Happy Birthday!

Today, I congratulate my oldest puppy litter on their birthday. Meja and Bagus are celebrating their second birthday today. I wish them all the luck in the upcoming year!

Grocery Shopping

Paula took some of us to the zoo store today. We were out to buy more dog food. This is important business, but Paula and Daniel have neglected to bring any of us dogs too many times. I believe it would be self evident that at least one of us would come along and have a saying, when our food is purchased. It is not that neither Paula nor Daniel buys bad food, on the contrary, they often do a good job. Nevertheless, we are the end consumers, and today, we had a saying. I liked that.

Another Batch of Christmas Gifts

Daniel spent part of the evening wrapping another batch of Christmas gifts. He and Paula will celebrate Christmas tomorrow night with Paula's parents and sister. We have yet to get to know who, if any, of us dogs who may follow. Normally, I would be keen to go, but I am not sure this time. It seems a little weird to celebrate Christmas many days later than Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Nevertheless, I hope the celebration will be fun, for those who attend it.

Zoo Animals

We watched a Danish documentary on TV today, that was about zoo animals in America that was brought to Europe to make the gene pools of the European zoo animals more diversified. This was interesting. It is positive that so much is done to make the gene pools diversified and thus healthy. I was reminded of Mum and Dad, who were both brought to Sweden from abroad to make the Swedish Shiba gene pool more diversified. Mum even came from America, just like the animals in the documentary. I guess I am a product of great thoughts.

High Public Debt

The Japanese government has approved a budget for next year with record spendings. The aim is to boost the economy. However, it adds to public debts, which is already the highest among developed nations. I am concerned, I have to wonder if Japan is on the right track. It is not that I am very good at economy, but it does not seem right when the contry's public debt is expected to reach 184% GDP by the end of March 2012. A public debt that is almost twice as high as the GDP cannot be good. On the other hand, the Japanese people are hard workers and have come back from much worse circumstances. They also have the world's biggest Shiba population to help them.

Love Actually

We watched this great Christmas holiday movie tonight, the British movie Love Actually. It is a story of many love stories interwoven into a whole. I like this picture a lot. It is positive, though not without sad parts, and it is funny.

The only negative thing that I can say about this movie is that there are no dogs in it. If you want to show a lot of human love stories, why not have at least one story involving the love between human and dog? It is a natural and important part of human society.

Conspiracy

With a Mum from America and a Dad from Norway, I have always thought I would celebrate holidays in Swedish ways, since this is where I live. In Sweden, as most of you know, the greatest Christmas celebration takes place on Christmas Eve. I had, therefore, planned to wish everybody a Merry Christmas yesterday. However, Mum and my little rascal for a daughter Karstuhl convinced me Karstuhl would get to write the Christmas wish, since this is her very first Christmas after being born. Guided by Mum, though, she waited until today to make the wish for a Merry Christmas. Perhaps I should have protected my interests in my own blog a little better.

Oh well, I do wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Hello, Polly here!

Granny insists this is the right day to say "merry Christmas", so we convinced Mommy not to do it yesterday.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Cleaning the House

The dogs of the household is helping Daniel cleaning today (while Paula is off working). It is the day before Christmas Eve, and even though there will be no big celebration at our place, with guests and all, we want it to look nice.

Human holidays are funny. Humans take days off from work, but work all the more at home, just to make the holiday a little better. I believe dogs have an easier take on life: we take it easy and take the day as it comes. This means we do not have to feel rushed and stressed out because of days to come. Daniel do say you can buy a lot of prepared Christmas food and candy, but that this does not give the same feeling as homemade stuff. As long as it is tasty, I do not see the difference. Perhaps it is just as well I am no human, the other humans would not like my holiday attitude.

Fan Page

We have started a fan page for our breeding at Facebook. There you can read about us and see pictures such as this one of Pharao Hound Primus, when he made a success at the show this weekend:

Dessert

I was just about to write my daily blog entry, when Paula and Daniel decided it was time for dessert. I have to rush away to protect my interest in any kind of share of the dessert.

Show

We went to Stockholm today for the final dog show of the year. Our results were not quite as good as we had hoped, but they cannot always be. Mum became Best Veteran of the breed, at least.

The most exciting thing today was, perhaps, the journey there and back again. Snow was falling and hard winds were blowing almost all the way. Daniel drove carefully, though, and we made it without any problems.

Electric Cars

There was a TV commercial that I watched today. It was about electrically powered cars, and said it is increasingly easy to use this kind of car, because more and more electrical outlets are put up where you can plug in your car and charge the batteries.

Daniel has told me the charging of electric cars is the great downside of them. Electric cars have to run on batteries, but you have to wait for a long time anytime you want to charge these batteries. I agree with Daniel, who says electric cars should be delivered with more than one battery, and designed so that these batteries could be switched easily. This would mean that you could have one battery at home to be charged when you use the other to drive the car, and when you get home, you switch batteries in an instant. If you go on a longer journey, you would not need outlets to charge your car, but just places where you can switch your battery for a newly charged one. Thus, you would not need to wait until your car would become charged again.

