Ransäter

Hello, Karstuhl here!

This weekend, some of us are at a dog show in Ransäter, Värmland, a Swedish province to the west of our home town. I am not being showed myself, but I got the opportunity to come along anyway. I am coaching the ones who are being showed, a task which is also important. We have had very warm weather at the beautiful show site. It has been a good experience so far.

Some of the family is still at home. We have heard they have a good time as well. I do not regret coming along anyway, even though I am not showed myself.

Rain

It was not supposed to be rain today, but rain it was. Anzu, my dear little pup, wanted to avoid the rain as much as I do when we were out in the afternoon. It definitely looks like she is her mother's daughter. I like that.

Mowed Lawn

Hello, Karstuhl here!

Daniel mowed our lawn today. I wish he would have time to make it more often. The grass grows very quickly at this time of the year, especially in our dog yard. The soil must be very rich there. Nevertheless, when the grass is shorter, there is less risk of getting ticks. Ticks are these unnecessary, bloodsucking creatures that are liked by nobody but themselves. They climb straws of grass and wait there until they can jump onto innocent animals like us dogs. We do have chemicals that scare ticks off, but some of them are not so easily scared. I wish they were.

Reports

We have received reports from the new families of both Fumi and Zeus. Everybody is all right and my pups have adapted well to their new homes. This is good. We could not have found better families for them.

Not Alone, After All

Hello, Anzu here!

As Haileys youngest daughter, on the day I celebrate that I am eight weeks old, I have received the honour of writing a blog entry. My older sister Polly write blog entries in Mommys blog now and then, now it is my turn.

Eight weeks is the age when pups are allowed to leave home and mother and to go live with their own family. My litter brother Zeus and litter sister Fumi left home today to do just that. I wish them good luck and miss them very much. I will not move until the beginning of August. This is not because my new family is less eager to have me, but since I will travel much further. I will go to Bergen, Norway. This is supposed to be a great city, the city where my late grandfather on my mother's side came from.

I have no sister and no brother left here to play with. This is a little dull. Nevertheless, I am not alone. Mommy is here, my older sister Polly is here, Granny Sunni is here, and a couple of other dogs. Life enters a new phase. I am not afraid to see what events this phase will bring.

The Tour

The world's biggest bicycle competition ended today, the Tour de France. Auntie Linni was happy the overall winner was from her father's home country, Australian Cadel Evans.

Also today, Lewis Hamilton won an exciting German Grand Prix in Formula 1. Australian Mark Webber was close to the victory, but did not win. Linni comforted herself with the Australian Tour win.

Pancakes

Hello, Polly here!

Daniel made pancakes this evening. It smelled really good, but we did not get any. The whole purpose of making pancakes was that Paula will go to a dog show tomorrow and has promised a friend to bring Daniel's pancakes. The friend thinks Daniel makes very good pancakes, but so do all of us dogs here at home. It is almost criminal to make pancakes in front of your dogs and then refuse the dogs to have a taste. This is close to cruelty to animals. Daniel is lucky we love him anyway, for many other reasons.

Norway

Today, our thoughts go out to all the dogs and humans in Oslo and Utöya, Norway, where terrorists struck. This feels special for me, since I have got a lot of relatives in Norway on my fathers side. My daughter Anzu will also move to Norway in a little while. Fortunately, she will live in Bergen, a city which was spared today. It will hopefully be spared from future terrorist attacks as well.

Almost needless to say, I think all acts of terrorism are unnecessary and evil.

The Space Shuttle

The last flight of the US space shuttles ended today, when Atlantis landed in Florida. This brings the end of a chapter of human space flight. (Dog space flight is older than human, remember Laika!) The space shuttles have been expensive to run. NASA hopes to save money, which will be invested in more modern space craft that can travel further into space. One of the destinations they hope for is the Moon. I like that. With my name being Lunar Eclips in the pedigree, I do have a special interest in the Moon. I hope humans will go there again rather soon. When the Moon is colonized, dogs will certainly live there too. I wonder when we will se the first dog show on the Moon. If the Moon is the next target for the space craft replacing the space shuttles, retiring them is a good thing.

On TV

Daniel was on TV, the local news for Stockholm, today. We could not see it in our home town, but we did watch it on the Internet. Daniel told us he had said much more than what was aired, but he was not disappointed with what was heard.

Cruelty

I was horrified to read that the charges of cruelty to animals are rapidly rising in Stockholm. The newly formed special branch for animal cruelty with the Stockholm police cannot cope with its work load. On the other hand, it might be that there is no rise in the acts of cruelty to animals, but just an increased number of cases brought to the attention of the police. Indeed, it says in the article I read that one reason for the rise in cases is a greater knowledge of the animal cruelty branch with the public. If the rise in cases is due to a higher percentage of the cases getting the attention of the police, it is good news. I certainly hope this is so.

Seven Weeks Old

My latest litter is now seven weeks old. Time has gone by very quickly.

We took some birthday photographies of the pups this evening. They are big now. Here they are, in order of age: the boy Zeus and the girls Fumi and Anzu.

Gold!

