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It is the 9 June, the day of self governance on the Ã…land Islands in the Baltic Sea. I have been there on a dog show. It is a nice part of the world, a fairly bog island with an archipelago around it. Ã…land is the only place in the world where Swedish is the only official language. You could claim it should belong to Sweden, but as long as it is part of Finland, it strengtenth the Swedish language in Finland. This is good.
Late last night, the Ipad just turned silent. No matter what Daniel did to get the sound going again, it stayed silent. Then, all of a sudden, after a little less than an hour, the sound came back. We still have no idea what the reason was for the silence, nor why the sound came back. Electronics work in mysterious ways sometimes.
Daniel is working with the contracts for the ring stewarts for the Askersund dog show in August. It is not always easy. Most ring stewarts accept the terms, but then there are those who do not. Some have special demands or cannot give a straight answer to important questions. Danielis more patient with the ring stewarts than I would be. I wish it turns out great in the end.
Our national holiday 6 June is in remembrance of the election of King Gustavus I as king on this date 1523. There must be more reasons to celebrate next year, when there is exactly five hundred years ago this happened. We will have to see if this will happen.
It is Pentecost, a big feast day in Christianity. It is, however, not very celebrated these days. I think any reason to celebrate is a good reason, so I think we should celebrate Pentecost more. A few more dog treats to any dogs in the households cannot hurt, can they?
At the initiative of Peanut, who was bornin England, we celebrated the 70 years anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Her Other Realms today. It is a great feat to be Head of State for more than seventy years. She is old even for human standarda, but still fit enough to fulfill most of her duties. Among humans, I would say only the Emperor of Japan is higher in rank than her.
Life is always good, when there is something to celebrate. Life was great today.
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom celebrates seventy years on the throne. This is an amazing feat. She has had a lot of help in her work as a Queen by her dogs of the Pembroke Welsh Corgi breed. Dogs can help any human who has a tough job.
Ukraine won against Scotland, but were not finished with the qualifications. They still have to play Wales, another British team.
Peanut says he only roots for the "main" British team, England, where he is from. England is already qualified. We will have to see if Wales or Ukraine goes on to the World Cup.
It is finally time for the qualification game between Scotland and Ukraine for the FIFA Football World Cup this year. The game was postponed when Ukraine was invaded by Russia. The war is still going on, but the qualifier have to be played sometime before the World Cup. Tonight is as good, or as bad, as any other night.
Most people probably root for Ukraine, because they sympathise with the defence war that Ukraine is fighting. Peanut roots for Ukraine, because he is English and cannot root for Scotland. Daniel roots for Scotland, however, since he normally roots for all British football teams. We will have to see what the result will be.
Daniel sat by the computer until late in the evening. We had to wait to go out for the night until he was done. He paid some bills, but more importantly, he spent a lot of time on plans and preparations for the Askersund dog show later this summer. We are proud that Daniel is trusted enough to do such important stuff as parts of the work for a dog show. Not many things in the world are more important than dog shows.
Daniel got up much earlier than he usually does today. This was in order to participate in a morning campaign for the election in September.
I did not mind goingon an earlier morning walk. It is so close to the summer solstice that it was daylight anyway, and all of us dogs could go back to sleep afterwards. I feel sorry for Daniel, though. He had a busy work day and got up early for this campaign. Life can be hard, but he chose it himself.
We got news from the USA that Marcus Ericsson won the Indy 500 of 2022 today. Marcus Ericsson is from Kumla just south of Örebro and lives in Örebro when he is in Sweden. Indy 500 is the most prestigious race in the American formula car series Indycar. Congratulations are in order.
Finland won the IIHF World Championship in ice hockey. This was the first gold won on home turf for Finland, after beating Canada 4-3 in over time.
I had hoped Canada would win, despite Finland being a neighbour of Sweden. This was because Canada was the team that knocked out Sweden of the tournament in the quarter final. It is less hurtfull to lose to the final winner of the tournament. However, I am happy for the Finns. We do have dogs from Aangenaam in Finland, but not in Canada, so it is more likely dogs from us really rooted for Finland than for Canada.
Our congratulations go to Finland.
Daniel went to a dog show alone today. He was contracted to be a ring steward for a Bull Mastiff specialty dog show.
I do not complain that I had to stay at home. My late mother, founder of this blog, loved dog shows and being shown on them. I have never shared this love. This one reason I made sure to become a show champion on three tries, so I did not have to go to more shows.
Daniel was pleased with the day, when he got home. He was tired and a little annoyed that there had been quite some rain. Over all, however, it had been good. This made mehappy for his sake. Good days are good, even though they make you tired.
