It is seventy-seven years to the day since the atom bomb was dropped and exploded over Hiroshima in Japan.
It is said that the atom bombs helped to shorten the war, thus, saving lives. Critics say you cannot be sure of this and the bomb was too horrible anyway. It was dropped over a city, which caused many civilians to die. If lives were saved in the long run and the war turned shorter, this is good. By the end of the war, there were just a few Shibas left and the breed had to be carefully resurected. With a longer war, who knows if any Shibas would have been left alive?
In Hiroshima today, people held manifestations for peace. This is positive.
On the morning after the thunder storm of last night, we could Concorde that we had had 27 millimetres of rain. This is a lot for one day. We were happy for the water levels underground, with our well and all.
Rain is a good thing, as long as you do not have to be out in it.
In the evening, we had thunder and heavy rain.
None of us are affraid of thunder. Pepe barked at it angrily, though, as if this would make the thunderstorm go away. He does have self confodence, the little Chihuahua boy.
Rain has come and gone today. It was as if someone sat in the sky turning the rain on and off and on and off. The weather can be curious sometimes.
As long as I am indoors, I like rain. It is cozy to listen at it. We mostly managed to go out between the showers, which was good.
I hope the weather is less unpredictable tomorrow.
Daniel has created a little more room in the yard for us dogs to run around in. He cut down some branches from two of the trees there. This actually improved the matter most for him and Paula, since we dogs easily go under most branches. It is better for us too, but I guess Daniel did it mostly for his own sake. Another advantage is that this brings more light to the ground. This is nice and it might help the grass there.
Pepe was in the yard with Daniel as Daniel cut down the branches. According to Pepe, he did a great deal of the work, helping Daniel a lot. I believe this as much as I want to.
August is here, the last month of summer by the calendar. You can see that it is getting dark earlier in the evening. We know that autumn is coming.
There was a short rain early in the day. Rain is not uncommon in the summer, but it still feels more like autumn weather.
It is still summer, though. There is still no need to light the house up every evening. We should be happy for the long hours of daylight and warm days that are still to come.
I am in heat. Not as strongly as I used to be in my youth, but still. This is a little annoying. I really do not want to be controlled by my hormones like this. I am a grandmother and I do not like the idea of getting another litter of pups. The sex drive is still there, though. How can I control it? Paula and Daniel help me by closing gates between me and the males. Hormones are bitches, aren’t they?
In the qualifying to the Hungary Grand Prix in formula 1 today, Briton George Russell was the fastest in the final qualifying round. He will start first. He drives for Mercedes and his team mate Lewis Hamilton was seventh, so this was a great effort by him.
Peanut was happy with the result. He was born in England and always roots for British formula 1 drivers. Mercedes is a German car, but Peanut said the Germans could not come up with a good enough driver. I guess he has a point, now that four time world champion Sebastian Vettel has announced that he will resign by the end of the year and there are no other German front runners.
We will have to see if George Russell manages to win the race as well.
Both Paula and Daniel are having colds. They have some throats and cough now and then. I guess Paula is worse of than Daniel, but this might be because she got the cold before he did.
Colds are due to viruses, not cold weather, so it is not uncommon to get them in the summer.
I hope they get well soon. On the plus side, Daniel will not go away this weekend to work as a ring steward. It is always best when everyone is at home, I think.
Paula found an old box of crackers today. She or Daniel had put it in an odd place and it had been forgotten. The expiration date was passed.
I took care of the crackers, disposing of all of them. Strangely, though, this made Paula upset. She told me she had wanted all of the dogs to dispose of the old crackers. I cannot understand why she was so upset, just because I performed this hard task myself, saving the other dogs from it. I did them a service, they did not need to dispose of old crackers.
As we say in Swedish sometimes: otack är den armes lön.
Our Chihuahua friends Piffy, Viola, and Pepe went to the veterinarian today. Chihuahuas need to have a veterinarian’s paper on good knees, before they are bred. Now they have documents on the status of their knees. This is good.
Sweden plays England in the UEFA Euro 2022 football championship.
Most of us root for Sweden, of course. Peanut roots for England, however. This is because he was bred and born there. Since he was, it is understandable that he roots for England. At the same time, this only makes me more eager to see a Swedish victory, so I can tease Peanut about it.
It is an exciting game, regardless of whom you root for.
Daniel had planned to mow the lawn tomorrow. He is not sure he can, though. We got a lot of rain this afternoon and the lawn is probably to wet to mow tomorrow.
