Blowing Coat

I have started blowing my coat. It is all right to do this now, since the show season is over. Of course, there are a few shows left this year, as always, but the summer time with its many shows is over. I just wish I have a nice enough coat again once it is time for another show. It might not be until November, so I can make it. Is this not a sign of a professional?

The World's Smallest Dog

The Guinness Book of World Records has declared a Chihuahua bitch living in Puerto Rico, USA, as the world's smallest dog. She is called Miracle Milly, she is 9.6 centimetres high and weighs half a kilogramme.

In the FCI breed standard for this breed, 500 grammes is the minimum weight for a Chihuahua; anything less, and she would be disqualified on dog shows. I do hope she lies above this limit. We would not want to have a Guinness World Record holder for smallest dog, who would not fit the breed standard, would we?

The Result

Hello, Karstuhl here!

I did not win at the Eckerö dog show. I received Excellent and a CK, but was second best bitch with a reserve-CAC and a reserve-CACIB. I fell on the finishing line, so to speak. Well, the winning bitch was a fine representative of our breed, so I am far from embarrassed losing to her.

Show

Polly is with Paula and Paula's mother on a dog show in Eckerö, Finland. i wish Polly's mother would also have been going there. It is no fun staying at home.

Essential Elements

There are essential elements in many things in the world. An essential element in a blog post are words. In the body, most elements are essential, in one way or the other. One example is potassium (abbreviated K for the latin word kalium). Paula has too little potassium in her body. This week, she has been at the human hospital and received some potassium boosts. The human medicine veterinarians examining her now has a theory on why she has had constantly low amounts of potassium lately. They will evaluate their theory and we might have an answer in a week. If they are right, the problem may be solved. We all hope for this. It is no fun knowing that a loved one lacks essential elements in her body.

Pets Rescued After Flood in Colorado

There have been floods in the American state of Colorado. When rescuing families, the motto has been that no pets shal be left behond. The rescuers learned this from the rescue operations after the hurricane Katrina, where humans would not allow rescue parties to bring them along without their pets.

I believe this is the right approach. Dogs and cats are as much family members as the two legged individuals. We are as much a part of human culture and society as humans are themselves. Thus, we have earned the right to similar treatment as humans get. I like the Colorado rescuers' approach.

Cat and Kittens Abandoned on a Train

Personel on a regional train on Sweden discovered a female cat and five small kittens of her in a railway cart they were cleaning. It is unlikely the cats were forgotten, they have probably been abandoned. They did not even have any water to drink, though the kittens could drink their mother's milk. I cannot understand who would do such a thing. I have had small pups, you are never more vulnerable as when you have pups, and it must be the same with kittens. If they find the human responsible for this, I hope he or she will be sentenced to a harsh punishment for animal cruelty.

Growing Strawberries Indoors

The Japanese corporation Sharp is known for its electronics. Their newest idea, however, is growing strawberries in a controlled, indoors environment in Dubai. This is interesting. If you could grow strawberries and other farm products indoors like this in a larger scale, imagine how you could lower the transportation costs and make products more available across the world. I especially like melons, but I guess melons are too big to consider growing indoors in the most immediate future.

Big Cat Genome

Human scientists have mapped the genome of lions, tigers, and snow leopards. This is a vital part of trying to preserve these big cats. While I have more sympathy for wolves than for big cats, I feel some kind of kinship to these carnivores as well. We are all top predators, as are humans.

It is interesting to note, however, that the most successful top predator besides humans are dogs. There are a huge amount of dogs in the world. Our ancestors did the right choice in teaming up with humans instead of competing with them. The big cats and the wolves are competitors of humans, hunting for big prey and threatening humans, while we dogs help humans and get help back. The domestic cat did a similar thing, though they do not stand as close to humans as we dogs do.

I do hope the big cat species will survive. They are beautiful animals and there should be room for them on Earth.

Past Midnight

I mostlu have no trouble deciding upon what to write in my blog, but inspiration never came to me this Sunday. Now it is already past midnight. It annoys me, since the blog is supposed to be daily. Oh, well, better luck this Monday, I hope.

Wrong Link

When I wrote my Thursday blog post, I did it on a borrowed iPad. I find it hard to work with iPads, especially when I try to copy and paste things. It went terribly wrong this time, and the link to the source of the knowledge behind the blog post did not work. I am now working on a normal computer with Windows and have been able to mend the broken link.