This morning, we could see that we had had 17 mm of rain yesterday and last night. This is great for the vegetation and for the water in the ground that fills up our well.
The damper weather with more clouds makes it colder. We still hope for more rain, because it has been a relatively dry winter and spring. Perhaps it will be a rainy summer and the water wells will fill up well.
Water is important. I want a lot of water, as long as I do not have to take unnecessary baths.
Sweden did not make it past the quarter finals in this year's IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. Canada won in overtime, 4-3.
It is no shame to lose to Canada, one of the ice hockey great powers. Nevertheless, we are sad about the result, which means there is no chance that Sweden will win medals.
Czechia won against Germany, which was expected.
Paula gave us food today. Most of the time, Daniel does, but he was not at home. It is not uncommon that Paula give us food, but it is still a little off, compared to what we are used to. Life should not be the same every day,it is better when it varies a little, so this is good. Paula could give us food more often, as far as I am concerned.
We have warmer weather. It feels like summer is almost here. Paula even pit the fan on in the bed room today, because she thought it was too hot in there otherwise. I wouuld not agree, but I guess Paula is a little more sensitive to temperatures than I am. A dogs coat protects against heat as well as cold.
In the evening, we had rain. This is also typical summer weather.
Daniel turns fifty years old tomorrow. This is a birthday commonly celebrated a lot among humans. However, Daniel will not be home, he has a conference to attend to. Paula, Daniel, and a few close relatives celebrated him today instead, in a park nearby. Apparently, it was a huge success. I felt more comfortable at home. Daniel will be celebrated by us dogs and by the cats tomorrow morning, when he is still at home.
Peanut made me aware of some news from his home country. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom has elevated some towns to cities. The title city is mostly honorary, but nice, nevertheless.
One of the places bestowed with this honour is Stanley, capital of the Falklands Islands. This is, apparently, the first place in a British overseas territory that has been named a city. It happens forty years after the Falklands War, when Argentina tried to conquer these islands.
I think it is nice that you can call different places different things. In Sweden, every local legal entity is called a "kommun". This is a little boring.
This evening, it feels like it will start to rain. The air pressure and the clouds make us believe it may come.
We hope it will rain throughout the night. Nature would need it and we would not have to be outside in it. It is rather cozy to lie indoors and listen to the rainfall.
Time will tell if the rain will start to fall.
The IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship is played now. We do not subscribe to any channel where we can watch the games on TV. We follow some games on the radio, but it is not the same thing. Regardless of our posibilities to see the games, we root for Sweden.
Tonight, Sweden plays Finland. It is a close game, as is often the case between these countries in ice hockey. The championship is played in Finland, which gives the Finnish players an edge. I still hope Sweden will win.
This time of the year, it is always daylight for quite some time in the evenings. This is nice, when we go out for the night and it is still daylight. I have never had troubles sleeping when it is this light, I just close my eyes. All of this daylight make up for the long dark nights in the middle of the winter. I like this.
Paula and Daniel visited the club house for the Örebro County Kennel Club today. They made some preparations for the unofficial dog show this Saturday. Dog shows are always important, even when they are not official. Thus, these preparations were important. When our humans are gone to make important things like this, it feels better than usual that they are not at home. Paula and Daniel are devoted to dogs and every aspect of having dogs. This is great.
This was the first time this season that Daniel mowed all of the lawn. He use to say that he is happy for our big lawn, except for when he has to mow it. Nevertheless, he is always satisfied when the lawn is newly mowed. When Daniel is satisfied with this, he is in a good mood, which makes everyone in a better mood too. Summer starts well.
It is the Eurovision Song Contest tonight. I guess I will fall asleep before it is done. I usually do.
Paula falls asleep too, sometimes, while Daniel usually follows the whole contest. We have to hear what he says about it tomorrow morning.
When Daniel came home from work, he asked Paula if she wanted to have anything to eat. She did not, having recently eaten. Daniel cooked some bacon for homself.
Later in the evening, Paula did the most weird thing. She complained that it smelled of bacon. How can you complain of such a wonderful smell?
My complaint was that I did not get any bacon. Daniel did not cook very mich and ate it all himself. I loved the smell of bacon, nevertheless.
If I were to manufacture perfumes, one would be a bacon perfume. I believe it would be a hit.
Paula went outon a walk with her mother today. She did not bring me. This made me quite disappointed. I am always up for a nice walk. Apparently, this did not help this time.
It would have been nice with a walk with Paula's mother as well. She is a nice human, but I do ot see her very often.
Perhaps I can come next time around?
In the evening, we heard thunder in the distance. We had rain, which is common in May, but thunder is more common later in the year, in summer. When thunder is in the distance, it is quite nice.