I guess rain is a good excuse to push the plans for mowing the lawn forward to a later day.
The Japanese volcano Sakurajima has erupted. The people living close by are warned of falling rocks.
I hope the dogs and humans of the area will make it.
Volcanos are fascinating mountains, where the hot interior of the Earth comes up to the surface. I am still happy we live far away from the closest volcano. It would not be nice to have to fear falling rocks.
We had a lot of rain yesterday. It was cold for the season today, so many raindrops stayed on the grass. When the lawn is wet, it cannot be properly mowed. Hence, Daniel did not mow the lawn, but stayed indoors with the rest of us.
We had a nice, lazy day. This is my kind of summer day.
Sweden plays Belgium in its quarter final of the Euro 2022 in football.
My maternal grandfather’s father was from Belgium. He was from Norway himself, and always rooted for Norway in sports, but he held Belgium as his second favourite. I have always lived in Sweden and root for Sweden. For the sake of my grandfather and his Belgian father, however, I must say that I would not be very sad to see Belgium win.
Go, Sweden!
Paula made some pop corn tonight. I got to taste some. When the bowl was almost empty, I told Daniel I needed the rest of the pop corns in order to be inspired for my next blog post. Daniel thought I made a good argument, so he gave me the bowl. This was great: pop corns and some butter. I have nice humans.
Hello, Piffy here!
Karstuhl has allowed me to write a blog entry on ice cream and popsicles. Daniel had an ice cream cone with vanilla ice cream and toffee. Paula had a popsicle with taste of pear. I got to taste both of them.
There was a bit of chocolate in the ice cream cone. As a dog, I cannot eat this. The ice cream and the toffee was very tasty.
I could have eaten the whole popsicle, if it had not been so big. It was also very tasty.
What was the best? Both were tasty, but different from one another. If I have to pick a favourite, it would be the popsicle. It lasts longer than an ice cream and I could eat everything from it. On a warm summer day like today, it was also more refreshing and made me cooler than the ice cream cone. Of a scale of five paw prints, I give the popsicle five and the ice cream cone four. I would gladly get more of any of these another day.
Paula and Daniel have beds where they can make parts rise with an electric motor, then lower these parts again. It is comfortable for them to be able to sit up supported by the bed occasionally, but lie down on other occasions. The function has not worked properly for a while, but Paula has arranged for it to work again. It is fun to go up and down with the bed once in a while. Life is better in the bed now.
Sweden won its last game in the group versus Portugal, 5-0, in the UEFA European Championship in football. With this result, Sweden won the group and will get an easier opponent in the quarter final than the group second the Netherlands. We are all happy for this result. Peanut still says he hopes England will win the gold, however. He is free to think so, but I hope Sweden will win.
Paula and Daniel hid some candy in the bed room. When they both left, Peanut dig the candy out. He got a lot, I also got some.
Paula and Daniel were mad at us, but if they leave candy, it is ours to take, I believe. It was tasty. I am not ashamed.
The UEFA European Championship had a game with England versus Northern Ireland today. We wanted to watch it. Peanut was especially eager, since England is his country of birth. The TV channel aired the Norway versus Austria instead. We were so disappointed, we turned the TV off.
The England game was aired too, but on a channel we do not have.
In the afternoon, we had a short shower of rain. A little later, we could hear thunder far away. We never got thunder close by, never saw any lightning. Weather can be more exciting than this. I wish it were today. It was a rather uneventful day over all.
Paula came back home again this afternoon.
Piffy came along, when Daniel went to get Paula. I was a little envious of this, but it passed. Now we all have access to Paula again. Life is good when we all are together.
There is a new rise in the spread of the virus infection covid-19. Chances are that the new version of the virus is not as lethal as the former versions, and that the general spread of vaccines among humans can save many of them. No new restrictions are planned in Sweden.
There is a new rise in Japan as well, but no new restrictions are planned there either.
It is good that covid-19 is not so dangerous anymore. You cannot ignore it, but you do not have to change your life because of it either. More dogs will have their humans spared from serious illness.
Daniel started to work again today, so we went out on the morning walk as early as we usually do on his work days. This is earlier than we have gone out during his days off. Pepe said it was too early for him, so he did not come along.
This was a bit disappointing, as a rule of dew claw on walks is: the more, the merrier. (Dew claws is what dogs have instead of thumbs.) Pepe did not care, he rather stayed at home. We let him. Perhaps he changes his mind until tomorrow morning.
