Refund

We got a pleasant surprise today. Our home insurance company has decided to pay back parts of the money its customers have paid over the last year, because the company has done so well. We got a refund of quite a lot of money. At last, one of those envelopes with a company logotype on it does not come with a bill, asking us for money, but rather the other way around. I wish we would get more surprises of this kind.

Whipped Cream

In Sweden, Mother's Day is on the last Sunday of May. This year, it happen to coincide with my Mum's birthday. We all celebrated her, and got some whipped cream as an extra treat on our food. Mum was very pleased with the food today, and I quite agree that it was very tasty.

Polly, on the other hand, did not really show me any special respect on Mother's Day. She rumbled around in her usual fashion, wanting to play with me even as I said no. I guess she is yet to young to take the sort of care of her mother than I do of mine. She is cute, nevertheless.

Dog Concert

There will be a concert in Sydney, Australia, specifically developed for dogs. The music will be played by US rock star Lou Reed and the concept was developed by his wife, Laurie Anderson. The music will be very special, played mostly in the high frequences that dog ears can hear, but human ears cannot. Mr. Reed and Ms. Anderson say they have played a lot of music for their own dog, rat terrier Lollabelle.

It would be interesting to hear this music. I am not such a great fan of music, but music composed especially for dogs must be something extra. Auntie Linni, whose father is from Australia, and I even talked about the unlikely possibility of going to Australia to attend to the concert. Australia is far off from Sweden, though, on the other side of Earth. We suppose it will be possible to hear the music some time without going anywhere, music is easily purchased or acquired freely through the Internet these days. If the concert is a success, there might even be a world tour which just might come to Sweden. In that case, maybe Linni and I will go.

Ring Training

Paula and April went away this evening to a ring training. April and other dogs will train on the best way to show themselves in the ring. April has had many victories in the show rings, but she is not a natural show dog, not like me. I love to show myself in the ring, and people say I radiate confidence and appeal in the ring. April has always seen dog shows as more of a job that has to be done. We all have different interests and preferences, so it is not strange that April and I have different approaches to the show ring. However, I believe my approach is better. I never have to train.

Bronze

A couple of days have gone since the Ice Hockey World Championship was finished last Sunday. The Czechs beat the Russians and grabbed the gold, whereas the Swedes beat the Germans and took bronze. I would have wanted to see Sweden fight for the gold, but the Swedes lost to the Czechs by a very narrow margin in the semi final.

Under normal circumstances, I would say a bronze medal to Sweden was some comfort, but I would actually have liked to see the Germans win medals. Hardly anybody remember the fourth team, because only the medalists are usually listed. In ice hockey, there are rather few countries who usually split the medals between them. There are the "four greats": Russia, Canada, the Czech Republic and Sweden, and then there are the USA, Finland, and Slovakia. Germany have a few medals from way back, but I believe it would be good for the sport that such a large country as Germany would get a medal and thus a tangible proof of how much better they were this year than they usually are. I do have hopes that the fourth place may spark some interest in Germany and make the Germans better in the long run, but a medal would have been even better.

Sweden got the bronze last year and will probably have many more opportunities than Germany to take medals in the near future. It would have been a great loss for the Swedes to lose the bronze to Germany, but perhaps it would have made more Swedish players eager to come back next year and take medals. We have had a debate that there are many Swedish players, especially from the teams in the NHL, who refuse to play in the national team. When Sweden take the bronze without these players, it looks like less of a crisis, whereas if Sweden would have lost against Germany, more people would have considered action necessary to get the best Swedish players to want to play in the national team.

It is not that I am disappointed that my home country won against Germany, but I believe a German victory might have been better for the ice hockey of both countries in the long run.

Rain

It has been raining almost all day. It is not fun being outdoors in the rain. Luckily, Paula and Daniel understands this, so we do not have to be outside more than we have to. We were also lucky there was no rain on the morning walk, so we got a walk of decent length today. I wish for a warmer, sunnier day tomorrow. The saying goes that after rain comes sunshine, and from my experience, I believe this is true both in the litteral and in the metaphorical sense. We will just have to see how soon the sunny weather will be back.

Nemo

Daniel met my son Nemo today, on his way from his workplace. He told me Nemo was overjoyed to see him, and that Nemo has grown and is an excellent black and tan Shiba Inu. I would like to meet Nemo myself, but it is still always nice to hear good news about the pups who have moved away from home. Nemo does not live far away from here, so I am sure I will see him now and then.

Birthday Again

We celebrated Daniel's birthday today. He served sausages. Is there anything that can make a celebration better? Well, perhaps meatballs. Nevertheless, it was a good way to celebrate a birthday.

Success in Norway

Kuro-chan, my dear and father of Polly, is in Norway with Paula and April, and Paula's sister Mia. He participates in the Norwegian Japan Specialty and won Best of Breed today. Then he became second Best in Show. This is a great result! I suppose not even I could have beaten him today. I will start my show season later this summer, but am at home taking care of the house and little Polly. We will see what I can acomplish then.