It has been a while, a very long time, in fact, without rain. We finally got some today. It was not much, I do not think anything trickled down in the dust, but the trees, bushes, and grass surely needed it.
There will, hopefully, be more rain soon. The growing things in the garden need it and our well needs it. Sunny weather is nice in its own way, but we cannot live without rain from time to time.
The 9 of May is Europe Day. This is when we celebrate European unity, through the European Union and other organisations and cooperations. Unity is good, it makes for peaceful relations, to the benefit of everyone.
Ode to Joy by Ludwig Van Beethoven is the anthem of the European Union.
Daniel got up early this Sunday morning as well. He left home early, because he would go down to Skara in Västergötland to preside over a biannual meeting with a specialty club for spitz breeds. This was important, of course, so we let him do this. When he came home, he was in a good mood. The meeting went well, he told us. I am glad it did. Now there will be another two year period with a good board of the club.
It is Saturday today, but Daniel got up as early as on work days and let us have an equally early morning walk.
Daniel did not do this for fun. He said he likes to sleep longer on Saturday mornings. However, he had rented a trailer to load junk from the garden and drive away to dispose of it. This is a good reason to get up early, we want a nice looking garden. I am glad I could get back indoors after the morning walk and get some more sleep, though.
Daniel came home a little late. He was hungry and cooked some sausages for dinner. He also gave sausages to us dogs. This was a fine way of him to appologise for being late.
Sausages makes for forgiveness. It is almost like I wish for Daniel to come home late more often, if this would mean he would give us sausages. There are no sausages every night he is late, however, so I guess life will continue to be like it has been.
These days, Paula is at home a lot and Daniel works from home rather often. Today, however, they were both away for several hours. They do not need to worry, though. Allof us dogs watch the house.
It is nice to watch the house. It gives us a purpose. Life gets more interesting this way. I believe we could be entrusted with watching the house more often.
On 4 of May, some humans praise the movie series Star Wars. This is because "May the Fourth" sounds almost like the tag line "may the force (be with you)".
Star Wars is not a favourite of mine. There are humans in the movies and a lot of fictional alien species. However, there are no dogs anywhere (as far as I know). How can you have an advanced civilisation with no dogs? This is strange and I do not like it. As far as I am concerned, people may like Star Wars anyway, it is up to them.
The 3 May is Constitution Day in Japan. The current constitution of Japan came into force on 3 May 1947. This is cause for celebration among us Shibas. Japan is the home country of our breed. The Shiba breed is considered a national treasure of Japan. We celebrate this heritage, even if neither I nor Peanut have ever been to Japan. Gunnar says it is a beautiful country with a lot of Shibas. We make the best of it among us here in Sweden, where we do have a great life. It is nice to have two countries to love, Sweden and Japan.
For a lot of different, small reasons, supper was very late tonight. Paula and Daniel just made some warm sandwiches. This is quick and tasty.
Our humans were not very hungry this late in the evening. All of us dogs got to taste some. This was a situation that made everyone happy.
Last spring, when Daniel tried to start the lawn mower for the first time, it did not work. He had to send it to service.
This afternoon, Daniel retrieved the lawn mower from winter rest once again. This time, it started and ran perfectly fine. The lawn has yet to start to grow properly, but Daniel used the mower to take care of the leaves of yesteryear. The garden looks cleaner and better now. This is good.
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.
Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean has made a deal with China. This might mean that China can set up a military base there. Australia is concerned. If I lived in the Solomon Islands, so would I be. China is a harsh dictatorship and the Chinese are cruel to dogs. I do not understand why you would want to make a deal with China. Solomon Islands must gain a lot of other things – or so they think.
This morning, we had seven degrees Celsius below the freezing point. This was colder than in many weeks. It is still March, so we were not really surprised.
This is a setback on the road to spring and summer. However, there is never a straight line of ever warmer days from winter to summer. It is always like a winding road, where some parts of the road make you travel backwards for a while. This is the winding road to summer. We know it will get here, we just do not know which day, or even month. Weather is exciting this way, you can never predict it.
In the last attempt to reach the FIFA World Cup in football later this year, Sweden played a play off game versus Poland. The Swedes did a pretty good game, but did not manage to score any goals. The Poles got a penalty and scored, and later scored again.
It will not be as exciting to follow the World Cup without Sweden, but there are other teams to root for. Peanut will, of course root for England, where he was born. Morran will root for Germany, where her breed is from. Laila will root for France, where her breed is from, as well as Japan, where she was born. I will also root for Japan, where Shibas are from. The Chihuahuas hope that Mexico will qualify, where their breed is from. It will be some exciting games, nevertheless.