Daniel will go back to work tomorrow. His two week vacation did not turn out the way he planned, because Paula had to stay at the hospital. He did not go on the five day journey that was the plan. However, he says there are advantages with this as well. He has had time to take care of some things at home that he might not have managed to do otherwise. He has also spent more time with us dogs. I like this latter statement. I also like it that Daniel has been at home.
The UEFA European Championship in football for ladies has started. Sweden plays its first game versus the Netherlands tonight.
We all root for Sweden. I hope Botan does, as well, the Aangenaam dog who moved to the Netherlands as a pup. He must remember where he comes from.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been shot and killed. This happened as he Held a special in the campaign of a candidate for the election in two days.
This is horrible news from a country where politics is usually peaceful, even in the instances when controversial issues are debated.
My thoughts go to Shinzo Abe’s dog and the rest of his family.
Pepe came along on our morning walk for the first time yesterday, as I wrote about then. This morning, he did the same. Daniel has not had to ask him, he just walks along out to the door, so he is allowed to walk with us. Is Pepe a new regular participant on our morning walks? He will not say, when I ask him. I guess we will just have to see. It is nice to have his company as well on the walks.
We had a late morning today, so the morning walk was later than ordinary. This is not strange. When Daniel has a vacation, he often sleeps until later than usual in the morning. The odd thing was that Pepe, our Chihuahua friend, decided that he wanted to come along on our walk. The Chihuahuas usually take shorter walks. Pepe did good, it was nice to have his company as well on the walk. We will have to see if he comes along tomorrow morning as well. I would not mind.
We got another snow shovel today. A used one, but fully functional. A neighbour of Paula’s father gave it to him, but he did not need it, so we got it. We have a considerably longer drive way, so we can put it to use.
It may be odd to think of snow shovels at this time of the year, in the very height of summer. However, if you get a snow shovel for free, and you know it can be useful in the winter, the best thing is to say yes, thank you, to it. The snow shovel is a good invention.
Paula is not well, again. She is admitted to the hospital, again.
We all miss Paula, again. It is always more empty at home, when she is not around. We wish for her Quick recovery.
We may think we have a warm summer. It is, however, warmer in other places, not just due south.
In Tokyo, they have had a record streak of nine days with temperatures above 35˚ C. This is a city by the sea with a climate normally about the same as western Europe. I hope the dogs in Tokyo are taken well care of in a heat wave like this. Japanese humans like dogs, so I am sure they generally are.
In America, ”football” means a different sport than in the rest of the world. This sport is played in Sweden as well, where we usually call it ”American football”. (Some people call the sport handegg, because it is played with a ball that is more shaped like an egg than a sphere, and played more with your hands than with your feet.)
Today, the American football team from our town, Örebro Black Knights, won its semi final in the Swedish championship and will play the final next weekend. This is far from such a great event as the American Super Bowl, but a final is always a final. We hope they win the gold.
We watched some news from the allround Swedish Championship week in Linköping this week. They had a piece about a doping dog, Molly. She is trained at discovering illegal doping substances. This is great for the fairness of sports. It is also great for the public perception of dogs. I liked watching this.
The 1 July was the birthday of my late maternal grandfather. It is also the anniversary of the marriage of Paula’s parents. They have been married for exactly fifty years today. This is a long time.
Paula and Daniel went to congratulate her parents. They brought greetings form all of us dogs and cats. The celebrations were small, with just the immediate family, but everyone had a lot of fun.
Humans are lucky they can live so long.
Daniel has a vacation and we all took a slow, lazy day today. We did not do anything in particular.
To some degree, this is what a vacation should be about. Life is good.
Japan is not a member of NATO. Situated in the North West Pacific Ocean, a North Atlantic alliance does not suit Japan. Nevertheless, Japan is a democracy with rule of law and a great champion of human rights. The rules guarding personal data in Japan are good enough that Japan has a decision from the EU commission on adequate protection of personal data. Japan could easily be an ally of Sweden. Japan is a friendly nation. When Sweden and Finland is about to become members of NATO, Japan welcomes this.
This makes me happy. As a Shiba, my ancestors are from Japan. As a Swedish dog since birth, my heart pounds equally for Sweden and Japan. When Japan hails Sweden as a new member of NATO as a great thing, this is great. I would like to read more happy news like this.
