No Show

I did not get to go to the dog show today. Despite this, I had a rather nice day, since Nils-Olov came by when both Paula and Daniel was away. i love Nils-Olov too.

Fifteen and Three

Today we celebrate Mum, who turns fifteen years old. This is a grand age for a dog. Mum is still going strong, enjoying life and the treats that comes with it. Happy birthday again, Mum!

We also celebrate the third birthday of my own second litter of pups. These are Fumi here in our city Örebro, Zeus in Kristinehamn, and Anzu in Bergen, Norway. I wish they also have happy birthdays!

Granddaughter

I went over to Paula's parents today with Daniel. Paula was there already. We had a little get together, and Mia and Stefan was there with my granddaughter Soya. It was nice to see her again. We played together, and I taught her a thing or two about life. Soya is a good girl, I am proud of her. I hope she will do good at dog shows, too.

Yellowstone Wolves

Reintroducing wolves in the Yellowstone National Park in the USA had more benefits than people would have thought.

This only goes to prove how important the wild cousins of us dogs are for the eco system.

Ears

Hello, Karstuhl here!

Paula and Daniel have been concerned that I have tilted my left ear once in a while over the last days. They have looked into my ear, but have, of course, not found anything out of the order. They even put some cleaning fluid in it. This was highly unpleasant. Can't I just be allowed to tilt my ear, if I want to? It is as if there would be anything wrong with me. It is not.

Thunder

Hello, Orange here!

It has been warm for many days in a row. This afternoon, we had thunder and lightning. This is common after many warm days, I have been told. Thinder and lightning is an interesting thing of nature. It often comes with heavy rain, and this happened today too. I guess all of the things growing in our garden needed the rain.

Bad Result

daniel is disappointed that the political party he favours did not do better in the election for the eu parliament tonight. i understand that.

still, we can be happy sweden wom bronze in the iihf ice hockey world championship. this is not a bad result.

42

Daniel is turning 42 years old today. If he would have been a dog, he would have turned six. We have celebrated him extensively. It has been fun.

Hamuketsu

The Japanese are fond of everything cute. Shiba pups are evidence of this: the cutest pups of any breed, and the breed is a traditional Japanese breed. In modern day Japan, the love of cuteness sometimes crosses the border of what can be defined as fine art, such as fine paintings, haiku poems, cherry blossoms and Shiba pups. These over the top cute things are often called kawaii. The latest kawaii craze is called hamuketsu. It is just the thing that the Japanese word litteraly means: hamster bottoms. People get crazy over pictures of hamsters seen from behind. Many books of such pictures are sold. I can see why this is called kawaii. Had the craze been over pictures of Shiba pups from behind, it would have been cuter, but also fine art, thus not kawaii. The Japanese society sure is fascinating.

Summer

Hello, Orange here!

Summer is coming. It has been a warm, sunny day today. The grass is growing tremensously fast. Daniel mowed the lawn last weekend, he may very well have to do it next weekend again. I am glad I do not have to mow the lawn. It seems boring moving around a noisy herbivore on wheels all over the garden. I rather just spend my time in the garden sunbathing. It gives me more satisfaction.

Dogs Keeping Disease Away

New research tells us, once again, how helpful dogs are in society. On the shores of Lake Michigan in North America, Border Collies have shown great skill in keeping seagulls away. The droppings from the seagulls is a source of the venomous e-coli bacteria. The bacteria count has been significantly lower, where the Border Collies have kept the seagulls away.

I think this might be something for more shores around the world. You do not have to kill the seagulls, just keeping them away from where humans and dogs use the beaches. Dogs will do the trick!

At Home

Heool, Orange here!

Hailey asked me to make a blog entry today. She said she was not up to it. neither was I, I said, but she replied that I have to make the occasional blog entry when I do not want to, if I want to make blog entries when I do want to. There is a logical argument there.

We had a calm, uneventful day at home today. paula worked yesterday, so she was off from work this Monday and at home with us all the time. These are the kinds of days that I like the most. The only downside with an uneventful day is the trouble of writing a blog entry, when you have not got that much inspiration. I did manage this much anyway. Come back tomorrow, there will be another blog entry then.

No Swedish Planes for the Swiss

Switzerland and Sweden is often mixed up by foreigners. Both are small, neutral, European countries and the names are a little similar. Switzerland was planning to buy Swedish fighter airplanes, Saab Gripen, but voted against it in a referendum today. I guess the positive thing with this is that our air forces will not be mixed up so easily.

Out of Petrol

Daniel mowed the lawn today, but did not finish it. He ran out of petrol for the lawn mower. This was a little unexpected, I would have guessed he would have had petrol enough. Well, he purchased some more in the evening, so the lawn that was not mowed today will be tomorrow. This is good.

Hässleholm

This weekend, there is the annual dog show in Hässleholm. We are not going this year. I normally love to go to dog shows, but I really do not think I could do better in Hässleholm this year than I did eight years ago. That was when I won Best in Show Pup there. Hässleholm will always be my BIS Puppy show, so I do not care so much that we do not go there now. Best of luck to all the pups who want to follow in my paw steps this year!

