Damn Supersticious Humans!

Some humans in our vicinity are supersticious. They obviously believe in witches and demons, and try to scare these away this evening. What other cause would they have to fire cracker upon cracker? You would think humans would be more sane and logical than this, but many of them are not. I curse at these damn humans, they disturb too many dogs.

Ultra Sound

Paula and I went to the veterinarian today to make an ultra sound check on my tummy. It showed that I am probably expecting four pups. I did think I had grown more and faster as compared to the previous times when I have been expecting. My previous two litters have consisted of two pups each. It is said that someone who has had pups before have a higher likelihood of getting bigger litters than someone who gets her first litter. This seems to be true in my case. Of course, one never knows for sure until the pups are born, but we do have a trustworthy prognosis now. It makes the prospect of getting pups more real. I am looking forward to seeing and smelling the pups.

Bearnaise Sauce

Hello, Karstuhl here!

My boyfriend Fuji is clever. He claims he hates having his claws cut so much, that Paula and Daniel gives him treats to eat to divert his attention while cutting the claws. They cut his claws today, and gave him bearnaise sauce to eat while doing so. Fuji has played on this ever since he came to Sweden at an adult age. I am not so lucky. Paula and Daniel have been my humans ever since I was born. I have always had to accept that they have cut my claws without the help of treats ever since I was just a couple of weeks old. I would also like to have a bowl of bearnaise sauce to eat while having my claws cut.

Evening Activities

Both Paula and Daniel were away on different activities this evening.

Daniel was away campaigning for his political party. This sounds dull, and none of us dogs were disappointed that we did not get to come. Nevertheless, he was actually quite happy when he came back home. He was surely happy for coming home, but it seemed that he was also happy for the way his evening away from home had turned out.

Paula was away on more urgent matters. She had been invited to an information evening by our dog food supplier. Can you imagine anything more important than that? I would have liked to come, my fellow four legged friends too, but she did not want to bring any of us dogs. It is my firm belief that we would have been able to give valuable input to the supplier, since we are the end consumers, but that was obviously not enough. Perhaps I can come next time. I sure hope so, even though I doubt it. Time will tell.

Bath

Hello, Karstuhl here!

I was not happy this evening, when I was forced to take a bath in our bathroom. Shiba Inu coats are usually great enough by themselves to fend of dirt, so why would we need baths? However, it went rather quickly and I did feel a bit better once the bath was done. It is not that I will ever long for a bath, but it was not quite so bad. Worse things may happen. If the bath helps me do well on dog shows, as Paula and Daniel claims it will do, there is actually one advantage with taking a bath.

Later, we had some extra good food, because Aunt April celebrated her birthday. This helped making me happier after the bath. Happy birthday, April!

Chicken Breeding

We saw a documentary on TV today about an English woman in Denmark who tried, as an amateur, to breed chickens. It was rather weird. The lady did not seem to know much about hens before she started. When she was disappointed with the first cock, she just bought another cock and let him in with the other one. It was bound to be trouble, and it was, a cock fight. Fortunately, the fight did not result in blood shed. The breeder also did not seem to have any thoughts on what breeds her hens and cocks were, but let them breed freely despite stating they were of different breeds. I do not think she had any breeding programme. Actually, I do not think I would call her a breeder, I just use that word because I cannot think of any better. Are there no equivalents to the dog breeding kennel clubs when it comes to chicken breeding?

Disturbing the Peace

It is Easter, and we celebrate this greatest of Christian holidays with a lot of good food. There are, however, people who seem determined to disturbing the peace.

I am not only talking about those who fire crackers all over. This is a remnant from earlier, supersticious times, when people believed crackers would scare demons and witches away. Nowadays, I guess most people do not have that kind of superstition, they just do it because they are so immature they believe it is funny.

