Working Nights

Paula is working nights this week. She will continue with night shifts for many weeks. We all miss her when she is gone during the night. It is not fun, and it means all of us dogs have to take a bigger responsibility for watching the house.

This weekend, Daniel will be away. This means that there will be many nights in a row that either of Paula or Daniel is not at home.

Nevertheless, I think we will work this out. We have before. There will be nights in the future when everyone is gathered at home, just as it always would be in an ideal world. On the other hand, in an ideal world there would never be any trouble, and that would be very boring in the long run.

New Things for the Bathroom

New things arrived for our bathroom today. The new bathroom is almost finished, and we received a new water heater and a new sink, among other things. We also received a new door for the bathroom. It is a nice, white door that matches the door across the hall outside of the bathroom and fits the age of our house. We can now definitely see the end of our time without a functioning bathroom. This is great. I believe we will be able to warmly recommend the company that has been responsible for rebuilding the bathroom: Comfort Vatten och Värme i Örebro.

A Little Heroine and the Necessity of Insurance

In the south of Sweden, a Chihuahua heroine is at the animal hospital, recovering from fighting off a dog claimed to be an American Staffordshire who suddenly attacked her Chihuahua friend. If it was not for this heroine, the other Chihuahua would be dead, according to the news reports.

The biggest problem is not the injuries suffered by the Chihuahua, but the huge veterinary bill after more than athree weeks at the hospital. Dog owners in Sweden have strict liability for damages caused by their dogs, but nobody seems to take responsibility for the actions of the attacking dog. The owner of the Chihuahua says to the press that she has not got the money to pay for the veterinary bill.

I am sad to say I am not surprised that no human takes responsibility for the attack. This is exactly what happened to our friend Kesshi, when he had been attacked by a Jack Russel Terrier the other year. The owners of that Terrier refused to take any responsibility and did not even have any money that could have paid for damages, had they lost in court. What makes me surprised, though, is that the owner of the dog says she cannot pay for the veterinary bill. The owner is a breeder, as such she should know the importance of insuring her dogs against any and all bad things that might happen to them. Our humans do.

The primary source of money for paying the hospital bill must be the assets of the dog owner, but if the dog owner lacks the funds necessary, the secondary source would be the dog's own insurance. I would gladly help the little heroine at the animal hospital, if that would involve claiming money from the owner of the attacking dog. I would not, however, help if the help would mean paying for the veterinary bill because the Chihuahua owner did not have her dogs properly insured. If this is the case, I do feel sorry for the injured Chihuahua, but not for her owner.

Popcorn

Paula is poping popcorns late tonight. Daniel said he did not want any, but I do. I also know the rest of us dogs want popcorns. I cannot understand why Daniel does not want popcorns. It is such a tasty snack. There is also a social thing about snacks like popcorn, when you eat them together with family and friends from a common bowl. If you have not tried to share a bowl of popcorns with the dogs and humans of your family, I suggest you try. It is a great evening get together.

Burial

We buried Kesshi today. I participated as a representative of the dogs of our family. As a special honour to Kesshi, we had lemon cupcakes. These were his favourites. I understand that, they are really good. May Kesshi rest in peace!

Anatomy

Daniel is studying anatomy this weekend. This is not all he does. He has seen to it that we got food in our bowls, worked a bit in the garden and watched a bit on the TV. Most of the time, though, he tries to preoccupy himself with a book on dog anatomy. It is great that he want to learn a lot about this. Of course, all of us dogs knows all there is to know already, simply by having a dog's anatomy, but it is nice to know that Daniel tries to learn the same things. The purpose of his studies is to be prepared for a course in anatomy and judging that he will take next weekend. He is aimed at becoming a dog show judge, and this is a first step on the road to be just that. His primary breed to judge will be the Shiba Inu, of course. We all wish him good luck in his efforts.

Updated Result

What I wrote yesterday about the result of the election to the Örebro City council is not true anymore. The County has reexamined some of the votes which were, at first, declared null and void. This means that the seat that seemed to go from one of the parties to the left to one of the parties to the right went back again. Thus, it now seems like we will have a left coalition minority rule for the next four years.

Is this the final result? Will there be a leftish minority rule? I do not know. I might bet on it, but I am not sure.

Election Results

Daniel goes on and on about it, so I might as well write a few lines about the results of the Swedish general election.

In the national parliament, a centre-right four party government coalition stood against a centre-left-far-left-environmentalist three party coalition. The government won more than 49 % of the votes, but was two seats from keeping its majority in the 349 member parliament. The opposition coalition won less votes, and a populistic far-right party won seats for the first time. (You can have doubts about the far-right label, since many of the ideas of that party are rather leftish, Daniel says, but this is beside the point.) The government coalition stays in power, still with more seats than the left coalition, following a tradition of minority governments in Sweden.

