow, which is cold on your paws, but they never told me.

Sadly enough, it is not so much snow yet that it is fun to play in it.

Burning Down His Own House

A man in Haukipudas in East Bothnia in the northern parts of Finland burned down his own house this Friday night. According to the police, the man was drunk. The most horrible thing is that a dog and a cat were in the house and died in the fire. They must have felt panic and had painful deaths. I hope the man is severely punished for cruelty to animals.

Standing Ears

April's pups Sally and Hibiki have started to lift their ears. There are some, who know things about Shiba Inus, who say that the more perfect size a Shiba Inu ear has, the earlier it will stand up on the head of the pup. There is no doubt in my mind that Sally and Hibiki have a great pedigree and are themselves great Shiba Inus (with the exception of Sally's creme coloured coat). Raising the ears at the age of seven weeks is early. Nevertheless, my pups did it earlier.

Name's Day

Today is Daniel's name's day, by the Swedish calendar. We have all congratulated him. If there is one thing I do not like about my name, it is that I do not have a name's day in the calendar. It is nice to have an additional day every year to celebrate, besides your birthday. Well, the celebrations today involved all of us dogs as well, we got a lot of moose meat to eat. Since we could celebrate on something that was this good today, maybe name's days of our own are not very important.

Dog Show in Finland

Paula went to a dog show in Finland today. It is a two day show Saturday and Sunday, and she only brought Calvin. I always think it is fun to go to dog shows, but I am already a Finnish show champion, whereas Calvin is not. Thus, there is a better reason to bring him than me. It is good for the pedigrees of our common offspring if he becomes a Finnish champion as well. I hope he does. I also hope Calvin and Paula bring some dog candy home, dog candy is often available and cheap at dog shows.

Watching the Pups

I am helping April watching her pups. While April is the only one who sleeps by the pups, I have actually been outside with them more often than her over the last couple of days. The pups are true Shiba Inus, on the fast track towards being housebroken. Paula and Daniel help them by letting them out often, I help them by watching over them and guiding them outdoors. We will certainly have them housebroken by the age of eight weeks, when they are old enough to move to their new families. This feels good, it is good for the breed and good for our breeding programme to have pups who are this good.

Independence Day

Today is Finland's independence day, which they celebrate as their national holiday. The background to the celebration is the declaration of independence from Russia on this day in 1917. We have also celebrated it a little, mostly because we like Finland and believe its independence is a good and important thing, but also because we have a pup here at home who is white as a moomin troll. This is April's daughter Sally. She is cute, is she not:

Busy

We had a busy day today, with friends coming over to visit the pups. We spent the morning preparing for the visit, but it was fun. The human child and the pups were equally fond of each other.

In the evening, we had another visitor, Mia came over to see us. That was also fun.

Visitors

We have visitors who want to see the pups both tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, so we are rather busy preparing for it. I will write more tomorrow night.

More Moose Meat

Paula's father Nils Olov is very nice to us. He is preparing more moose meat for us dogs. This can be stored in the freezer and will be perfect as snacks when we go to dog shows next year.

April's pups was in the sofa for the first time this evening, while we had us some glühwein. It must have been an experience for them, being up there for the first time. I could tell they were a bit uneasy at their paws, but Paula and Daniel looked after them and it all went well for the brief period of time that they were there.

誰が日本語で、私に連絡しようとすると何ですか？

ご希望のコメントを残して私はそれを変換しようとします。ありがとう！

Studies

Paula has her last exam in her nursing studies tomorrow. She has some items left to do afterwards, before she gets her degree in January, but this exam is the most important thing. I have helped her study for it tonight, and shared some popcorn with her. That was a good trade.

Yet again, I received one of those strange comments today. I tried a different online translator, and it seems this comment was in Japanese. It makes sense that someone would try to comment in Japanese in my blog, since I am of a breed of Japanese origin. However, the translation just gave me a lot of words, I could not comprehend the message. I believe that it is some kind of spam, so I rejected this comment as well.

Ups and Downs for Dad

Daniel was away from town for work today, and Dad got to come with Paula to pick him up at the railway station in the late afternoon. I envied Dad for this, I would have liked to come too.

What I do not envy is that Dad then had to go to the veterinarian. Even though it was just routine, it is never a joy meeting the vet. However, what Dad disliked the most was a thing that happened while waiting for his turn to see the vet. While he was lying on the floor resting, a young Tibetan Spaniel just walked up to him, and would not back off when he growled at it. The Tibetan Spaniel's human held it in a leach, but allowed it to come within half a metre of Dad. This is invasion of privacy for a Shiba Inu gentleman, but neither the Tibetan Spaniel, nor its human understood this. Luckily, they went away after a while. Paula said she was about to intervene just about the time that they left.

After the visit to the veterinarian, Paula, Daniel, and Dad went grocery shopping. Dad stayed in the car, but when Paula and Daniel came back, they gave him two hot dogs for all his troubles. This is definitely something I envy.

All in all, I believe Dad's journey held more positive than negative experiences. He enjoyed telling us about the hot dogs, too.

By the way: I rejected another comment in what I believe is Chinese. I still do not know why I get them.