Early Americans

Scientists have researched an old skeleton of a human found in present day Mexico. The skeleton is about 20,000 years old. It gives clues about the earliest humans in the Americas. I just wonder about the earliest dogs. Who were they and what part of society did they have? It would be interesting to know this.

Double Lyalties

It is not easy having double loyalties. Last night, Sweden palyed Norway in the ice hockey World Championship. I am Swedish, but my Dad was Norwegian. In most winter sports, I root for Sweden, being the underdog, but in ice hockey, Norway is the underdog. Sweden won the game, but I could have been happier. Well, I do not mind, at least. If any of the countries I love has a good chamce of winning gold, it is Sweden, thus, it is good when Sweden does win.

Cat Returned Home After Three Years

It is now over three years since the huge tsunami struck Japan in the spring of 2011. One family lost their cat, who was nowhere to be found. After months of searching in vain, they thought he was dead. However, he has now been found and reunited with his humans. I think this is a fantastic story. Miracles do happen.

Norway Won

We watched the ice hockey game between Norway and Denmark today. Denmark scored first and led by 2-0 for a while. Norway came back, however, and won by 4-3. I hoped Norway would win, because of my late Dad, who was from Norway. He would have been happy for this victory.

Earlier in the day, Italy defeated France. I would have thought France would win, they did win over the  ice hockey great power Canada the other day. Well, it is always more interesting when you cannot predict the results.

In Formula 1 this year, it seems certain already that one of the two Mercedes drivers will win the championship. They have won all races, including the Spanish GP today. The excitement lies in speculating which of the two drivers will be the champion. It would have been more exciting, had Mercedes not been that much better than everybody else. Will any of the other teams catch up later in the season? I doubt it, but you can never be certain.

No Dog Songs

We stayed up until late last night, watching the Eurovision Song Contest on TV. This is why I had no time to post anything in my blog before midnight. I did not vote for any song, I will never vote, until there is a good song about a dog or dogs. There are too many songs not mentioning dogs at all. Are not dogs important enough in society for humans to write more songs about us?

Ice Hockey

Today was the first day of the IIHF ice. Hockey world championship. Sweden starts playing tomorrow. Sweden won gold last year. We hope the team this year can do the same, but  there are a lot of good teams in the championship. I would not think Switzerland will repeat its feat of winning silver, not after losing to Russia 0-5 today. Interestingly, though, France beat Canada after penalties. Maybe France will be the big surprise this year.

Soya

Hello Karstuhl here.

I haven't heard about my pup Soya in a few days. Maybe her humans have sold her? I would not think so, when one of her humans is Paula's sister, but why do they not give me any news? I'm a bit worried...

Pizza

Hello, Karstuhl here!

Paula and Daniel made pizza for dinner tonight. It was tasty. I am not sure I was supposed to taste some, but I saw my opportunity. When a Shiba sees an opportunity, the Shiba has justice on her side. Nobody complained. Pizza is great.

Eurovision Song Contest

The first semi final in the Eurovision Song Contest took place today. I read about it on the BBC homepage, where they wrote about which songs to look out for. sweden's song was not one of them. Sweden did make it to the final contest on Saturday, but I do not think Sweden will win. So far, I have not determined if I will vote for any song.

Cookies

Karstuhl and I got some cookies to eat today. This is not common. Cookies are great, sweet food. I wish we could get cookies more often. Daniel had the last cookies we had at home, though. He could have shared some more, I believe. Then again, I think I would not have shared, had I had control over the cookies, so I understand him.

TV Debate

the leaders of the political parties in the swedish parliament held a televised debate tonight. i was a little disappointed, because none of them said a word about dogs and how to improve the standard for us dogs. everything was just about humans. there need to be more focus on dogs in politics, i believe.

No Dog Toys in Happy Meal

Hello, Karstuhl here!

If you are at McDonald's, you can buy hamburgers. If you buy their kids' meal, called Happy Meal, you can get a toy. They have different toys for boys and girls. I guess this is because boys and girls often have different interests. I just wonder why you cannot chose to get a dog toy instead. Dogs do not have the same interest in toys as children, so what is a dog person to do, when buying a Happy Meal? It is time for McDonald's to do something about this!

Switching Between Channels

Sometimes, there is nothing great to watch on TV. Then we can switch channels over and over again. This is troublesome, when The remote control is not in my possession. I could always settle for some TV programme about wild animals or the like, but there are others in the family who have other ideas on what is good enough TV. This may be alright, but sometimes, there are just to many switches from one channel to another. Well, one can always turn the head away and fall asleep instead. I do this once in a while, too.

What About Working Dogs?

This day, the first of May, is a holiday in Sweden. The socialistic political parties use the day to demonstrate for such things as workers' rights. I wonder what they want to do for working dogs. I have not found any article online about this, despite the date. This is bad.

The politician I know best, Daniel, is conservative. I know he is a great friend of dogs. He may be a better candidate for political office even for working dogs.