Swedish Gold

The World Championship in athletics is currently held in Qatar. Today, Daniel Ståhl from Sweden won a gold medal in discus throw. He is one of very few Swedes who have ever won gold medals in the world championships in athletics.

It is nice to have Swedish victories in athletics, when Sweden is not even competing in the bigger championship that is the Rugby World Cup.

Candy

Now that Paula is at home, we get more candy. Paula has always been the greatest candy giver of our humans.

We love candy. We love both our humans, but when Paula brings candy, she is the focus of our love. It is a great combination: Paula and candy, two things to love.

Japan Won!

Japan won its game versus Ireland in the Rugby World Cup today, 12-9. Japan now leads its pool, even though every teamhas not had a chance to play as many matches yet.

All of us Shibas have celebrated the victory. Whenever Japan competes, a Shiba has a team to root for. We are conscious and proud of our Japanese heritage.

Get up Early Tomorrow!

Tomorrow morning, Central European time, at 9:45, Japan will play Ireland in the Rugby World Cup. It is 16:45 in the afternoon in the local, Japanese time.

The Irish national teamin rugby is interesting, becauseit is a joint team of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (the latter a part of the United Kingdom,of course). I hope Japan will win the game tomorrow, but I rather fancy the idea of a joint Irish national team. It goes to prove that the two parts of the island Ireland can cooperate in important matters, such as the second largest sports tournamentin the world (after the FIFA Football World Cup).

You can watch the game in Sweden on Viasat Sport. It goes on air at 9:10 in the morning.

Slow Service

Our Internet service is slower than it usually is in our bedroom. We got a new router the other week. I have asked if this router may work less efficiently than the old one (that broke in a thunder storm). Daniel do not think so, however. He says the service is just of varying quality, but that he will ask our Internet service provider, if this goes on. I wish he would ask soon. I am getting tired of slow service.

Inexperienced Watchdogs

Some of the younger dogs burst out barking tonight, when we had all gone to bed. They barked at some noise from a car down at the street where we live. I knew this was nothing to bark at.

Experience will make you better at determining what noises come from dangers and what noises are not. You just have to sound the alarm by barking, if the noise is the sign of danger.

I did not bark. The younger ones will probably not bark either, with more experience.

Coming Home

Paula has moved back home today. Itis a day of great joy. At the same time, itfeels so natural,almost as if she has not been gone. No matter what, I love it.I love Paula. Now it is time to spend time with her.

Work Day

Hello, Karstuhl here!

It is Monday. We are all back to work. Daniel travels to his work in the centre of town. The rest of us, the dogs, stay at home, taking care of our work, watch duty. So far, we have a 100 % success rate. Nobody has ever succeeded in invading our home on our watch. I do not think they even want to try. We are that good at what we do. Life is nice.

Great Afternoon

This afternoon, Paula was home for several hours. We spent a lot of quality time with her.

Paula is still fragile and gets tired more quickly than she usually does. She is getting better every day, though. If all goes to plan, she will come home permanently this Tuesday. We all hope this turns out to be true.

Victory in the First Game

The Rugby World Cup started yesterday.

As host nation, Japan played the first game. It was a victory 30-10 versus Russia. Russia is not a hoghly ranked rugby nation, so this may not account for so mich. Nevertheless, it is a victory, and this is what counts.

Needless to say, I hope Japan will go far in the tournament. Except for Japan in Pool A, I also hope for the USA in Pool C. In Pool D, I may root for Australia, one of my late Auntie Linni’s favourite countries, since her father was from Australia. Neither Sweden, nor Norway or Belgium have been able to qualify for the World Cup.

Not that Cold

It is not so cold outside, as it has been this week. The forecast says it will be pretty warm this weekend.

As I have grown older, Ihave come to like warmth more. I guess this has to do with age, because many old dogs seem to feel this way. Thisis not to say I am notlooking forward to a nice, thick layer of snow in the winter. It is just that I fancy warm weather more now than before. The winter will surely be cold, no matter what.

Blackface

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing a scandal when running for re-election. He is accused of having worn a blackface more than once in his youth, which was not very long ago.

In the past, mostly no later than the first half of the 20th century, humans with light skin sometimes wore dark makeup to look like dark coloured humans. This has since gone out of fashion, not least because it is viewed upon as racist. If you want someone to play the part of a dark skinned human, just chose a dark skinned human to do it, the common sense logic goes nowadays.

I would not want a red Shiba to have her coat dyed black and play the part of a black and tan, when I could do this as a natural black and tan beauty.

I wonder why Justin Trudeau wore blackfaces more than once no less than twenty years ago. The racist context of it should have been known. This is all the more embarrasing for him, since he has held himself out as a champion of equal rights between people of all ethnicities. We will have to see how the election turns out.

Colder

We have had colder weather over the last few days. You can tell autumn is here. Rumour has it, snow fell in Värmland not far from us. We have not had temperatures below the freezing point, however. It has been cold enough for Daniel to turn on the heat in the house. It feels a little better indoors, now that the central heating has been active for a while. It feels good to live in a civilised house when winter is approaching.

Paula

Paula came home for a couple of hours this afternoon. What a moment of joy! I just wish I had had the chance to be with her even more, when she was here. I felt obliged, however, to give all of the other dogs their fair share of Paula.

We hope to see much more of Paula soon. She is getting steadily better.

Orange

Our dear old friend Orange is back here again. She has moved to another family and they love eachother, but her new humans had a scheduled journey overseas. During this time, Orange will stay with us again for a while. It will be fun.

It is nice catching up with Orange. She has seen some new places and met some other dogs. She likes her new life, but also enjoys the chance to come back here for a while. We also enjoy having her here. She may come back more times, if it is up to me.