Best Actor

In the Cannes film festival in France, they have handed out a prize for best cinematic canine. It is an unofficial prize, but, needless to say, I believe it is the most important of all the film prizes. The prize was awarded for the tenth year. Strangely, though, some previous winners have not been real dogs, last year the winner was an animated dog from the film Up. Would anyone consider giving a human film prize for best actor to an animated character before a real life actor? I would not think so. This year, though, a real dog got the prize, a Boxer called Boss who acted in the film Tamara Drewe. I have not seen that film, but I would like to.

Running Water

They said on the radio that there are problems with the water supply in the whole town of Örebro, where we live. The reason is that a thunderbolt has struck the water purification plant. This is of no concern for us. Our water is running, but then, our water comes from a private well on our property. We are happy for this tonight.

No Sanctuary Any More

Polly can be tireing sometimes, with all the energy she has got. Until now, she has not been able to get up in the sofas in the living room, though. This has meant that whenever one of us adult dogs have been to tired of Polly's playful attacks, we have been able to jump up into one of the sofas and get away from her. Today, Polly learned how to climb up into the sofas herself. She messed with me for a long time in the sofa after that. I was not too tired of her, so I played along this time, but now I know I have to be prepared for Polly in the sofas. I know it will not be too bad, I do love my daughter.

Potatoes

There was suddenly a foul smell from the kitchen pantry today. We cleared it of almost every content, and discovered a forgotten old bag of potatoes in the farthest reaches of the dark shelves. The potatoes had started to go bad, very bad. Daniel threw many of them away, but he said he could salvage other potatoes and planted them in our garden. If we are lucky, this will bring us more and fresh potatoes in the not so distant future. It is amazing how easy it can be to grow potatoes. I wish it would be equally easy to grow meatballs.

Destroying Furniture

Polly, the little rascal, is chewing on the furniture. She is not just chewing on the living room table, which has already been chewed upon by earlier generations of Shiba Inus, but on the sofas and on Paula's and Daniel's big bed. This is not how I have raised her. Mum and Dad claim this must be traits brought to Polly by her father, they say neither of them have dogs who chew on furniture in their pedigrees. Polly's father does not chew on furniture, but maybe he did when he was a pup himself. He has not told me either way. I hope she will grow out of it soon.

Mission to Venus

The Japanese Space Agency is active, it is now planning a mission to Venus. It will carry instruments to explore this planet. It will also carry an extra probe which will be sailing the solar wind, which is the first time solar wind sailing will actually be tested. The surface temperature and atmospheric presure is much larger on Venus compared to that of Earth, but humans are still interested in exploring it. I cannot see any future colonization of Venus by humans and dogs, but the human thirst for knowledge goes beyond what can be readily used for living, eating, and other basic stuff. I guess this is one of the reasons human civilization has come so far.

After Sunshine Comes Rain

We had not had rain for a couple of weeks, but since Wednesday night we have got about 26 mm. The grass has started to grow. Daniel thought he would mow the lawn for the first time this year today, but the grass was too wet from the rain this morning. I guess he will have to do it later.

Public Appearance

Public appearance is important. You cannot judge a dog by its coat, it is often said, but the coat is one of the things to judge a dog by.

In Japan, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has been widely critizised for his way to dress. While you can justifiably say that his politics and his ability to fulfill election promises is the most important things to judge, appearances is by no means unimportant. Who wants a PM you get embarrased of when you see him? It is as if I would appear on a dog show in a dirty, uncared for coat. Appearances are perhaps more important in Japan than anywhere else in the world, and I do understand that PM Hatoyama's way to dress has added to his falling popularity in the polls. Somebody should hire him a better stylist.

Dangerous Superstition

Humans are strange. They are the most intelligent animal on Earth, yet many of them believe in really strange things. This is quite all right, as long as it does not hurt anybody else. One of the most horrible things that some people believe in, though, is old school, folk medicine. Not only is the medical effect of folk medicine next to nothing, only placebo may be an effect. It is also a threat to wildlife across the planet. Half of all wild canine species are hunted and killed for these kinds of non-effective medicine, just because of human superstition. This is no proof of human intelligence, but rather the opposite. In these modern times, which many humans like to call enlightened, there are thus still a lot of humans killing canine wildlife for nothing. It would be better if these superstitious people would take no medicine at all, because the medicine they take does not make them better, but are made at the expence of the lives of innocent animals.

Highly Unlikely

The leaders of poor developing country and dictatorship North Korea claim that the country has succeeded in creating a functional nuclear fusion power plant. This is something that scientists across the world have been working to accomplish for decades. It would be environmentally friendly and the fuel is abundant. I do not believe it until I read about proof that it is true.

Dad Got Happy

Yesterday, I wrote about the surprise victories of Team Denmark in the IIHF ice hockey world championship. However, Denmark's surprise wins against Finland and the USA was matched today by Team Norway's victory over ice hockey giant Czech Republic. It was thus time for Dad, who was born in Norway and always hopes for Norwegian victories in any sport, to be really happy. He celebrated with a piece of fresh minced meat. It looks like this will be a world championship to remember, with these surprise victories. I really hope both Denmark and Norway can live up to the new expectations and have shots at the medals. Most of all, I hope the Norwegian team will be very successful, since my Dad and paternal grandmother is from Norway. I will follow the tournament closely.

