Tick

Hello, Karstuhl here!

This evening, Daniel picked a tick from me. At first, I got a little angry, because it hurt a little. Then I got happy. It is always good to get rid of ticks. It hurts having them, more than getting rid of them, because having them hurts constantly. If there is any animal I would like to have extinct, it is the tick. Ticks are just useless and hurts.

Feast of the Ascension

Today is a holiday, the feast of the Ascension. It is the celebration of when the resurected Christ litteraly ascended up into Heaven.

Daniel has been at home with us most of the day and we have had a nice and calm day. I like days like this, when you can just take it easy and do a little what you feel like.

Lunch

Daniel came home on his lunch break today. He gave us lunch.

I think giving your dogs lunch on your lunch break, is the best use you can have of the lunch break.

We did not get anything out of the ordinary, it was just our traditional dog food. Still, we usually get our main meal in the afternoon, not at noon, as we did today. This made the lunch hour special, thus, the food felt a little special.

Apparently, some dogs get food at the same time every day. This must be boring.

New Food

Daniel ordered new dog food last week. It was delivered to us today. It is the same food as usual, but I really like it. It is, thus, worth writing about. It contains herring, which is tasty and healthy.

Business Trip

Daniel went on a business trip to Stockholm today. He combined it with a visit to his father, who lives there.

Almost all of Daniel’s business trips go to Stockholm. My business trips have taken me many places in Sweden and abroad, it has been dog show trips. When Daniel comes home from business trips, he is tired. When I came home from mine, I was happy. Dog shows are so exciting events, boosting me with energy. I guess Daniel’s business trips are not quite as exciting, though he does not complain.

It is better when Daniel works in his ordinary office. He is closer to home. A business trip now and then is no danger, however.

Mother’s Day

Today was Mother’s Day in Sweden. I got to come withPaula and Daniel for a small celebration at Paula’s parents’ place. This suited me, as a mother of many dogs.

Polly, my dear daughter, celebrated me as well, at home. I liked this. She is very dear to me.

Vera

We had visitors here today. Vera, who is the oldest daughter of Orange, and two of her humans were here. It was a long time since the last time I saw Vera, but she was nice and friendly.

The humans sat down and talked for a long time. I am not sure what they were talking about, dialogues like this usually bores me, so I did not listen. I guess they had a nice time, sitting there for so long, though.

Vera also got to see her father Javier. They did not have much tosay to each other, however. Javier is a dog of few words.

Day Off?

Daniel had the day off and stayed home from work. I am not so sure what he means with a day off, however, since he was busy doing this and that almost without any break. He sorted and organised papers, finished some unfinished business with the kennel, cleaned, gave us food, washed clothes et cetera. Meanwhile, I could take it fairly easy. Sometimes, I am glad I am not a human, it seems like they are always busy doing things.

Birthday

It is the birthday of Daniel today. We celebrated it in part at our house, then Paula and Daniel also visited Paula’s parents and had more celebrations there.

Daniel told us he had a nice birthday, but he added that any day with us dogs is a day more happy than a birthday without dogs. I liked that he said so.

Birthday Presents

A dear friend of Paula and Daniel has a horse who turned ten years old. We collected funds and gave the horse some carrots and apples for his birthday.

Horses are nice animals. They have contributed greatly to the human-dog civilisation. I would even go so far as to say that horses are the second most important animals to humans, after dogs.

Daniel told me that his and Paula’s friend was very happy about the present. I hope the horse is, as well. I believe he is.

Mosquitos and Ticks

The worst things about summer are here. Mosquitos are flying around. Ticks are stalking us in the grass. I wish those would be endangered species. Is anybody of a different opinion?

Allram

A pup came back to us today. It is Allram, who left us earlier this spring, but whose human has turned ill. Unfortunately for Allram, it seems like his human has a bad prognosis. Allram is welcome back here, though.

Allram was happy to be back here. We are happy to see him, too, but I had to put him in place. He was polite enough and recognised my authority right away. He is a nice lad.

Loading

All of the mobile units these days need electricity for their batteries. The downside is mainly that chargers may get broken without any recognisable cause. Daniel is really mad about chargers which have just spontaneously become broken. I do not say it is so bad. I have no problem writing my blog entries, anyway.

The Lawn

Daniel mowed the lawn today. It was the first time this season, which was rather late. I guess Daniel has just himself to blame for being late. It looks good now, though.

Norway

It is the national holiday of Norway, Dad’s home country. Dad always celebrated the 17 May. I do too, but not really to the extent that Dad did.

Norway also celebrated by winning against Austria in the ongoing ice hockey World Championship today. This was a good way of celebrating. It was also important for Norway’s chances in the tournament.

Late Train

Daniel was in Stockholm today for his work. He went by train. The train home was cancelled, so he had to take a later train.

Late or cancelled trains are annoying things that happen in life. We can lose some time because of them. They are, however, not really bad. Daniel is not wounded or sick, he is just late. We miss him for a bitlonger, but he comes home. When people complain about late trains, they better think that there are a lot of worse accidents that canhappen to them.

Garbage

Once every fortnight, the garbage lorry comes by and empty our trash cans. This is a good community service.

We have two trash cans. One is for food waste, such as peels from fruit and potatoes. The other is for other garbage. We seldom have much food waste. I guess this is a good thing, it means we consume almost every piece of food we buy. There is, of course, nobody in this house who do not regularly finish her or his meals.

Daniel took the trash cans out tonight, because they will be emptied tomorrow. We do not like to have them standing by the road at other times, it does not look good. Putting them out for the garbage lorry is quite enough. I am grateful I do not have to put them out, though, because the trash can withother kinds of garbage can be heavy sometimes.

