On the last day of April, Swedes celebrate spring on the eve of Walpurgis Day 1 May. As a stroke of luck, it is also the birthday of the King of Sweden, so we can hoist the flag for him as well.
Paula, Daniel, and Piffy went away to a celebration a bit from us. I preferred to stay at home, so I did. It was a nice eve anyway. Spring is worth celebrating.
There are things I do not want to know. Hemce, I do not want to read about them. Despite this, I came across an article about average age of different dog breeds. This is not a thing I want to read. I do not want to know my life expectancy, what if it was lower than I thought? I will read other things instead.
It seems like anyone can snore, given the right circumstances. Some dogs or humans snore more often than others, however. This evening, our Chihuahua friend Piffy snores, having gone to sleep earlier than I have. Piffy is one of those dogs who often snores. While it can be annoying at times, if it makes it harder foryou to go to sleep yourself, it is also often a little homely and cute. This evening, I am in a good mood and like the sound of it. Our lives are good.
In the afternoon, Paula and Daniel agreed that it was relatively cold indoors. At first, none of them could figure out why. It turned out that a small window in the kitchen was open. Daniel closed it.
It is warmer indoors as I write this in the evening. Not that I really care. A Shiba coat is good enough for temperatures well below the freezing point. We had nowhere near such low temperatures indoors.
The International Ice Hockey Federation has decided to withdraw the right to host the 2023 ice hockey world championship from Russia.
Formally, this is due to safety concerns for participants, officials, media, and fans. One can only assume that it is also a way for the international community to sanction Russia for its war against Ukraine. Whatever the true reasons are, the decision is good. The championship should be held elsewhere.
There are times when our cat friend Totte walk with us dogs. He did so this morning again. I like Totte, but does he have to walk so close that you can feel him by your side or have to stop in order not to walk over him? I guess this is a cat thing. Dogs are friendly too, but not in this way. Nevertheless, I like Totte, he is a great friend and part of the family.
At least ten people have been reported dead as a boat with tourists have sunk in harsh weather off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan. There were two children among the twentysix people on board. Apparently, not everyoneis accounted for yet.
As far as the reports go, there were no dogs on board. I hope no dogs will lose their humans.
Daniel was away the whole day today, to discuss politics. They had a meeting in his political party. Among the things they discussed, were new political ideas to evolve the politics of the party. When Daniel came back home, he was pleased with many of the results. There had been good debates and someof his ideas had been approved. I am glad he was pleased, because he is in a better mood.
When I got out in the yard at lunch, our cat friends Totte and Malin sat on our side of the fence. Just outside, there was another cat. This was the neighbour cat, who sometimes trespass into the territory of Malin and Totte. I told the neighbour cat to leave. Eventually, he did. We do not want trespassers.
Daniel make sure Morran come along on the morning walks every day now. She needs to build muscles in a leg where shehas a limp.
Morran went back to the veterinarian today because of the limp. The veterinarian agreed with all of us that Morran has become much better. There might be another visit to the vet after the summer, but other than that, Morran is on the right track to recovery.
We are all happy for Morran. She is happy herself, having less pain. Life is getting better.
It is Paula's father's birthday. The celebration was cancelled, however, when Paula, her sister Mia, and Mia's children all were ill.
While I am sorry for everyone who does not feel well, and for Paula's father, whose celebration was at least postponed, we got to have Paula with us at home. You always have to try to see the good things, even when bad things happen.
It does not happen often, but this ordinary week night, Paula and Daniel had a late night snack. They had some pate and a nice drink.
Kindly enough, they gave a little bit of pate to each of us dogs. We are always up for treats. Pate is a luxurious treat. We thanked very much for it.
Late night snacks are great, almost regardless of what you eat. I wish we could have it more often.
There have been riots in several towns in Sweden. The rioters have used violence to protest a man who planned to burn a book. It was a copy of the religious book Quran of Islam.
Regardless of the claim that it is a holy book, I cannot understand how this could justify violent riots. Riots and violence can never be holy actions, can they?
Unfortunately, the news of the riots have become international news. I wish Sweden would make the headlines of news in other countries for more positive reasons.
There are days when I am to blame myself for not posting anything in this daily blog. Yesterday was not such a day. I am quite certain I did write a piece on the joy of Easter Day. The trouble is that the blog entry was not published and is not saved, either. You just have to take my word for it.
There will be another blog entry for today, I promise.
Daniel and Paula's father cut up trees in the yard today. Last Friday, when there was a heavy snowfall, a lot of trees broke and fell. The trees in our yard needed to be cut up and taken care of. This was done today.