Danish Surprise

Denmark has made a surprisingly great start of the IIHF World Championship in ice hockey. It is normally one of the least good teams, often struggeling to stay in the Championship and not being relegated to the B championship. In the first game, they won against Finland, a team which is often considered a possible medal winner. In today's game, the Danes followed up by winning against the USA in overtime. Mum is not happy, American as she is, but I find it rather exciting that an underdog like Denmark may make a very good tournament. It is not that I believe the Danes will win any medals, but I sure hope they would. It would be a healthy reminder to everyone that it is not only the most common national teams that win. Go, Denmark!

Linni Got Happy

In today's formula 1 Grand Prix in Barcelona, Spain, Mark Webber won. Auntie Linni was happy he did, because he is from Australia, just like Linni's father. Linni hopes that Webber will win the world championship this year, and with the victory today, Webber is clearly a contender for the title.

There are no Americans for Mum, April, or Calvin to hope for, and no Norwegians for Dad to hope for. There are also no Swedes for any of us to hope for. One of the contestants is from Japan: Kamui Kobayashi. While he is a competent driver, he is also a rookie and drives a BMW Sauber, which is not a good car. So far, Kobayashi has not scored a single point, and it is reasonable to rule him out of the competition for the world champion title, at least this year. We hope that he will drive a more competitive car next year. Until that happens, or there are any Americans, Norwegians, or Swedes racing, I go with Auntie Linni and hope for Mark Webber.

Another Birthday

Today is Daniel's mother's birthday. He will go visit her and celebrate her tomorrow. She lives in Stockholm, so it takes a little while to get there, but what won't you do to celebrate your mother on her birthday? We all wish her a happy birthday!

Election

There is a general election in the United Kingdom today. Daniel says it is important, because the UK is a big, European country and what happens there affects Sweden very much. Despite this, I cannot say I care much. I have no relatives in or from the UK, neither does any of the other dogs in our household. Neither, for that matter, does Daniel or Paula. The English, who are the majority if the British, also have their very own rules on how to judge Shiba Inus. The Kennel Club in England is not a member of the FCI and do not abide by the rule that it is the breed standard of the home country of a breed that matters. I do not like that. I believe that if you have a Japanese breed like the Shiba Inu, you should go by the Japanese breed standard. What is the point of having a different standard? This is why I do not care much about the UK, and therefore do not care much about the election there. I do not care that Daniel care, either. That my son Nemo got his official name Eclipse Class Cruiser from a class of UK Royal Navy cruisers does not alter this fact.

Primus

I forgot to mention, the day before yesterday, that it was also Primus' birthday. Primus is our Pharao Hound friend. He is a giant compared to puppy Polly, but very gentle and kind. He is also best friend of Calvin. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Primus. It is a little late, but better late than never. Happy belated birthday, Primus!

Upcoming Election

There is a general election for the British parliament this Thursday. This is not, however, the election I have reason to write about today. Daniel is active in local politics, and he was out campaigning this evening. The Swedish election is not until the 19th of September, but Daniel agrees with his party's strategists who say that the campaign has to be up and rolling as soon as now. I have no idea whether this is true or not, but I would rather have Daniel at home with us. When he is not at home, I have to hope his work amounts to something and that his party gets a good result in the election this autumn. He would be happier, thus, so would the rest of the family.

Birthday

It is Paula's sister Mia's birthday today. She got her presents from me and the other dogs here yesterday, since it was Sunday, which is a better day to meet and celebrate. Neither of us dogs came along, but Paula and Daniel told us that Mia had been very grateful for the presents she received from us. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate her on the day that is actually her birthday, and wish her another happy year. I guess I will see her soon enough.

May

It is May, and it feels like winter is long gone. Less than a month ago, we had snow in our yard, but it is all gone and it is really warm in the sunshine. I like it, though auntie Linni likes it more. Linni loves lying in the yard, sunbathing. Dad, on the other hand, does not like that flying insects are coming back. He would prefer if they never came near him. For Polly, her first summer is coming up. It must be exciting to experience a season of the year that you have never experienced before. I have a hard time remembering how that was. By autumn, Polly will be old enough for dog shows. I am looking forward to this. I hope she will like dog shows just as much as I do. For the time being, though, May is here, a month which usually brings sunshine. This is good.

Bee Theft

A couple of years ago, Japan banned the imports of bees, in an effort to stop the spread of parasites. This is important. Bees are among the most important animals there is, since they are essential for the reproduction of many plants that are needed for the production of food and other things. The ban on importing bees has, however, led to a shortage of bees and an increase in the price of bees. This has, in turn, led to a rise in the theft of bees. It is hard to guard bees, since the bee hives are often placed far out in the fields on the countryside.

What is more, bees do not care about which humans they work with. Dogs are more important than bees, of course, but it is much harder to steal dogs. Dogs care about what humans they live and work with. Dogs generally live with their humans and would never voluntarily leave with people they do not trust. It must be much easier stealing bees than dogs. I hope the japanese can find a way protecting the bees of law abiding humans.