This idea should be easy to make real, but no car manufacturer has tried it yet, as far as I know. Maybe they have, and there are many downsides of it. If there are downsides, it would be interesting to know of them.

One Week to Go

Hi, Karstuhl here!

It is one week to Christmas Eve. I have never experienced Christmas, but I have been told it involves a lot of good food and often new toys. This sounds promising.

Grandmom told me, however, that it is actually more than a week until Christmas. She said that where she grew up, in America, the most important day of Christmas is Christmas Day, the day after Christmas Eve. Christmas is celebrated because of the birth of Jesus Christ, and his birthday is on Christmas Day, Grandmom said. She added that she has never understood why Swedes celebrate one day in advance.

Mommy, on the other hand, said that she believes we celebrate one day in advance in Sweden, because Santa Claus cannot come to all the places of the world in the same day. He goes to Sweden one day before he goes to America. This sounds reasonable, I guess I believe it too.

Upcoming Show

We have made preparations for a dog show this weekend. It is the Swedish Kennel Club's own annual show in Stockholm. I am looking forward to it, as I always do when a show is coming up. It is so exciting.

Life Sentence

In Sweden, the maximum sentence for crimes is prison for life. Strangely enough, though, any person sentenced to life can apply to a court of law in about ten years to get the sentence reviewed and redefined into a time limited sentence. One of Sweden's most notorious criminals, police murderer Jackie Arklöv, asked to have his life sentence shortened in this way. He was not successful, however. This is just as well. I believe murder is one of the most horrible crimes you can commit - next to animal abuse and the killing of dogs and wolves, of course.

Cold Weather

It is snow on the ground and it will probably be a cold winter. It was cold on the morning walk today. Even Dad complained about the cold snow, even though he is normally the only one of us who never complains about anything that has to do with taking walks. I want to have a white Christmas, and the dark months gets lighter with snow on the ground. It is just too bad that the most beautiful winter days, when the sun is shining from a clear sky like today, are also the coldest days. I wish it was not so.

Lucia

Today is the day of Saint Lucia. This is a feast day generally celebrated in Sweden, despite it being the feast day of an Italian saint and Sweden being a protestant country. The origin of the Swedish celebration is probably that the night of Lucia was the longest night of the year in the final times when Sweden used the old Julian calendar. Since Sweden lies so far north, this is important.

According to old popular belief, animals could talk on the long night of Lucia. This is stupid, of course. Everybody knows that dogs can talk and write any time of the year, but that no others than humans and dogs can ever do this.

Sweden Does the Right Thing

Sweden is in focus in world news today. Not like the day before yesterday, when the annual Nobel Prizes were awarded, but for more tragic reasons. Two explosions in central Stockholm are said to be investigated as acts of terrorism.

I am sad that the explosions happened, but I am not surprised. Sweden is a champion of human rights and participate in international military efforts against Muslim fundamentalists in Afghanistan and against pirates off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean. Why would Sweden not be a target for terrorists? In a way, this is proof that Sweden does the right thing. If Sweden did not, but just held the military at home and let others take the fight for peace and freedom, Swedes would not be subject to terrorism. Now it seems like we are, hence, Sweden does what is right.

Luckily, neither dogs nor humans seem to have been victims of the attacks.

Name Day

Hello, Polly here!

Daniel had his name day today. In Sweden, these are often observed by family and near friends, but without any great celebrations. Daniel got a chocolate Santa Claus from Linni, that was nice of her. For his own part, he spent the day cleaning, shoveling snow and chopping wood. Perhaps that is a way of celebrating for him?

The Nobel Prize

Hello, Karstuhl here!

We have the TV broadcast from the Nobel Prize ceremony on. There are only human recipients of the prize. Grandmom said the prize is awarded for scientific efforts, but that science isn't for dogs, anyway. She explained that we have better things to do. However, she also said most Nobel Prize winners were from the USA (where she is from) and that most people who win Nobel Prizes must have dogs from the USA. She therefore claimed that dogs from the USA were better than dogs from other countries, because even though dogs do not do science, dogs do inspire scientists, just as we inspire all humans whom we share our lives with. I guess there must be some truth in this.

Course Again

Hello, Karstuhl here!

The course that Daniel and I have gone to Thursdays this autumn has had a couple of weeks off, but started again today. It was fun to meet the other participating dogs again, especially my brother Nemo. I guess I taught Daniel well, because he gave me a lot of candy.

Blogging

There are times when I question all the time and effort I put into blogging. How many readers do I have? I like to write; in part, my blog is for my own pleasure. It is also a diary of sorts, where I can go back and remember better what happened before. Still, a blog seems unnecessary if it has no readers, or just a few readers. Yesterday, I wrote about a subject that I think is very important. I did get one comment on the blog entry, which I am grateful for, but no more, even though Daniel promoted it by posting it on Facebook. Perhaps I should stop blogging. On the other hand, stopping now would make all my previous efforts on blogging sort of wasteful.