Paula gave us meatballs for food today, and less ordinary dog food. We did not mind. Meatballs are great.
There are times when my blog posts are really short. This blog åost could have been this way. After all, when you get meatballs, there is no need to explain why this is great. Everybody loves meatballs, don't they? Since this is the case, I could have just ended the blog post after the first, short paragraph. A blogpost about meatballs deserves to be longer, however. Meatballs deserve this.
I wish we could get meatballs more often.
Humans are obsessed with keeping time and making sure which hour, minute, and sometimes second it is. This is important for their cooperation with each other, Daniel says. With this obsession, I do not understand why they want to just skip one hour between the last Saturday and last Sunday in March. We now have what is called Daylight Saving Time, which means everything will start one hour earlier for half a year. Then we go back to normal again in the autumn. It is silly, the way that you doubt that humans are the most intelligent beings on Earth, as we would normally think they are. Meanwhile, we have to live with this.
Part of the weekend is normally spent cleaning. It is in the weekends that Paula and Danielhave more time for this. We all helped cleaning the house today.
Appart from the cleaning, we spent most of the day resting and just having fun. Life is good whenit is like this. Still, the cleaning was more special, since dogs can rest a bit almost every day.
We will see what happens tomorrow, the other day of the weekend.
We have no functional wifi. This is connected to the troubles with the telephones which started yesterday, I am sure.
While I am not very interested in working telephones – as I blogged yesterday – I do care about the wifi. It is easier for me to upload my blog posts, when the wifi works. I can do it without wifi, but wifi is faster.
Paula tried to get hold of our telephone and internet provider today, but she did not succeed. This was a shame. It is certainly not easier in the upcoming weekend. I hope the troubles will soon be over.
Both Paula and Daniel have had troubles with their telephones today. They did not like this.
If I were they, I would not care much. I think it would just be rather nice, not to be disturbed by the telephone at any time during the day. Sometimes, I think humans live too much in the future and in the past, using their telephones and other devices to plan and to remember. It must be more relaxing to live more in the here and now, like dogs tend to do. On the other paw, I guess this is just another oneof those differences between dogs and humans that make us add our traits so greatly to each other. Life is good this way.
Paula and Daniel had hamburgers for dinner tonight. I did not get to taste, which made me a little disappointed.
Hamburgers are not made of ham. The name probably comes from the city Hamburg, and Germans who moved from there to America in the 1800's. Regardless of the origin of the name, the dish is tasty.
I guess there will be hamburgers for me other times. I have to look forward to this.
Yesterday we had the spring equinox. Days are now longer than nights. I like this. While dogs have rather good night vision, I still like it better in daylight. Spring is almost here, summer is on its way. The outdoors will be warm again. Life is good, but will be better.
The 2022 season of Formula 1 started today. Daniel watched the race on TV. It was a nice race, he said. It ended with a double victory for Ferrari, with their drivers Leclerc and Sainz. Daniel has always liked Ferrari, he hopes they will dominate for the first season in many years, but he doubts it. We will have to see what happens.
Paula has been elected to the board of the regional kennel club of Örebro County. We are very proud of her. Paula will make a great contribution to the club, we are sure.
Daniel was re-elected to the board. This is also good.
There are a lot of refugees from war torn Ukraine. Paula shared a Facebook post by a dog handler from Ukraine who is now a refugee in France. She held herself out as a dog handler om dog shows. I hope France allows her to get paid for this work. Refugees are not always allowed to be part of the regular work force in the land that they come to, until their application to stay as a refugee is approved of.
It is an honourable work to be a professional handler at dog shows.
When Daniel came home from work this evening, he brought a sandwich for Paula. She had asked for olives in it, but she thought they had put too many olives in the sandwich. In a way, I can understand Paula. Olives are vegetables, you do not want too much of this. The tuna and the cheese in the sandwich were good, however.
Paula and Daniel had a sallad for dinner. Sure, there was some cheese and pasta in it, but a lot of vegetables. Humans are carnivores, just like dogs. That our humans are having a sallad, with a lot of vegetables, makes me disappointed with them. Carnivores should have meat as their main ingredience in any meal. Mostly, they have, just not today. I do think, and hope, this is not the start of a vegetable trend.
It is very rare, but there are times when Paula and Daniel buy food for home delivery. They did this tonight. Paula got a platter of meat and sauce, Daniel got spaghetti carbonara. This was late, all ofus dogs had already eaten. It smelled good, though, and our humans enjoyed the food. They are worth the occasional luxury like this.