Birthday

I turn fourteen years old today. Some would say it is an awesome age for a dog. I do not feel awesomely old, though.

The best thing about my birthday was meeting Paula. She has been away at the hospital for so long, but she is getting better.

I also got quite a few treats and other good things to eat. Sausage, cheese, et cetera, all of these are good things to have for a nice birthday celebration.

My brother Kiko was also celebrating. Unfortunately, our brother Jiro celebrated in Heaven and not by us down on Earth. We will all go the way he has gone, but I hope I will go later rather than sooner.

Software Update

Whenever we use modern hardware to get in touch with social media et cetera online, there is a chance that the device declares that it is time to update the software.

I do not understand why software needs to be updated so often. It cannot all be due to bug fixes. It is seldom we see that the software works better or provides new services. I am just a user of the software, not a professional, so it might just be due to my ignorance that I do not understand. Still, I cannot help but wonder what all of these software updates are for. Are all of them really necessary? I hope so, but I just do not know.

On the other paw, it might just take too long to learn what all of the updates are for.

Snow at Summer Olympic Games

The Summer Olympic Games will be held in Tokyo next year. The weather is usually hot at the time of the year when the Games will be held. The Japanese are innovative, however. They plan to let artificial snow fall over the event, in case of hot weather.

I hope that I get to see a lot of TV from these Olympic Games. As a Shiba, I have always been interested in Japan. It is nice seeing pictures and TV from Japan, even though I will probably never go there myself.

Some Days Are Boring

Hello, Karstuhl here!

Some days are boring, more boring than usual. Today was such a day, I believe. Nothing much happened. We went out like we use to, we got food like we use to, we were alone watching the house for a little time,like we use to. It is just that today seemed more like any other day, than days usually do. I cannot say why. I guess I can spice the day up with a nice colour of the text of this blog post, at least. There you go.

Electric Bicycle

Daniel often uses an electric bicycle to go to work these days. It is an ordinary bicycle, but with an electric motor that supplements the power of his legs, when he turns the pedals. The bad thing is that it needs to get charged now and then. This is not the case with ordinary bicycles. I guess Daniel still think it is worth it. He has still got his ordinary bicycle, bit rarely uses this anymore. Electricity is a good thing, I believe.

Getting Out

It is not always easy, when you have to go out later than bedtime. It happens very rarely, but whenit does, it is important. I had to ask Daniel more thanonce, before he let me out. He finally did. He is a good human this way, understanding his dogs and thinking about their needs.

Failed Moon Mission

An attempted landing of a space probe from India on the Moon failed the day before yesterday. The Indian space agency has not yet been able to analyse the data enough to tell why this happened.

It is always a sad event, when a space mission fails. It shows that space missions are still complicated, difficult things to master. Bearing this in mind,it is all the more amazing that the manned Moon missions where so successful fifty years ago.

Anniversary

Paula and Daniel got married today eighteen years ago. The most important thing that happened next, was that they went to London on a honey moon and bought a book on Shibas in a book store there. This book was oroginally intended for a friend who had a Shiba, but they found the book and the breed so interesting that they bought another fopy the next day for themselves. When they were back in Sweden, they contacted the breeder of the Shiba of their friend. The rest is history.

Seventy Years Old

When a human turns seventy years old,itis something special. It is not only that she turns another decade old. She also celebrates a birthday which can be evenly divided by seven, which means it correaponds to the years of a dog’s age. In dog terms, she is ten years old.

Paula’s mother Gertrud celebrated her seventieth birthday today. This is something special. We send our biggest congratulations to her.

Resignation

The foreign minister of Sweden resigned today. She cited family reasons. I hope her family will like that she resigns. Some political opponents will probably also like it.

I would never voluntarily resign from an office. I have had many litters of pups, but I always came back in the dog show ring, my true calling. I made it back to prominence every time.

It is possible that life as a foreign minister is harder than life as a dog show star, but I doubt it. On the other paw, it must be much more boring. Given this boredom, I can understand the resignation.

Rain During Lunch

We didnot have much rain today. I say it could very well have been more, if I were to decide. Still, we did have rain as we were outside during lunch routines. We always get to go out when we have had lunch served. This is normally a good thing, but today, it happened to coincide with a rainfall. Why could there not have been more rain, just not when we went outside? Rain is best, when heard from inside the house.

Principles

Phillip Lee, who is a British Member of Parliament, has left the ruling Conservative and Unionist Party and become a member of the Liberal Democrats instead. This leaves the Conservatives short of a majority.

Changing parties is not without precedence, when it comes to Members of Parliament in Britain. Sir Winston Churchill was originally an MP for the Conservatives, then changed parties to the Liberals, whilelater switching back to the Conservatives. Eventually, he became a two time Prime Minister and as such a great hero of the Second World War.

Sir Winston Churchill famously said: ”Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party.” The former may be applicable for Phillip Lee.

First Woman on the Moon?

When humans went to the Moon fifty years ago, there were just men who got to go. So far, no woman has set foot on the Moon. This may change with the upcoming new American Moon programme, Artemis.

Of course, I think real progress is made when the first dog sets paw on the Moon.

Better

Daniel told us Paula is feeling better. When he visited her at the hospital, she asked about us dogs. Daniel had assured her we are feeling fine.

We think about Paula a lot. We all miss her. Life will not be complete until she is back home. May this day come soon.

Eighty Years Ago

Eighty years ago today, the Second World War started, when Germany attacked Poland. Germany was run by nazists and were supported by the Soviet Union run by communists. It was a terrible war. In the end, the nazists were defeated, but the communists stood strong in the eastern half of Europe. Nothing about the war was good for dogs.