This evening, there was another gang of youngsters disturbing our peace. These were travelling on mopeds on the little road that passes our barn and continues into the woods behind our house. There were many mopeds and each were making a lot of noise. They did not care that we barked at them to keep quiet. I really do not like disturbances like this, but what can you do about them? It is not like we are disturbed for very long, just for about a minute. We hope the moped gang does not come back the same way later tonight.

Full Moon

Hello, Karstuhl here!

I am also known as Aangenaam Full Moon Eclipse. This is my official name, the name I am registered as at the Swedish Kennel Club and Swedish authorities. In a way, it is a nice name, even though I do not use it. There actually is a perfume called Full Moon. I can call that my perfume, based on my official name. It is a perfume by Oriflame, but I can have some claim anyway. It is like when Grandmum claims the song Total Eclipse of the Heart is her song, because her official name derives from that song. It makes the world a more interesting place, if you can have different claims on small parts of it without interfering with anybody else. I like that.

Barbecue

We had the first barbecue of the year this afternoon. It was a nice, sunny weather. The meteorologists say it is already summer in the southern parts of Sweden, but it was warm enough for us here too. Mia was here visiting us, and she, Paula, and Daniel sat outside when they ate the grilled food. Auntie Linni, Polly, and I were outside, keeping them company. There were some meat and bread for us as well, later. It was a nice Good Friday.

Advertisement

There was a very nice advertisement in our local newspaper today. It had a picture of a cat, and birthday wishes for the cat's fifteenth birthday. I think this was a great gesture towards a beloved pet.

Cats have a slightly longer life expectancy than dogs, I believe. Still, fifteen years is a long life for a cat.

It is many years left, but if I live to be fifteen years old, perhaps I can get an advertisement like that one as well.

Nils Olov

Paula's father, my dear friend Nils Olov, celebrated his birthday today. We went over to him this evening and celebrated with him. It was a great evening, full of nice people, joyful mood and good food. Paula's parents live on a nice walk's distance from us, so we walked there and back again. It was quite a nice evening.

Redecoration

We will redecorate our kitchen this spring. It is quite old, small parts of it are broken, and it is out of style. A painter was here this evening and gave us an estimate on how much the painting would cost. I am not so fond of having handymen at home, but I am sure the result will be great in the end. We had our bathroom remade last autumn, and it is great. Now I am looking forward to the day when the new kitchen is finished.

Barefoot

Hello, Polly here!

I just heard part of a song on TV. It was a woman singing "barefoot without socks or shoes" (but in Swedish: "barfota utan strumpor och skor"). There is the obvious tautology, but I find the song funny for other reasons. This woman sang as if it was something special to walk barefoot, a nice though rare thing to do. To humans, I guess it is. To every dog, it is just the way we always walk. In general, a human is too much of a tenderfoot to walk barefoot.

Dog Show!

Oh, I liked it today! We went to a dog show in Västerås, a town not far away from us. I really enjoy going out in the show ring. My two children Polly and Nemo competed in Junior Class. Both won Excellent and went to the competition round. Nemo was fourth best male. This is amazing at their age. Calvin was second best male.

I was best female. I did not win the Best of Breed finale, but became BOS. An appearance in the Group might have been an excellent crescendo to this lovely day, but I am fully satisfied with the result that I got. For now, I will leave further showing to my dear children. There will be more shows for me in the future, I just wonder when this will be.

This is my son Nemo, who was the first Shiba Inu in the show ring.

This is my daughter Polly, the first female Shiba Inu in the ring.

Not Endangered Anymore?

Congress in the USA have decreed that the wolves of Montana and Idaho will be removed from the list of endangered species. Normally, this would be positive news. It would, of course, be positive to be able to say these wolves are not endangered anymore. However, environmental groups critizises the decree. They are stating that this sets a dangerous precedent by letting Congress, rather than a federal agency which makes its decisions based on science, remove the protection granted to endangered species.

I do hope Congress knows what it is doing, but I fear the worst. If you take wolves away from a list of endangered species, I believe your decision must be based on science. Is Congress' decision based on science, or is it just politics?

