Lionheart, Silly!

Researchers in England have analysed the heart of the Medieval English king Richard I, nicknamed the Lionheart.

Ever since I first heard about the Richard the Lionheart, I have thought his nickname is silly. It is said he got the name Lionheart, because he was such a courageous military leader. I just wonder why they did not name him Wolfheart. Wolves are much cooler animals than lions. I say this not only because wolves and dogs are essentially the same animal. Wolves are great enough animals to inhabit many more parts of the world than lions do. There are wolves from the tropics to the arctic, while you only find lions in the warm countries. You are not cool, if you just live in the tropics.

Eye Opener

Hello, Karstuhl here!

My pups starts to open up their eyes. This gives them their first glimpse of the world around them. It is a real eye opener, litteraly as well as figuratively speaking. What a lot of things there are left for them to explore in the world. It is so much bigger and more complex than they can imagine now. I sometimes wish I could relive those early days of great exploration.

Missing Shiba Pup in Britain

This is serious, something I do not want anybody to have to go through:

King of the Animals

It is sometimes said that the lion is the king of the animals. We do not have any lions in Sweden, though. Somewhere, I heard that the king of the animals in Sweden is the moose, instead of the lion that cannot be found here. I believe this is wrong. The moose is not on the top of the food chain, thus, it cannot be the king. I would say the wolf is the king of the animals in Sweden. Too bad, then, that there are so many humans who do not want wolves here.

Perks of Being a Grandmother

While my daughter Polly takes care of her pups, I discover the perks of being a grandmother. You will get to know the pups when they start to develop a personality and being at their cutest, but you do not have to devote all that time to them that you do as a mother. I talked to my Mum about this, since she is already an experienced grandmother from all of my litters. I asked her if there were any downsides of being a grandmother, as opposed to being a mother, that she could see. Well, there was one. Mum pointed out that when you have pups of your own, your humans always give you more food and treats, in order for you to produce milk to the pups. Getting more food and treats is an upside of being a mother, that you do not have as a grandmother. Mum also told me, she has asked Paula and Daniel to grant her at least some amount of extra food and treats for her work as a grandmother. She has always been denied this, though. This is a little unfortunate, because if she would have gotten it, that would have set a precedence and I would have been able to ask for the same now. Well, all in all, being a grandmother is nice, anyway.

The Oscars

The movie awards called Oscars is handed out today, or early tomorrow morning, Swedish time. It is the prizes of the American Accademy of Films, officially called Accademy Awards. I like watching movies. However, as a dog, I do not have access to movie theatres, so I cannot see the latest movies, which are naturally those that are up for the awards. I have heard, though, that one of the films that has received nominations is a story about the friendship between a human boy and a tiger, "Life of Pi". It is not a cartoon, but a feature film. I find this plot highly unlikely, considering the wild carnivorous instincts of a tiger. Could they not have made a story about a boy and a dog instead? That would not only have been plausible, but very likely.

Claws

Paula and Daniel cut the claws of some of us dogs today. I do not like it, neither does any other one of us. Still, it is nice when it is done. Having claws that are too long is uncomfortable. If we lived in the wild, the claws would be teared shorter by the terrain where we would roam. Having the claws cut is one of the downsides of being civilized. Still, there are so many positive things about being civilized, that this is acceptable.

Ears

Some dogs I know have a tendency to get ear infections. Then they need to have their ears cleaned. I am glad I do not have that kind of problem. Neither has any of my pups. It is Always troublesome when you have health issues. I am lucky, I have none.

Retirement Age

There are discussions about raising the retirement age for humans in Sweden. There is no need to discuss this when it comes to dogs. We work as pets until the day we pass away.

Names for Moons of Pluto

The most recently discovered moons of the dwarf planet Pluto will soon get names. There is, apparently, an ongoing poll on the Internet on the matter, where the Star Trek inspired name Vulcan has received a lot of votes.

I would hope the moons get names from mythological dogs, just like Pluto's biggest moon, Charon.

Growth

Hello, Karstuhl here!

You sometimes hear politicians go on and on about growth. I see growth in action. My pups grow bigger and heavier all the time. They are so wonderful. I do not think any politician could make growth this cute.

Anniversary

In one year from today, there has been fourteen years since Paula and Daniel got engaged to be married. They married a little later. The thing is, one human year is Seven dog years, so I think human lives can best be described in Seven year periods, to compare them with dog lives. In one year, it has been the equivalent of two dog years since the engagement. Thirteen years, well, that is not as much to celebrate.

Being a Mum

Hello, Karstuhl here! Being a Mum takes more time than I thought, but is a Lovely experience. I am getting the knack for it now. My pups are so cute!

Visiting

We visited Paula's parents today - Paula, Daniel, and I. It was nice. For living so Close to them, we do not do this often enough.

A New Generation Black and Tan

I have become a grandmother!

My dear daughter Polly (a.k.a. Karstuhl) gave birth to one little boy and one little girl this evening. Both pups are black and tan, just like my Dad, myself, and Polly. It is the third generation of Aangenaam black and tan Shibas. I could not be more proud!

This is a picture of the newborn boy.

