Beer Sausage

It is the day of Pilsener Beer Sausage. This is celebrated on the 30th June every year, on the initiative of Bullens Pilsnerkorv, the most well known beer sausage of Sweden.

We did not have any beer sausage today. I regret that. We will have to remind ourselves of this day by the end of June next year. Beer sausage, just like all sausage, is very tasty. It is well worth celebrating.

Confederations Cup

Ome year ahead of the FIFA World Cup in football, the Confederations Cup is played. Germany will face Chile in the final.

Germany won the last World Cup and now has a chance to win Confederations Cup. Regardless of whether Germany wins the final on Sunday, odds are there will be another country winning the World Cup next year. It is very rare that a country wins the World Cup twice in a row. Italy did it in 1934 and 1938, Brazil in 1958 and 1962. It has not happened since. The winner of Confederations Cup has never won the following World Cup.

Well, odds are one thing, the actual tournament is something else. I hope for a good game on Sunday and a great World Cup next year. Time will tell who wins.

Coming Home

Daniel came home this afternoon. This is great. The whole family is at home again.

Daniel's father is doing good, under the circumstances. He only had to stay for one night at the human hospital. He will go back for additional tests on a bigger hospital this Friday. The prognosis is actually not bad. We have hope. Daniel does not feel anxious.

Cutting Hair

My Poodle friends Laila and Momoko need to have their hair cut once in a while. They do not like it, and it does look uncomfortable. I am glad I shed my coat instead. Sometimes, I guess our humans are not happy when we shed coats, but this is because they do not like the shed coat hairs lying around. When they cut hair of the Poodles, some of it end up lying around too. I guess there may be advantages and disadvantages both with shedding and having to cut coats.

Not in Full Health

Daniel went to the west coast today, alone. His father is there, and not feeling well, admitted to the local human hospital. Daniel's brother is there as well, but Daniel wanted to help. It seems like things are not very bad, but we will know more after some tests tomorrow.

I fully understand Daniel's concern. I have lost both of my parents. It is sad and nothing i wish for anybody, though it is bound to happen. We all hope for a full recovery.

Lawn Mower

Daniel mowed the lawn today. He was, however, angry with the lawn mower, which does not work properly. It is not an old lawn mower, but it is still not fully functional.

I can understand that Daniel is not happy. I am not, either. We need a working lawn mower, because high grass is only good for ticks. Ticks climb high on the straws of grass and jump over to us dogs. They are bad little creatures. With a well mowed lawn, we get fewer ticks.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Tomorrow is the Azerbaijan GP in Formula 1. It is a race in Baku, the capital of this western Asian country.

The race at this circuit last year was called the European GP. I never really understood why. Azerbaijan might have a corner of the country which formally can claim to be part of Europe, but Baku is in Asia. The former Grand Prix races of San Marino and Luxemburg were held outside of these countries, but this is understandable since the countries are so small and do not have race tracks fit for a Formula 1 race. Europe, however, have many race tracks fit for Formula 1. It is better this year, when the race in Baku is called the Azerbaijan GP.

Midsummer Eve

It is Midsummer Eve. We always celebrate this in Sweden. This Midsummer Eve, Paula and Daniel were supposed to go away for a while. Paula did not really feel well, so she considered staying at home instead. Eventually, they did go away. They were not gone for long. It is not that I wish that Paula will feel sick, but I would still have preferred it if she would have stayed at home. We had a nice Midsummer Eve anyway.

I wish all of my readers a happy Midsummer!

Fish Pate

Paula cooked some fish pate tonight. I like fish pate. There was none of it for anybody to eat today, though. Paula made it for tomorrow, when it is time to celebrate midsummer. I wish we would have celebrated tonight, it smelled really tasty.

Flowers

Hello, Karstuhl here!

There are a lot of flowers in our garden at this time of the year.

Daniel likes the flowers. He finds them beautiful. Paula is more indifferent.

I do not care much about flowers. To me, they are just a display of reproductive organs for plants. It is like me, when I am in heat, and give the males part of my scent and tease them. I would rather see a steak than a flower, a steak is just as beautiful, smells just as great, but you can also eat it and get a satisfied stomach.

However, plants would look more dull without the flowers, so there is this advantage.

Disturbing

It happens once in a while that one of us dogs needs to get out late at night. This is quite disturbing for those of us who do not need to, but who would rather go to sleep. There can be whining, paws moving about, and the odd barking. Regardless of the type of sound, it is disturbing. I guess I have become more sensitive to disturbing behaviour like this with increased age and wisdom. In my younger years, I was more eager to follow the other dogs out late at night. I am wiser now, finding the comfort of the bed or sofa better. I wish there would be less disturbances late at night, however rare it is.

Bright Nights

It is near midsummer. The sun sets very late in the evening and rises again very early in the morning. It never turns really dark. In a way, I like this. It may be a little hard to fall asleep, though. With a lot of rest, this does not matter much. Life is still good. The weather is nice and warm.

Cheesecake

Daniel had some cheesecake for dessert late tonight. This is an American cake, and since I am half American, I believed I should have some. I actually got to taste it. It was great. Cakes are always great, but some are greater than others. Cheesecake are among the very best.

Nadja and Arvid

Paula's sister Mia was here this evening, with her hubby Stefan and her children Arvid and Nadja. Human children are very cute, almost as cute as Shiba puppies.