Congratulations!

Congratulations, and jubilations, is due for my younger sister Suri today. It is her second birthday. She was the only one in her litter, Mum's and Dad's last pup, and beloved family member of a family here in our home town. Happy birthday, Suri!

Bad Grand Prix

The Chinese Grand Prix in Formula 1 is this weekend. I do not like that China has a Grand Prix. China is a despicable country.

The Chinese do not treat dogs well. What is more, they eat dogs! We once saw a documentary from China where a lorry was carrying dogs in miniscule crates on their way to slaughter to be food.

As if these horrific deeds against dogs would not be enough, the Chinese do not treat humans well either. China is a dictatorship and the people are not free to express their thought and opinions, neither are they able to vote freely for politicians. People who have opinions which are wrong in the eyes of the rulers can be prosecuted just because of their opinions. China is also the country which executes the most people.

I do not think a country like China is worthy of the international recognition that comes with great sport events. This was true for the 2008 Summer Olympics, which I critizised, and it is true for the Chinese Grand Prix. I believe the international motorsport federation FIA should not allow China to have a Grand Prix.

Hot Food

Paula made a meat sauce for burritos today. None of us dogs got to taste any. The official reason was that the sauce was too hot, it had a lot of jalapenos in it. I am not so sure this is the truth. There were not much left overs and they did save some to have for lunch at work in the coming days. They did not fume or drank very much either. Perhaps the humans just thought the meat sauce was really tasty and wanted it for themselves. Unless I try it, I cannot know, though, but I will stay suspicious.

Day Off

Hello, Polly here!

Mommy and I are taking this day of from the blog, just wanted you to know.

City of Hailey

There is a small city in the American Midwest, in the State of Idaho, which is called Hailey. I think it is a rather nice name for a city. They even have a Hailey Police Department, a Hailey Fire Department, and a Hailey Arts Commission.

If I would ever visit those parts of the USA, I would stop there and have a look at the City of Hailey. It would be nice to smell it, too. I would definitely have my picture taken next to the sign with the city's name at the city limit.

It is a small world we are living in, but not so small you cannot get pleasant surprises when you discover new places on the map.

More Earthquakes

There have been more earthquakes in Japan since the big one about a month ago. Today, a quake that reached 7.1 on the Richter scale shook the same part of the country. Our thoughts go out to the dogs and humans of Japan, we wish them all the best.

Standing for Shows

Hello, Karstuhl here!

We will go to the first show of the season next weekend. This weekend, we have started to train Paula and Daniel in handling, so they will not make a shame out of us in the show ring. I told them our Toy Poodle show table was too small, so they made sure they got the ordinary size table which Nemo and his family had borrowed. On the ground or on the floor, Paula and I made a formidable couple, especially when I was standing right in front of her. Daniel is usually the one who handles me in the show ring, but it is good if I train Paula a little as well, just in case.

We will let you know of the successes of the season.

Healed Wounds

The wolf hunt in Sweden this winter has been evaluated by the authorities. Nineteen wolves were murdered. Out of these, five had been born with faults on the skeleton or teeth. Well, we all know the Swedish wolves are inbred, so this is not strange. The thing that makes me really angry is that two of the wolves had wounds from being shot before. The wounds had healed, but they must have hurt a lot. If you do shoot a wolf, but only hurt it, it is animal abuse not to give it veterinary treatment or at least put it out of its misery. Two wounded wolves out of nineteen can hardly be dismissed as a coincidence and the unfortunate result of accidents. Humans must have wanted to shoot these wolves before. This is evil.

Another Wolf

A new male wolf has settled north of Örebro, together with a female who lived close by before. The male has migrated here from Norway, and his father brought new genes to the small Scandinavian wolf population by migrating there from Finland or Russia. This is good. As we all know, who take active part in dog breeding, genetic diversity is very important to ensure the health of the offspring. I hope this new couple can make a contribution.