Biathlon

The world championships in biathlon is on in Czechia (or whatever that land is called in English). We watched the competition today live on TV. The Swedish participant Fredrik Lindström won the bronze medal, which made us happy. Mum was even more happy, though, because her fellow American, Tim Burke, won the silver medal. A Frenchman won the gold.

The mix of shooting and skiing in biathlon makes for exciting competitions. I rather like it, despite the lack of dog participation.

We Understand Humans

We dogs are intelligent. Humans who lives with dogs have long suspected that we are able to calculate when humans see and hear what we do or not, and adjust our behaviour according to this. We are more likely not to obey a human order to stay away from good food, if the human is around, than if the human is not around. Some humans have now made scientific research on this, proving that the suspicions were true. Dogs were much more likely to snatch food, if the lights in a room where turned off, so the human could not see the snatching. This goes to prove that we dogs can adjust our behaviour to others and what the others might sense.

I am not surprised, of course. I know what I can do, as a dog. Some humans might be surprised, but that only serves them right, if they have had a low opinion of dogs' abilities before.

Nuclear Threat

North Korea has conducted tests of nuclear weapons. This poses a threat to neighbouring countries, not least Japan, where the majority of the world's Shiba Inus live. North Korea is one of the harshest dictatorships in the world. Their people suffer from malnutrition due to the bad politics of the ruling, communistic elite. From what I have heard, humans there even eat dogs. It is a bad place. If they can threat their neighbours with nuclear weapons, nobody will be happy. I wish the North Korean dictatorship would come to an end, and that the humans and dogs there would gain freedom.

The Pope Resigns

Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he will resign from his position as pope and Head of State of the Vatican. This is the first time in centuries that a pope resigns, which makes it a huge thing, apart from him being the religious head for a great amount of Catholics. My humans are not Catholics, but they see it as big news anyway.

Daniel said his first thought was that the Pope might have been inspired by the recent announcement by the Dutch Queen Beatrix that she would resign. On the other hand, his second thought was that she was a Protestant, and what Pope would be inspired by a Protestant? I think it would be interesting if the Pope was, though.

Off to Denmark

Hello, Peanut here!

One of my three younger brothers, of my Mum's latest litter, left us today. My brothers are eight weeks old today and this means they are old enough to leave home. Among the tree of them, one will stay with us, one will leave for England in a while, and the one who left us today will live in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.

We are really international, the pups of my Mum. From her first litter, one left for Norway and one lives in Sweden, in another town. From the next litter, I stayed in Sweden while my litter brother moved to the Netherlands.

The brother who will leave for England will stay for a while, because the United Kingdom has certain rules on vaccinations of imported pups. In my mind, these rules seem to be very complicated. It is great to know that someone in England wants my brother so badly that they do not care about these complicated rules.

A New Kind of Police Dog

When you think of police dogs, it is often these big, strong dogs who take care of demonstrations or hunt for runaway criminals, or it is the dogs sniffing for drugs and other illegal substances. These dogs have a lot of education. The police force in Växjö in the south of Sweden has employed a new kind of police dog, a dog with the main purpose to accompany children and others who come to the police station in order to make their visit at the station less traumatic and more fun. This is a great idea! It must also be a police dog who is far from as expensive as the normal police dogs, since most dogs can be great pet and comfort dogs without much education. It is in our nature to be pets. I hope more police forces will follow this great example.

Friendly Game

Sweden played a friendly game in football against Argentina tonight. We joked about the Argentinian abbreviation ARG, which means "angry" in Sweden. How can you play a friendly game, if you are ARG - angry? Then the Argentinians won, and we got a little angry. Well, that's life.

Snow, Snow, Snow

Snow has been falling most of the day, but stopped in the evening. Daniel went out to take care of it, and spent a lot of time shoveling our long driveway free from snow. When he was just finished, snow started falling again. How ironic!

Chicken

Hello, Karstuhl here! Late this evening, Paula cocked some Chicken. She did not eat it, though, but said it was for tomorrow. I offered to eat it tonight, but she denied it. Well, I cannot Do more than offer my service.

Super Bowl

Tonight is Super Bowl, the single most viewed sport event in the world, even though it is between two American club teams in a sport mostly played in America. I have an American Mum, but she has never been very interested in sports. The game is on in the early Monday hours Central European Time, which we adhere to, so I think we will sleep through the game.

Another Chinese Provocation

A Chinese fishing boat has been fishing in the Japanese Exclusive Economic Zone close to the Japanese territory Senkaku Islands. China claims these islands, and since China is a dictatorship where everything must go through the government, this was surely a provocation, an uncalled for provocation. Japanese Coast Guard took care of the immediate problem, though. I wish China would stop, and accept that these islands are Japanese.

More Daylight

Hello, Peanut here!

We can see a glimpse of daylight by the horizon on our morning walks now. The weather has turned colder, though. The adult Shibas tells me that February may have more daylight than December and January, but is the coldest month of the year, statistically. Spring will still come, but not yet, they say. Well, I just think the frozen and dirty snow is not so fun to play around with anymore, so I think spring would be a good idea right away. However, unfortunately, I have understood that it is not up to any of us to decide when spring will come. Well, life is good anyway.