Arvid is two years old. He and Daniel sat with me and some of the other dogs in the living room for a while. He is a really nice little boy. You can tell he is used to having dogs around. This is thanks to my granddaughter Soya, who lives with him and his family.

Nadja is also very cute, but she is just half a year old, so she is not old enough to i teract with us dogs. I love her anyway.

It was a nice evening.

Candy

Hello, Karstuhl here!

I have taught my mother Hailey a valuable lesson. Whenever Paula or Daniel want us to go inside, we wait until we get some candy. I started this, Mommy learned from me. Now she is even more eager to get candy in order to get indoors than I am. If we want to get indoors ourselves, we do not demand candy, of course. It is just when our humans want us the get inside, but we do not, that we demand candy. It is still a great way to get some extra treats. I like it.

Music

Paula is often playing music in the evening. It makes her happy. I like some music, but I am not as interested as Paula. I believe music is more of a thing for humans.

There is a lot of music that comes with lyrics. I would wish more lyrics would be about dogs. A lot of lyrics is about love, but it is about love between humans. Dogs love humans as well. Why is there not more songs about dogs and the love of dogs and dogs' love of humans? I would like such songs.

Tuesday

It was Tuesday, but the day came and went, and I missed the opportunity to write my daily blog entry. This rarely happens, but happened this Tuesday. Crap!

Sausage

We got some sausage in our food this afternoon. Sausage is great food. It mainly consist of meat, and it is easily eaten. I love most sausages. The sausage we got today was lovely. I wish we could get sausage more often. We often get extra food, but few things are better than sausage.

Finnish Champion

One of the Aangenaam dogs who lives abroad is Hannes, in Finland. He became Finnish Show Champion today. Hannes is not related to me, but as a fellow Aangenaam dog, I root for him anyway. It proves the value of all of our breeding strategies, whenever anyone of us succeeds in the show ring.

Congratulations, Hannes!

How Civilisations Could Evolve

New anthropological finds indicate that the modern human is much older than previously thought. Instead of being about 200,000 years old, the species may be about 300,000 years old.

We could ask ourselves, if humans are this old, why did civilisations not evolve until the last 10,000 years?

Humans teamed up with wolves about 35,000 years ago. These wolves evolved into dogs.

My theory is that civilisations could not evolve until humans had dogs. Thus, dogs are an essential part of human civilisation.

We Have Had Rain

Over the last few days, we have had considerable amounts of rain.

This does not seem like an exciting thing to write about. Normally, it would not be; normally, I would not write about it. Over the latest months, however, it has been very dry here, relatively speaking. It is far from a desert, but the water levels in the ground, in the lakes and the rivers, have been very low. We need much more rain for the water levels to rise to normal levels.

I normally do not like being out in the rain, but under these circumstances, I can endure it. I even hope there will be more rain soon. We will see what happens. Daniel does not want rain tomorrow, he wants to be able to mow the lawn.

Scent

Hello, Karstuhl here!

Humans struggle to understand why dogs sometimes roll around in excrements from other animals. There are a lot of theories, but they really do not know. I would say: let them wonder. Some of our behaviour is better kept an enigma.

Day Off

Paula had a day off today, after working throughout the weekend. This was nice, we could sleep together with her until late in the day. Sleeping is comfortable, especially when you do it with humans and dogs you love. We all love Paula. She is such a great person. She deserved this day of rest.

National Holiday

We celebrate Sweden today. It is our national holiday.

Daniel gave us dogs minced moose meat. Eating moose, perhaps the most iconic Swedish animal, seems fitting on the Swedish national holiday. It was also very tasty, of course.

Sweden is a great country. We have a fantastic nature and culture, and we have great laws against animal abuse. It is worth celebrating.

Hamburger

Life as a dog may seem easy to humans. We are often easy to please, we live here and now. Tonight, Paula and Daniel cooked some hamburgers for dinner. I got to taste a little bit. It was great, as it always is. Iwas easy to please tonight.

Busy Day

It is Pentecost and Sunday, so most of us have taken it easy and celebrated moderately. Paula has been off to work at the hospital, however. The injuries and diseases do not take any days off, so neither can nurses or other staff on the hospital. Paula had a very busy day. She did not come away from work until half an hour after the end of her watch. We commend her for being a heroine at work. She is needed there. We understand this, though we like it better when she is at home. Everything is fine now, in the evening.

Baptism

My granddaughter Soya's youngest human, Nadja, was baptised today. Paula and Daniel were there for the baptism.

Baptism is a way for humans to become members of a church, thus coming closer to God. Dogs are never baptised. I believe we are close to God anyway.

All of us dogs sent our greetings to Nadja for the baptism.

Good News

The world is becoming an increasingly better place to live. One example is that the number of children who dies from diarrhoea is down by one third from 2005 to 2015. A lot of children still die in this gruesome way, but not as many as before. Clean water and better hygiene amounts for much of the improvement. I guess this also has a positive effect on the health and survival rate of dogs. I hope it is so.

Black

Paula got a tip from a colleague about a red wine that was supposed to be very tasty. She bought it and she and Daniel tried it tonight. They agreed it was a great wine. It was called Black Stallion. I understand it was a great wine, with a name like this. The love of my life was Kuro-chan, a black and tan male shiba. He was my black stallion. Once you go black, you never go back. Black is great.