Names

Hello, Karstuhl here!

There have been instances when some have asked why I call myself Polly sometimes and Karstuhl other times, and what causes I have for using one name or the other. I thought it might be interesting to say something about this. The truth is, I just like having two different names, and I do not have any rules decided beforehand on when to use one name or the other. I just change between the names as I feel like. Life do not have to be more complicated than that, don't you agree?

Hairdressing

Hello, Polly here!

Poodles do not have an easy life. Their coat does not blow, the way most other dog breeds' coats do. Instead, they have to go to the hairdresser once in a while. It is no use just shaving them, because their coat has to be cut in certain ways i order for them to be able to go to dog shows. I think this is rather ridiculous, but that is just me.

I am often glad to be a Shiba Inu, and proud of it. On a day like today, when our Poodle friend Love-chan had to go to the hairdresser, I am more happy than I usually are that I am not a Poodle.

Dog Awarded for Bravery

The Labrador Retriever Sarbi has received a military award in Australia. Sarbi did military service in the Australian army searching for roadside bombs in Afghanistan. She was reported missing in action after a battle where her human handler was wounded. Fourteen months later, she was discovered again. She had been taken care of by a local Afghan man. She returned to Australia in 2009 and received a hero's welcome. She has now been awarded the Australian Purple Cross, the highest distinction possible for an animal in Australia's armed services. The only former recipient was a donkey who carried wounded soldiers in Gallipoli during World War I. I am happy for Sarbi. Her story proves, once again, how important dogs are in human society. She was recognized for it, too.

Healthy Dark Colour

Hello, Karstuhl here!

A French scientific study has revealed that pigeons in urban areas who have dark feathers are more healthy than pigeons with paler feathers. They also respond quicker to infections. They even seem to have greater sex appeal, perhaps because of their better health. It is, as yet, not quite clear what the cause of the better health is.

I wonder if this applies to dogs as well. Are dogs with darker coats more healthy than those with paler coats? Are black and tan Shibas, like Mommy, Daddy, and I, more healthy than other Shibas? Do we have greater sex appeal? I hope this is the case.

Spring

Spring is finally here. We have considerably warmer weather and most of the snow is gone. Another sign of spring is the changing of car tyres. Daniel changed from winter tyres to summer tyres on the BMW today. Then we had some rain, which feels so much better than snow at this time of the year. I do like winter and to run around in snow, but over the last couple of weeks, we have just had dirty snow with hard ice crusts on it. This is no fun to run upon. When summer comes, we can have the front door open, and everyone can walk in and out just like we want to. I believe this will be a nice spring and summer.

Another Dog Who Survived

A dog has been rescued by the Coast Guard 1.8 km out to sea off the coast of Japan. She must have been swept out to sea by the tsunami three weeks ago and managed to survive on a floating roof and other floating rubble. The dog is yet not identified, but we have to hope she will find her way back to its humans soon. I felt so happy when I watched these TV pictures of the rescue. Note that the dog is given a sausage. She is definitely worth it.

No Australian Trip

My blog entry yesterday was, of course, an April Fool's day joke. There are none in our family who intend to go to Australia in the foreseeable future. Auntie Linni do say that if she would have the opportunity to visit any foreign country in the world, she would chose Australia, where her father was from. Over all she is, however, quite content with just staying at home. She likes it here. Don't we all?

Australia

Paula and Daniel had plans to go to Japan this spring, but with the earthquake and all, the journey was cancelled. Daniel has arranged that they will go to Australia instead. They might bring a dog or two home, and certainly a wombat. I have seen a wombat before, in Brunnsparken here in Örebro, but wombats are rare in Sweden and there is reason to bring more here. Auntie Linni insists this trip will also be good for our breeding, because there are a lot of great Shiba Inus in Australia. I know her father was born in Australia, so I guess I must agree with Linni here.