(Somehow, the link had ended up with two times "http:/" in the beginning. No wonder it did not work. I suppose that the iPad provides one "http:/" by itself, when I want to add a link, so if I have copied a whole link, there will be two "http:/" at the start. I cannot see the user friendliness in that. In a normal computer, a "http:/" is provided, but it is marked, so if you just paste a full link, that "http:/" vanishes. This is user friendliness.)

Well, here is another link to the same article about how wolves, the future dogs, domesticated humans rather than the other way around.

Wolves Domesticated Humans

An exciting new scientific theory stated that humans did not domesticate wolves into dogs, it was rather wolves who domesticated humans. I cannot say I had suspected this all my life, but it does make a lot of sense. It is like a theory that I have been looking for without really understanding it. Read the article that I have put a link to and judge for yourself. At the very least, it is interesting.

No Rain

Hello, Orange here!

The news paper has stated that there would be rain both yesterday and today, but no rain has fallen. The older dogs have explained to me that nobody knows what will happen in the future, even though meteorologists can make an educated guess based on their observations and knowledge about how weather usually evolve. You can never fully trust what is said, though. This feels good to know. Life is more exciting, if you do not know what will happen, not even about the weather.

Toilet Rolls

Cardboard must be one of the best human inventions ever. It is so fun to chew on, and you can destroy it, but not too fast. One of the best items are toilet rolls, when the paper is all used up. It is a kind of waste disposal that really is fun. If you have yet not tried it, just go ahead. If you are a human, let your dog try it, it will soon become a favourite.

Typhoon

A typhoon has struck Japan, flooding big cities like Kyoto. I hope the dogs and humans of the affected areas will make it through the hardships caused by this typhoon. We are lucky not to have this kind of wheather in Sweden.

Birthday

This is the day when I turn veteran. I was born eight years ago today. The celebrations have already started, with a nice breakfast from McDonald's. I love the McToast.

Turning a veteran may also be a new beginning for my dog show career. I can now compete in veteran's class. Mum did some of her very best results in dog shows in veteran's class, e.g. winning two veteran world winner titles. I hope I can make this a great family tradition.

This is me when I was four months old:

Paddington Bear Film

Hello, Polly here!

I am named for a children's book character, the badger Polly, from the Swedish translations of American author Russell Hoban's books about Frances the Badger.

Another great children's book series is English author Michael Bond's Paddington Bear. This character will now become a feature film hero, with voice done by Colin Firth. I guess this will be a good film.

New Japanese Space Rocket

Japan has launched the first of a new generation of space rockets, the Epsilon. This rocket is much cheaper than its predecessors. Artificial intelligence inside it helps reduce the number of people needed to monitor the launch and journey. This is a good development. Space exploration is important, but needs to get cheaper. I am not surprised it is the Japanese who really start cutting the costs for it. After all, the Japanese have done the same in many other areas. They are good at quality for great prices. I am looking forward to reading more about this exciting development.

How to Avoid Smuggled Dogs

I have all the sympathy for smuggled dogs that I can have. I feel really sorry for each and every smuggled dog. However, the only way to stop dogs from being smuggled, is to put an end to the demand for smuggled dogs. This requires that humans learn not to buy these dogs.

The Swedish Kennel Club has published a good article on the subject on its homepage. I recommend it for everyone who knows how to read Swedish.

If you consider buying a dog, have patience, research the breeds you are interested in and make contact with a dog breeder who is a member of a national kennel club. The national kennel club should either a member of the FCI or be the English or the American Kennel Club (who are no members of the FCI but the KC and AKC cooperate with the FCI and have mutual recognition of each others' pedigrees et cetera). If buying a dog bred in Japan, the breeder may be a member of Nippo instead of the JKC.

Buying a dog is about the most important thing you can do. You must take it seriously.

Haiku

I don't write haiku
The harsh rules are not for me
Exceptions happen

Recalling My Younger Days

Hello, Orange here!

I wanted to write about this yesterday, but Hailey thought it was more important to write about the Football World Cup qualification. I do not know what the Football World Cup is, so I cannot make a judgment on its relevance. I was given the opportunity to write a second blog post today, though, so here it is.