We celebrated until way past midnight, since Japan won the World Cup. Mum, April, and Calvin was disappointed, being born in the USA, they hoped the USA would win. The rest of us hoped for a Japanese victory. We got it. Japan is great!

Exploring the Kitchen

My pups have not been in all of our house. I have lived with them in part of the house, to keep them from the other dogs who might not be careful enough to pups. As the pups are growing older, they are allowed to explore more. We all had the opportunity to be in the kitchen today, as Paula was preparing lunch. The pups enjoyed this. They are always eager to explore new parts of the world. This is good, it shows that they will be prepared to see new places all though their lives.

Fumi's New Home

The pups will move in little more than a week. Fumi will live in our town. Her new family has a house which I have learned today lies rathwr close to Daniel's work. We have met the family, good people. Fumi will have a good life.

Rest

Everybody is home again, which feels very good. We have to rest, though. I did not come along to Paris and the WDS, staying with my pups, but I realize that the drive and the show took its toll.

Japan v. Sweden

Hello, Karstuhl here!

There were semi finals in the FIFA Women's World Cup today. Japan and Sweden played one of the games. I did not know whom to hope for. Mommy, Paula, and Daniel hoped that Sweden would win. Daddy hoped that Japan would win. We live in Sweden and both Mommy and I were born here. However, Daddy was born in Japan and we are of a Japanese dog breed. In the end, I decided to hope for Sweden, but I was not disappointed anyway when Japan won.

Granny did not care. Her main concern was the other semi final, where the USA beat France. Granny was born in the USA and always hopes for her country of birth in sports.

No Place Like Home

Hello, Polly here!

There is no place like home. We are back home after a long drive from Paris. It takes a lot of effort to drive that long, but I managed. After all, most of the roads are motorways, which are rather easy to drive on. The World Dog Show has been a great experience, we are already talking about going to next year's show in Austria. It will certainly be fun, too.

Quake

Hi, Karstuhl here!

There has been another earthquake in the ocean outside of Japan, almost exactly where the big one was in March. We are glad to hear this was not nearly so severe, and the tsunami was just about 20 cm high.

Late Evenings

Hello, Karstuhl here!

The World Show takes a lot of time, and there is also a lot of time spent on preparations in the evenings and mornings. We have had late nights and early mornings all week. This Saturday, I have not been able to write anything in the blog until after midnight. I hope there will be another blog entry this Sunday, except for this, if I find the time on the Sunday eveing.

Granny became Best Veteran among Shibas on the WDS today. This means that she is World Winner '11. This is really good. Although some of the rest of us did well, nothing beats her effort. I got in to the final ring in brace with Daddy, but Granny made it there herself. There was none of us who were placed, though.

Show

Hello, Polly here again!

This was the day that Shiba Inus were first showed at this dog show in Paris. The World Dog Show is running parallel to a French show, and Shibas were shown at this French show today. I got Excellent in quality and came in as third best junior bitch. It could have been better, it always can when you do not win, but I am quite satisfied with this result. There were many competitors in the class and quite a lot of them were nice Shibas. I cannot complain.

Le Tour

Hello, Polly here again!

A bicycle competition has been aired here in France on TV. Granny told me it is the Tour de France, the biggest bicycle competition in the world. Granny used to like it better when her favourite bicycle rider, American (what else when it comes to Granny) Lance Armstrong was competing to win. Granny and I agree that the World Dog Show, which starts tomorrow, is a much more important competition. Nevertheless, it will hardly get the same TV coverage that the Tour de France gets. Many humans have priorities that I, as a dog, do not quite understand.

In Paris

Hello, Karstuhl here!

Now we are in Paris, where we will attend this year's World Dog Show. We travelled down by car yesterday and today. The journey went smoothly most of the time. However, we had to wait for three and a half hours at the site of a terrible car accident on the motorway through Germany.

We would have thought the German police, rescue workers and tow truckers would be organized and effective, but we stood close to the site of the accident and thought the people working there looked terribly unorganized. Maybe this is just because we did not know what they did and have to do, and the time spent without much to do in the car seemed much too long. Most of the irritation has left us now. It will be an interesting story to tell others in due time.

Hamburger

Wow, I got half a hamburger tonight. I did not share it, not even with my pups. It was too precious for me.

The thing is, Paula and Daniel have been very busy most of the afternoon, preparing for a trip to the World Dog Show next week. This year, the show is in Paris, France, and several of the dogs here at our place will go there. I am not going, I am staying with my pups. Late in the evening, Daniel would go to fill up the car with petrol and they decided he would also buy some take away food for a late evening meal. However hungry Paula and Daniel felt, they realized they were not so hungry they could finish a hamburger each. This is why I got half of Paula's hamburger. Rumour has it, Mum and Auntie Linni got a quarter each of Daniel's hamburger. As a mother of tiny pups, who will turn five weeks old this Monday, I did deserve to get the largest piece of hamburger. This was a good call of Paula and Daniel, when they could not eat it up themselves.

Playing in the Yard

Hello, Polly here!

I was playing with my little brother Zeus this afternoon. We had some great fun, both of us.