Repairing the Roof

We have builders here, who repair parts of the roof on our house. It seemslike they are doing a great job. We have kept an eye upon them, but they are just working outdoors, so everything is fine.

I would like to have a house that stood forever, until you actively tore it down. Nothing lasts forever, though. If you want to keep your house, you have to repair parts of it now and then. It is good that we have humans who make sure our house is kept in a good shape.

A Prelude to the Anniversary

On the 20th of July this summer, it is fifty years since the first manned Lunar landing. Here is an interesting article about a BBC documentary dealing with the anniversary.

Landing menon the Moon was one of the greatest feats ever of humans. This is especially true since it was done within a decade of a political decision to do so and with the relatively limited technology and computer power of the 1960’s. I am amazed they pulled it of. We should all celebrate the anniversary, I think.

Ice Hockey

The IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship has started.

Sweden has played two games so far. There was a loss against Czechia, which is not nice, but Czechia is one of the great ice hockey nations and it is not embarrasing losing to them. The next game was versus Italy, a team which Sweden should beat. Sweden did, easily, 8-0. So far, Sweden is ranked last in its group, but there are more games to win. We believe there may be medals, perhaps even gold, this year again. We do hope so!

Joy

Here is a short film about a dog welcoming his human, who is back home after spending days at the hospital. Watch the film and get inspired and happy.

I can understand the dog. This is always a reason to be happy.

Extra Work

Paula has been called upon to make extra nights at work this weekend. It starts tonight. We are proud of Paula, who accepts this. It does involve extra work for us dogs as well. We have to keep watch when she prepares by sleeping.

Roaming Freely, With Dogs

It is often interesting to read about your own home country from the viewpoint of foreigners. Here is an interesting piece about ”allemansrätten”, the Swedish right to travel and visit most of the country, as long as you do not come too close to someone’s home. The article states that this right, and a high level of gender equality in Sweden, alows women to roam freely on their own. Note, however, that the woman in the pictures is not alone. She has a dog.

Speeding Pidgeon

A pidgeon flying low over a street in a German town was caught on an automatic traffic control camera. It was speeding, flying at 45 km/h where vehicles were just allowed to go in 30 km/h.

It is funny how animals can get mixed up with vehicles like this.

A driver would have had to pay a fine. The pidgeon will certainly not have to.

Botan

Daniel purchased a beer today, called Botan.

My firstborn son is called Botan, Aangenaam A Hero Comes Home. Daniel told me that as soon as he saw the tin in the store, he came to think of Botan. He said he wanted to try it out, just because it had the same name as Botan. I think this is a fine idea.

According to Daniel, the Botan beer is a double IPA with a rather sharp but nice taste. I do not drink beer, so I would not know.I am glad Daniel enjoys it, though. Botan is such a lovely boy.

Lost Idea

There are times when it is time for me to write a blog post, and I have this nagging feeling that I have had a great idea for a blog post earlier in the day, but just cannot recall what it was I thought I would write about. This affects me most of all. I also like to think, however, it affects you, my dear readers. If there were great ideas for blog posts, but these were forgotten, you lose the ideas just as I do. There may be times when I find an old idea again, and the blog post comes to be. Other times, the idea keeps eluding me. I am not sure I ever had the idea, but there is still a feeling I did have it.

I believe I lost a good idea today. I hopeit will come back to me. Otherwise, odds are I get other ideas worth writing about. Either way, I hope you stay tuned. Whatever happens with my ideas, blog posts will keep coming.

Ticks

Hello, Li’l Gertrud here!

It is the season for ticks. Paula pulled a tick off of me this afternoon. Ticks hurt. Even after they are gone, their bite hurts. It is good that we have humans who take care of ticks, when they find them on us.

Yesterday, Grand Mum Hailey wrote a blog post about the extinction of humans, that may or may not happen. I wish ticks would become extinct, this would be a help for many other animals.

After Extinction?

There was this odd article about a human exploring what Earth would be like after humans would be extinct. Do we have to care? Dogs will probably survive, unless humans would be extinct because Earth would become uninhabitable for all of us living here.

I do not think humans will be extinct anytime soon. Not dogs either. Humans are too clever and resourceful to get extinct. Give humans a few centuries more, and they will expand into outer space and bring biospheres with them. They will make Earth’s life survive Earth and the Sun, I believe. Daniel says so, anyway, and I believe him.

Sometimes, I wish I would live for centuries, just to see what will come to pass.

Birthday

Paula’s sister Mia celebrated her birthday today. Paula and Daniel were there. The rest of us sent our greetings by them.

According to Paula, Mia was very happy about the celebrations. This is good.

Pop Corn

We had pop corn tonight. Pop corn are tasty and nice.

Pop corn were invented by native Americans. They brought dry cornon their journeys, and popped them over bonfires to increase their volume.

Pop corn with salt and butter is my favourite.

New Emperor

Japan has a new Emperor.


The old Emperor Akihito abdicated yesterday in favour of his son Naruhito. Formally, Naruhito became Emperor today.


In a way, Naruhito is also the Emperor of every Shiba in the World, whatever country we live in. Our breed is from Japan. The Japanese Kennel Club decides on the breed standard. This is in accordance with the rules of the International Kennel Federation FCI, which says the kennel club of the home country of a breed decides upon the breed standard. The Japanese Kennel Club is incorporated in Japan, where Naruhito is now Emperor and Head of State.


I am born and raised in Sweden and registrered with the Swedish Kennel Club. Still, I am also Japanese, since I am a Shiba.


Long live the Emperor!