In our home city, the result was rather similar, with the exception that the environmentalist party is on the same side as the centre-right parties. The centre-right-environmentalist coalition stays in power, having lost its majority in the city council but still with more seats than the left coalition, and then there are some seats that went to the far-right party. Daniel won a seat with his conservative party of the centre-right kind.

What is similar, both on the national level and on our local level, is that neither the centre-right nor the left coalition will cooperate with the new far-right party. This is the foundation for keeping the power, despite having a minority. Daniel is not very concerned about the state of the national parliament, but a bit more so on the city council. Still, if everyone takes care not to invite the far-right party into any cooperation, this should work out just fine. I just wish I could understand it a little better, human politics can be so complicated.

RIP

Mum's grandmother Jenny has passed away, fifteen years old. She used to be a show dog and a great agility dog, but retired some time ago. Finally, her kidneys stopped functioning properly, and then she did not have much time left on Earth. I never knew my great grandmother, as she lived in America, where I have never been, but Mum has told me about her. Her lines live on in Mum, me, and Polly, and hopefully for generations in eternity, as she surely does herself in Heaven.

Horror Movie

Last week, I wrote about a newborn human boy who was found deserted on an airplane at an airport in Manila, the Philippines. His mother was found a couple of days later. Today, I have an even more horrible story to tell. A man was filmed by a CCTV camera in Dorset, the UK, when walking a limping dog. He then suddenly walked away from the dog, got into the back seat of a car, and the car drove off.

The dog is taken care of by wardens from the borough council, who are now trying to rehouse her. It was found out that her limp was due to seriously overgrown claws that were digging into her pads.

A mother can desert a newborn baby due to temporary insanity after delivering her child. Deserting a dog in the way shown in this film must be premediated. Any human must consider this a much worse offence.

The humans responsible for deserting this dog will be prosecuted. In England, the maximum sentence for causing unnecessary harm to an animal is six months in prison and a £20,000 fine. I believe this is not enough, but that is just me.

Early Humans and Early Dogs

There are new theories on when early humans left Africa for the rest of the world. Findings of ancient stone tools suggest they may have left Africa more than 70,000 years ago, even though DNA researchers say it is more likely the exodus happened about 60,000 years ago.

The scientists who support the earlier times say the DNA results are not quite reliable. The reason would be that the DNA research is made on present day humans without any ancient DNA to compare.

As far as I know, DNA research have also suggested dogs and humans started to live together on Earth about 40,000 years ago. If the DNA research on humans suggest a date which is too late, perhaps the DNA research on dogs do as well. In that case, dogs and humans may have joined forces much earlier than 40,000 years ago. I like to think this is true.

Late Night

We were up until late last night, watching the election results coming in. Suddenly, we were past midnight, and I had not written any daily blog post. I am sorry I did not. The election was kind of exciting, since it was so close. As I have written before, I am not really sure what to think of the different political parties, but I have my hopes for the party that Paula and Daniel are members of - for their sake, if nothing else.

Election Tomorrow

There is a general election every four years in Sweden, determinging which humans will rule human society. Tomorrow, it is time again, for the second time in my life. Only humans who are eighteen years or older are allowed to vote. Dogs are not, not even the odd dog who would live to be eighteen. Humans do not trust us to make informed choices. Perhaps this is true.

If I would be allowed to vote, I would want to vote for the party who offer the best terms for dogs and dog breeders. Daniel says, however, that there is no party which makes terms for dogs a main issue in the election or in their policies at large. I know Daniel and Paula would work for dogs if they were elected, but when they try to teach me about the election, policies of different politicians, and the trade-offs which they say are often needed to get political result, it all seem to be so complicated. It might give me more satisfaction not to vote. Nevertheless, I hope my human readers who can vote for Paula and Daniel will. They would be happy, which would make me happier.

Reshuffling the Cabinet

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan was reelected as party leader the other day, and could thus remain as PM. I believe this is good for the political stability in Japan, which has seen so many different Prime Ministers over the last couple of years. Naoto Kan is now reshuffling his cabinet, giving important posts to new ministers. It might seem like this is political instability, but I say it is not. The main issue for political stability in a country is a monarch, which Japan is fortunate to have, and the second most important thing are prime ministers who have a firm political majority behind them in parliament and their own cabinet. Reshuffling the cabinet is mostly a way to strengthen this political stability.

Meanwhile, back in Sweden, we have a general election the day after tomorrow. Since 2006, we have had the first cabinet supported by a majority in parliament since 1981. In the interest of political stability in Sweden, it would be nice if the present majority coalition would win a majority this Sunday as well. Then we might see a reshuffle in the Swedish cabinet as well, even that in the interest of political stability.

Not a Future Career

Hi, Karstuhl here!