Paula visited a veterinarian today. This veterinarian was specialised in human diseases, thus, she was not called a veterinarian, but a physician. I believe that the field where humans see the biggest difference between humans and other animals is in medicine. Dogs and humans are fairly close related. Yet, dogs go to the veterinarians who are called veterinarians, just like cats, guinea pigs, birds, lizards, and fish do. Humans go to this other kind of veterinarian, who are not called veterinarians. I believe those who are called veterinarians are better, because they know a lot about many species. Veterinarians are the medical practitioners for me.
Daniel is the proud owner of some Pez dispensers. It is not that he always have Pez candy in them, but he likes them. He says Pez has a special place in popular culture.
One of the Pez dispensers is in the shape of Woodstock, the little bird from the Peanut comic strip. There was Pez candy in this Pez dispenser today, and Peanut grabbed it and started to chew onit to get all the candy at once. Daniel went mad and took the Pez dispenser from Peanut. While I understand that Peanut wanted to get to the candy, he did it the wrong way. He should have simply asked for it.
Most of the Pez dispenser made it, but it was torn. Daniel said it would still work. He could not be mad at Peanut for long. It was a short anger, then this day went back to being nice. Life is good.
Peanut was sick this afternoon. He vomited in Daniel's bed.
Daniel was a little angry, mostly because he got some vomiton himself when taking care of it.
I felt sorry for Peanut. However, it was good that he was the only one who was sick. Even Peanut himself admitted to this.
Later in the evening, Peanut felt well again. He did not know what caused the sickness, but hopes it will not return. I guess it will not.
It is not common these days, when Daniel often work from home, and Paula is often home a lot, but they were both away for a while today. This means that it was up to us dogs to watch the house. We did it well, of course. There were no uninvited guests here.
You may think there would never be any uninvited guests here anyway. This is, however, just theories. In reality, we are at home, and no uninvited guests come here. We do it well.
We have had beautiful, sunny weather for many days. It would feel like spring, if it would have been warmer, but it has been temperatures below zero throughout the nights and mornings. It is still early March, so it is not strange that winter is hanging on. I do not mind these outdoor temperatures, a Shiba can cope with much colder weather. This makes me feel good. Life is good.
There was chicken for dinner tonight. I got a piece of chicken filet. It was great.
Chicken meat is very tasty. I wish I could get chicken more often. On the other paw, there are a lot of different kinds of meat that are tasty. I would not want chicken all the time.
Meat is great. Did you know that the Swedish word for food, mat, is originally the same word as the English word meat? This is because meat is the essence of food.
The war in Ukraine is continuing. People are fleeing. Dogs and other pets are often brought along.
I hope most of the dogs will manage. It is a war, so I make no illusions that every innocent individual will manage, regardless if it is a dog, a human, or any other one. Nevertheless, I hope many will take care of the dogs in need. They deserve it.
For the tenth year in a row, a Norwegian skier won Vasaloppet today. Vasaloppetis theoldest and biggest annual cross country ski race. It has a length of 90 kilometres.
My maternal grandfather Kuro, who was born in Norway, would be happy for this victory. He was always a Norwegian patriot.
We do rejoice that Paula's father, who is a veteran Vasaloppet skier, finished the race at a time which is great for a man his age.
We had some evening snacks tonight, vanilla fudge. This is great candy.
It was a while since we last had fudge. It was worth the wait. Still, I would like to get fudge more often. With the way all of us dogs devoured the fudge, I think we made this point clear to Paula and Daniel, until the next time they buy candy.
The international football federation FIFA and the European federation UEFA have decided that Russia or Russian football clubs will not be able to participate in international competitions until further notice.
The federations decided this on Monday. I think it is the correct decision, now that Russia wages war on Ukraine. What I would like to know more about, however, is how the last qualification rounds will be played. Sweden was in the same pool as Russia. Will Poland, which would play its first game versus Russia, just go on until the next round? Is this fair, considering other teams ranked as Poland? I have still not read anything about this. I guess we will have to see further on.
Daniel worked from home today. He had chicken for lunch.
Peanut, Morran, and I got to taste some, we all ate quickly. Then Malin the cat got some. She took it slowly, licked and picked. Eventually, she left some pieces. This was good for us dogs, Daniel gave Malin's pieces to us. Cats are too picky, but I do not mind, when I got the spoils.
Chicken is great meat.
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and other realms were tested positive with covid-19 last week. She has now recovered well enough to engage in two on line engagements.
This is good for the UK. Peanut, who was born in the UK, is happy. Personally, I am mostly happy for the Queen's dogs. The Queen is known for having many Welsh Corgis, and having bred some. When she is healthy again, her dogs must be happy. This is good.