We got some raw minced meat in our food yesterday evening. This was great. It reminded me of my really early days, when I was but about four weeks old and Daniel started to give me and my sister real food instead of just our mother's milk. Raw minced meat was the very first thing we got to try. I have loved it ever since. We do not get it often, but it always remind me of those early days of my life. Those were happy days, carefree and comfortable. I miss them sometimes, even though I love the life I have now too.

I wish we could get minced meat more often.

The Results

When I wrote yesterday, not all qualification games were finished. Austria has the third place in the same qualifying group as Sweden, and also won its game. Still, Sweden is three points ahead.

This is what it looks like:

Country......Games.....Scores.....Points
Germany.............8......28-7..........22
Sweden..............8......14-8..........17
Austria.............8......16-8..........14
Ireland.............8......13-13.........11
Kazakstan...........8.......4-17..........4
Faroe Islands.......8.......3-25..........0

Sweden has a game against Austria left, on our home turf. If we win that game, it is certain that the second place and a place in the play off games is Sweden's. This is good.

Another Qualifying Game - Another Win

Sweden won another qualifying game for the FIFA football world cup 2014 today. This time it was against Kazakstan on their home turf. This means that Sweden is second in the group with a good gap down to third. Sweden does have one more game played, but more than three points up to the third team in the group. If Sweden ends second, it gets to play a play off against another group second, and winning there means a place in the World Cup. I do think this might happen. I sure hope so.

Cutting Hair

Hello, Orange here!

I am glad I am not a poodle. Poodles do not shed their coat, but have to have it cut. Our toy poodle friend Laila has had her hair cut today. She did not like that. I understand why. She looks different now, but I like her as much anyway.

2020 Olympic Games

The Olympic Games in 2020 will be held in Tokyo. This is bound to be great. I am full of confidence that the people of the home country of my dog breed will do a great job hosting the games. The Japanese people are effective and hard working, they know what it takes. Japan stand for quality, not just when it comes to dog breeds, but for almost anything.

For the moment, I am making plans to live to see the TV broadcasts from Tokyo in 2020. If I live that long, I will almost be fifteen years old. This is a respectable age for any dog, but Shibas can often become as old as fifteen, or older. With the promise of seeing so much from Japan on TV in 2020, I have a goal to focus on and will take the best care of my health in order to see it. Stay tuned to this blog seven years from now and you will get my thoughts on the Olympic Games in Tokyo as they happen.

Sweden Won

Sweden won against Ireland in yesterday's qualification game. There is hope for participation in the World Cup.

Qualifying Game

Sweden is playing a qualifying game for the 2014 FIFA football world cup tonight. The game is against Ireland. It is quite an important game, because Sweden has not done so well in the earlier games of this qualification round. Over the years, Sweden has often done well every other decade. In 1938, Sweden was fourth. In 1950, Sweden won bronze and in 1958 silver. In 1974, Sweden was fifth, and very close to a medal. In 1994, Sweden won another bronze. Thus, it would be about time for another really good result in a football world cup. This has to start by getting to the world cup in the first place. I hope the national team wins tonight and makes this the start of a winning streak ending with another medal.

Standards

Hello, Karstuhl here!

Daniel is spending time reading breed standards. I do not think this is necessary, he already has a lot of dogs of the most important of breeds. However, it is not up to me to decide what he will waste his time doing.

Visit of a President

The Head of State of Mum's home country is visiting Sweden for a couple of days. roads where he is supposed to travel have been closed for ordinary traffic for security reasons. He is not a King, nor an Emperor, but merely a President. Mum says this is better than a King or Emperor, but I disagree. Nevertheless, he is a Head of State and it is right to treat him as such. Thus, it must be all right to close roads.

Life Sentence for Murder

For some years, the normal sentence for murder in Sweden has not been lifetime imprisonment. The Government now suggests that the law returns to normal, thus making life not an esceptional punishment for murder, but the punishment which will probably be the sentence in the majority of cases. I think this is right. Murder should be punished harshly. Just consider that a dog can be punished by death just for biting a human. If one human kills another human, life in prison is a proper sentence.

Macaronies

Hello, Orange here!

We got macaronies in our food today. I always like it, when we get extra food in addition to our ordinary dog food. It makes the food more interesting and it is often very tasty. These macaronies were well seasoned. I hope we get something like that tomorrow as well.