I have been thinking of my future this week. Part of it involves being a pet dog, part of it a show dog, if I tread in the paw prints of my Mummy and Granny. There might be other options, though. I have considered becoming a hairdresser for poodles. My toy poodle friend Laila volunteered as a hair dressing model. She was disappointed with the result, but what would you expect from a first attempt, an attempt that Paula did not allow me to finish? All I had time to do was one of Laila's ears, not the other. Both Laila and Paula are disappointed with me and suggest that I must find another career. With reviews as bad as theirs, I guess I will.

Celebration

I am busy celebrating my birthday today, so there will not be much written in my blog. Greetings and presents are welcome, even if they are late!

Bomb Threat

One of the most famous buildings in the world, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, has been threatened. An anonymous phone caller have said there is a bomb in the tower. All the visitors have been evacuated and police are searching the tower for a bomb. A bomb searching dog is helping the police, of course. Nobody is better at finding bombs than a dog trained for it. This is yet another example of how dogs are invaluable for all society.

Above the Ceiling

The men who are at our house to rebuild our bathroom has come a long way now. Today, they were up in the tiny space between our ceiling and the roof, giving us new water pipes from the kitchen to the bathroom. There were, of course, some odd noise from up there, but they did not find any odd things.

Paula and Daniel have talked about gnomes living in our house, and I have presumed it must be up there, because that is the only space available. I am not sure I believe there really are any gnomes there, because I have never heard, smelled or seen any. It is quite possible this is something Paula and Daniel are just joking about. They can have rather serious voices when joking about things that they both know are not true, sometimes making it a little difficult for the rest of us to know whether it is a joke or not. I guess that if we do have gnomes living on top of our ceiling, they were out today, disturbed as they would otherwise have been by the work being done.

Newborn Human Boy Deserted

Cleaners onboard a Gulf Air aircraft which had landed in Manila, the Philippines, have found a newborn boy in a trash bin in one of the toilets onboard. The boy has been taken to a hospital and is in good health. He is called George Francis, after Gulf Air's airline code GF.

The mother must have managed to give birth to the boy without anybody else onboard taking notice and then sneaked out of the aircraft together with the rest of the passengers. The social services in Manila has started an investigation into the identity of the boy and his mother. I guess the passenger list to the aircraft can come to good use in this investigation.

As a mother of four, I have a hard time understanding how anybody can desert their offspring in this way. There might be some kind of temporary insanity behind the behaviour. When I gave birth to my first litter, where both pups were breech births, I was very tired in the first hour after delivering them. Once I had had this hour to recollect myself, however, I took very well care of my pups. The second birth was easier.

My guess is that this was the first birth of a very young mother, who presumed her family would not accept her having a child, and thus went into panic. I cannot understand, though, how a baby would not be welcome into its family, no matter how unexpectedly it would be born. Being a parent is one of the main purposes of life, and one of the best things in life. I hope this deserted boy will have a happy reunion with his mother, or else that he will be adopted by other humans who will love him.

We Will Never Forget

Inbreeding

Some humans complain over inbreeding in many dog breeds. Dogs are, however, not the only species at risk because of inbreeding. The risk of inbreeding exist in all species who uses sexual reproduction. In the UK, for instance, scientists warn that some bumblebee populations are at risk of extinction because of inbreeding, which is caused by a loss of suitable habitats. Humans are, thus, in part to blame for this. This is sad news. Bumblebees are important for the biodiversity, not only on their own account, but because many plants depend on them for their reproduction.

Dad is not sorry. He hates bumblebees and other small flying things. They are bugging him. He has explained to me that they can be very dangerous, but I am still not as hesitant about meeting them as he is. Well, at least Dad would be happy if there were no more bumblebees around our house.

Illegal Hunt?

The European Union has instigated an investigation into the hunt for wolves in Sweden last winter. There are suspicions that Sweden made the decision on the hunt in breach of the EU rules on habitats of endagered animals. The EU states that the hunt has probably contributed to more inbreeding of the Swedish wolves, that the purpose of the hunt is unclear, and questions the scientific causes for the hunt.

The Swedish government has said that it will bring more wolves to Sweden, in order to minimize the inbreeding. I guess this is a good idea. Dog breeders often bring dogs to their home country from abroad for the same purpose. Nevertheless, I cannot see the need for hunting wolves. There are so few wolves in Sweden anyway. People in the countryside who are afraid of the wolf may get large dogs for the protection of themselves and their livestock instead, this is a method that works in other countries.

Inspiration

It is not always easy having a daily blog. Once in a while, I cannot think of anything to write. This is such an evening. Please come back tomorrow, I will go on a quest for inspiration until then.

Gone Forever

Hello, Karstuhl here again.

Mummy is very sad about the passing away of the old friend of the family, Kesshi. I cannot be as sad. I did not know Kesshi, I just knew of him. I do know Kesshis human Mia, Paula's sister, who was here yesterday. I helped comforting Mia. I also take a little pressure off of Mummy by writing the blog post for today.