It looks better in the yard now, when those fallen trees are gone.
In order to commemorate Good Friday, Paula and Daniel did not give us ordinary food. We got bread, cheese, sausage, and crisps. This special treat made us think about the special day that Good Friday is.
I hope you all had a special Good Friday. It is Easter Day on Sunday, I hope you have a happy Easter then.
Paula has been away from home for a couple of days. She came back home this afternoon. It was great to see her again.
When one of my humans are away for a while, I do not care where they have been or why they went. What I care about is that they come home. Any time they come home is a time of joy.
The family is complete again. We can sleep more calmly tonight.
This week, we celebrate Easter. I always like holidays, because our humans are at home more and give more candy to us dogs. Easter is the most special candy holiday.
We all know why Easter is celebrated, so I will not bore you with the details again. It is sufficient to say that all the eggs, candy, and other great things to eat and drink are part of the holy celebrations. May we celebrate the resurection again on Sunday!
It is funny how words canhave different meanings in different languages. In Swedish, "kennel" is just the word for a breeder of dogs. In English, it is also a word for a small cage for dogs, of the kind you stay in when going by car.
One if the dogs bred at our kennel needed to borrow a kennel of the latter kind. Paula and Daniel have a lot of them, so he and his humans got to borrow one from us. This is good, it comes to use.
Sad news reached us from Shanghai in China. A Corgi was beaten to death by a health worker, because the dog had lived with a human who had become ill with covid-19. The human had been driven off to a care facility and the dog was lose in the street. Apparently, the health worker imagined that the dog could spread covid-19, even though science say there is a very small likelihood that dogs get covid-19 or spread it.
It is a small comfort that many Chinese who have gotten to know about the killing are outraged by it. This may save other dogs in the future, but this dog was still brutally killed. I hope the health worker will have to answer for this horrible deed.
It is Saturday and our humans usually clean the house on Saturdays. This was true today as well.
I guess we helped with the cleaning, when Daniel let us out in the yard while he continued to clean. You do what you can to help.
We also got clean sheets in the bed. This is always a treat in the evening, when it is time to go to bed. Now we will have a nice night.
We got more than two decimetres of snow tonight. It was wet, heavy snow. Daniel had to struggle for a couple of hours to clear our driveway. A few tree branches had to be removed too, the snow had been too heavy for them, so they had fallen downon the driveway.
All of us generally like that we have a large lot. When Daniel has to shovel this amount if snow, he still swears about it a little. I can understand that. He likes the size of our lot every other time I ask him about it.
Electric cars are the future now. They provide people and dogs vehicle rides without necessarily making carbon emissions.
In the 1990's, there was a good electric car mass produced in the USA. However, it was not as profitable for the manufacturer General Motors as they would have wanted. They shut it down, and by doing so may have postponed the transfer to electric cars for years. It is sad, if this is so.
Here is a short but nice documentary of this electric car.
Telephone queues are often annoying. If you want to reach somebody over the telephone, you do not want to wait.
Daniel was waiting in a telephone queue for a long time this evening. Meanwhile, we could hear annoying music being played. There was a very slow countdown to Daniel's turn in the queue. I guess he eventually got through, but I stopped caring.
We dogs were alone at home for a couple of hours today. We guarded it well, there were no burglaries or any other unlawful events on our watch.
The cats were at home as well. They are not guarding the house against criminals, it is not what cats do. They keep mice away, however. This is also good.
It can be nice being alone at home like this for a while. The watch duty gives us a purpose. I like that.
Morran has had a limp for some days on her left hind leg.
The limp has not grown better. Limps often do, they are often very temporary and heal of themselves, but not always. Thus, Daniel took Morran to the veterinarian today.
Morran got an x-ray and the vet found out her patella was out of place. While the vet could drag it into place again, she was not sure it will stay there. Morran has gotten some antiinflammatory medicine and will go back for a check upin a few weeks. We all hope she will get well soon.
We have a lot of trees surrounding our property. On the morning walk today, we realised two of them had broken off close to the ground. They had not fallen to the ground, however, but stand tilted, resting against other trees. We have to do something about this, before they may fall further down. Paula and Daniel will take care of this problem.
No, Paula will not start to make candy. This was just my April's fool's joke this year.
It would be nice if she did, though. I would volunteer to taste and to rinse.
Paula has cooked some candy. It tastes great. Now she is talking about starting a candy manufacture. This would be great. Making candy sure would help more people than when she works as a nurse.