Oh well, we have a dull evening tonight, because Paula is away on a Christmas party with her workmates. Daniel is at home, but it is always better when both Paula and Daniel are at home. Maybe my slightly sad feelings this evening makes it easier for me to question my blogging. I normally do not do that. If you read this blog occasionally, you have to come back again soon and see if I kept it up. My daughter Karstuhl says she thinks I will, and if I do not, she wants to take it over. Would I like that to happen? I have to consider that for a little while.

Wolves Killed in Sweden

Two young female wolves in Sweden have been killed by human scientists. The scientists sedated the wolves yesterday to be able to put radio transmitters on them. Today, the wolves were found drowned in a brook. They had probably still been so groggy from the sedative that they could not save themselves. What a horrible death!

I believe a wrongful death suit of some kind should be started against the scientists responsible for sedating the wolves. If you accidentally cause a wolf to die, you are required by law to report this. You are not allowed to kill wolves. These scientists should have known how strong the sedative was, when it would be safe to release the wolves back into the wilderness, and when it would be safe to stop watching over them. Any human who has a dog who has been sedated knows how important it is to watch over the dog until the sedative is out of the dog's system.

This story is all the more important, since the wolf pack of which these two wolves were members is regarded as an important pack, because it had genes which are unique in the Scandidavian wolf gene pool. Any dog breeder knows how important gene diversity is for the health of the animals.

I hope somebody press charges against the scientists in question.

Finland

Today is the national holiday of Finland, when the citizens of our eastern neighbour celebrate that they became independent from Russia in 1917. Without independence, they would have suffered under the communism of the Soviet Union until 1991. We celebrate today, together with all Moomintrolls and other people from Finland.

Winter Sports

We watched this interesting, but short, Norwegian documentary on sleigh dogs tonight. The dogs and their human were preparing for a long sleigh race. This is a real sport, for strong dogs and tough humans. I wish it would be a Winter Olympic sport.

Party

Paula showed me some interesting pictures on Facebook. It was about a Shiba in Japan who celebrated her birthday with her Shiba friends. I thought this might be a good idea. On the other hand, I already live with all of my best friends. Sure, I do have other friends than the dogs living in our house, but Auntie Linni, April, Kuro chan, and my close family all live here and they are my very best friends. They are always here when I throw a party, I never have to invite them. In a way, it is like we have a party any day. Who could complain about that?

Protests

We, the dogs of my family, are not the only ones who are disappointed with the decisions by FIFA on which countries will host the 2018 and 2022 football World Cups. Acting chairman Roger Burden of the English Football Association has stepped down, claiming he wants nothing to do with the FIFA anymore. According to the English, at least four of the twentytwo FIFA delegates who voted on whom to host the 2018 World Cup had promised to vote for England, but reneged on their promises. I would rather have seen England as the host than Russia. England is, after all, an honourable country and home of modern dog breeding and dog sport, just as it is the home of football. They take good care of dogs in England, whereas Russia has a worse reputation (justified or not).

Oh well, I do not feel like dwelling on this much more. I have a nice Saturday evening in the living room sofa, eating crisps. Life is too good to worry about hosts of the World Cup.

Strange Trend

There seem to be a new trend that women dress in male costumes on formal occasions. I believe this is strange. In the world of dog shows, you are rewarded if it clearly shows that you are a male or a female. Why would a female human dress like a male human? What is the point? You may make a sort of impression, but it is a good one? I would not think so. I believe it is better to show your pride of the sex that you have got.

Cold Cats

Some cats run away from their homes, or have no homes, and they do not fare well in this cold winter. This is not good. I want to reach out a paw for them and ask all of you who read this to consider the sad faith of stray cats. There are much more of them than stray dogs. If you can, make sure you give them some help.

By the way, Russia and Qatar got the FIFA World Cups of '18 and '22. We were not amused.

FIFA World Cup Bid

Tomorrow, Thursday, FIFA will announce which countries will host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in football.

The four contenders for the 2018 World Cup are England, Portugal & Spain, Belgium & the Netherlands, and Russia.

The five contenders for the 2022 World Cup are Japan, South Korea, Australia, the USA, and Qatar.

Naturally, all of us Shibas hope that Japan will win the vote to host the 2022 World Cup. Mum, April, and Calvin holds the USA as their second favourite, which is understandable since they come from the USA. Auntie Linni holds Australia has her second favourite, since her father was from Australia.

Dad, on the other hand, has said his main concern apart from Japan is that Belgium will be the co-host of the 2018 World Cup, since his father was born in Belgium. I side with Dad on the 2018 World Cup vote. I have no closer relationship to any of the other countries, and Dad's father is, of course, my grandfather.

With the relatively short lifespan of dogs, most of us will not live to see the 2022 World Cup. Nevertheless, it would be fun to know that Japan would win the bid to host the World Cup that year.