As a matter of fact, I have a hard time relating to death as such. I am still just a pup, I have not lived very long, and I have never knew anybody whom I have lost in that way. The grownups say death is final, that you never come back. This sounds strange. They also say everybody will die, eventually. I am still not comfortable with that thought. It is not that I have considered life before me as an eternity, I just had not given life, eternity or death any thought at all before. I guess this will preoccupy my thoughts for a couple of days.

Off to Heaven

Kesshi has left us for the afterlife. Kesshi, Paula's sister Mia's Shiba Inu male.

Mia came by our house afterwards, so we all got the chance to comfort her.

I am sure Kesshi is on his way to a better afterlife, if he has not reached it already. He was such a nice, good hearted fellow. He tricked death two and a half years ago, after suffering a surprise attack by a fierce Jack Russel Terrier, but never got quite well. In afterlife, he must be as strong as he ever were.

Killing a Garden Gnome

There is a commercial currently aired on Swedish TV for a Swedish home decoration store chain that we do not like. This store chain has decided not to sell anything but fabric and other "soft" things, so in the commercial, a garden gnome is thrown out of an airplane together with a lot of fabric, and the gnome is crushed when reaching the ground. We feel sorry for the garden gnome. What has he done to deserve being executed in this horrible way? We do not think it was his fault the store chain felt the need for change. Well, garden gnomes are often ridiculed, perhaps this is what makes them fair game in the minds of a lot of people. I think that is wrong. At the very least, garden gnomes deserves more respect than is shown in this commercial.

Visit

We are not going to any dog show this weekend, but there are other things to do on a weekend that makes for a nice change from the usual routines. I got to go with Paula and Daniel to Paula's parents this afternoon, as the only dog. It is nice to feel special once in a while, and we always have a nice time by Paula's parents. We had a little barbecue and I got to taste the good food. I also got the opportunity to rest in Nils Olov's lap for a long time, which made me feel even more special. I suppose he liked it just as much as I did. All in all, it was a very pleasant visit, even though - or rather just because - there is nothing more interesting to say about it. You do not always have to make things special in order for it to be pleasant.

Qualification

The qualification to the UEFA European Championship in football has started tonight. Sweden played Hungary and won 2-0. The championship is played in the summer of 2012.

I believe it is a good thing for the sport of football that there are other international championships than the World Cup, and that the qualifications to the different championships of the confederations stretch out for years, just like the qualifications to the World Cup does. This makes people keep the interest for national team football, which I believe would disappear if there was just the World Cup played every four years. Especially for dogs, who have lifespans which are more limited than that of humans, a football cup played every four years would really be too far in between.

There are, of course, both humans and dogs who are not interested in football no matter what. Mum is one of them. She did have a tiny bit of interest for the World Cup for as long as her home country USA was playing, but that was it. The European Championship is nothing for her. I hope Sweden does well, nevertheless. Dad hopes Norway does well. The next games are played this Wednesday, we will see what happens then.

Dog Attacked by Lynx

A Swedish newspaper has published a film on its web page with photos from a camera strapped to a dog, just as that dog was attacked by a lynx. The dog was out in a forest in Sweden with his human, hunting for bears. He started to bark when out of sight of his human, then he was attacked. Fortunately, he survived and did not even get wounds serious enough that he had to go to a veterinarian. The lynx just bit him in one leg. The film may be a bit scarry and it is noisy, capturing the barking, but all is well that ends well.

A reporter asks the dog's human by the end of the film if he will hesitate to bring the dog out into the forest again, but the answer is no. I believe this is a correct risk assessment. It is highly unlikely that you are attacked by a lynx. It would be at least as unlikely to be attacked a second time. Hunting dogs love to hunt, that is what they live for; it would probably be more traumatic for this dog never to hunt again than to go out in the forest again where he was attacked by the lynx. I wish him good hunting!

Dog Rescue

We watched a TV documentary this afternoon about dog rescuers in Philadelphia, USA. It is horrible what some humans let their dogs go through. There were some humans who used their dogs for dog fights, that is, they were teaching their dogs to fight other dogs until either of them died. This is not legal, and with good reason. Making dogs fight each other goes against dog nature and is animal cruelty. The greatest tragedy is that even if you rescue these dogs, they have been taught to be aggressive all their lives, which makes it very difficult to rehabilitate them and give them normal lives in the care of loving humans and with normal relations to other dogs.

Perhaps humans who are convicted of arranging dog fights would be sentenced to bare hand fighting for life or death to each other. The humans who would survive, would be put in prison for life. On the other hand, the justice system needs to show that the law is better than the weird morale of these people, and just sentence them to prison. I do believe, however, that they should have prison sentences for life. Humans like that should not be let lose in society.