We did not only get rain this afternoon, we also got lightning and thunder. Fortunately, none of us are affraid of thunder, I know some dogs are. To me, thunder is merely a sound that can be annoying if it is too loud when I am trying to sleep.
Nature needed the rain, after many days of warm weather and sunshine. It is also a little less warm weather now, which pleases me. It is a good summer.
Paula visited the hospital today, because she has not been feeling well for many weeks. We were affraid that she would stay at the hospital, but she came back home in the late afternoon.
It is not nice when Paula stays at the hospital. This has happened before. We are happy it did not happen today. Hopefully, the help she got today will make her feel better.
Apparently, the Queen of the United Kingdom loves the British iconic fast food fish and chips. She has it made for her, or have a footman go out to pick it up from a nearby restaurant. She is not into luxurious versions, though she prefers the fish with just breadcrumbs rather than heavy batter.
I love fish and I like chips, so I can fully understand the love of fish and chips. Peanut also says this is yet another proof that the Queen of the United Kingdom is the best monarch. He comes from England, so I understand why he says so. While I like the British Queen, I hold the King of Sweden and the Emperor of Japan in higher regard. I wonder what Swedish staple food the King of Sweden loves, and what Japanese staple food the Emperor loves.
Our thoughts today go to the Norwegians, their next of kin, and dogs, who fell victim to a shooter in a gay bar in Oslo. Two humans were killed and twentyone were injuried. The shooter has been arrested and will be prosecuted for murder. Apparently, he was a Norwegian citizen, but with roots in Iran. There are suspicions that he did this for Islamist causes.
I do not know how many dogs there were, whose humans were affected. The news have not told us. I hope they will all get through this, however.
It is Midsummer Eve, one of the great festivity days in Sweden. We celebrate summer and the long days and short, white nights.
Daniel gave us dogs pickled herring on our dog food today. This is great food and fitting, since it is the food that humans traditionally eats on their Midsummer Eve parties.
Happy Midsummer, everyone!
Japan has just recently made it mandatory for breeders and other humans who have dogs and cats to put a microchip in the animal. The microchip must be registered and this will make it much easier to find the human family members of a lost dog or cat.
We have had rules like this for microchips for many years in Sweden. You may say it is unnecessary or an invasion of privacy. I think it is good. If I would ever find myself lost, I know my microchip would help me to return home. It also helps when dogs or cats cross borders or go to dog shows, they can be identified this way. Not least, it is a way to fight dog smugglers.
The Japanese dogs and cats will be safer with these new rules.
This evening, Daniel was supposed to be on a meeting. He received a telephone call reminding him, because he had forgotten about the time when it would start. He rushed away.
I am never late for meetings. It is easy to avsides being late for meetings, when you never have meetings.
Rain fell heavily on our roof yesterday afternoon. It sounded like so much that I wrote about it in my blog entry yesterday.
This morning, the rain gauge did not hold more water than 1/2 millimetre. What had happened with all the rest of the rain? We discussed this on the morning walk. None of us believed anybody else had trespassed on our lot and emptied the rain gauge. Indeed, it was not fully empty, which we believed was evidence against this theory. We also did not believe the water would have vaporised. The theory that stuck with us, was that it had indeed been a heavy rainfall, but a very short one, and that we had not received more than 1/2 millimetre of rain, because of this.
If you have a different theory, please let us know.
The Supreme Court in Japan has ruled (3-1 with four judges) that the government has no responsibility for the disaster when a tsunami hit the Fukushima power plant in 2011.
The plaintiffs had argued that the government could have ordered the owners of the power plant to build protections against tsunamis, because of the knowledge of the probability of such tsunamis. The defendant claim was that such protection would not have helped, due to the tsunami that actually struck Fukushima.
Most nuclear power plants in Japan have not been restarted after 2011, but some have.
It is sad that in a country where there are historical evidence of great tsunamis striking the east coast before, the nuclear power plant was not sufficiently protected. Old stones with text high up from the coast give evidence of how far tsunamis of previous centuries reached. I do not know of all the evidence of the court case. Some lower courts had put blame on the government, others had not. There was one justice in the Supreme Court who did not agree with the others. Despite my uncertainties, and the need to respect the ruling of the Supreme Court, I do believe the government should have been to blame, to some extent.
If you have a lot of money and wish to have a uniquely painted sculpture of the comic strip Beagle Snoopy, from Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz, now may be the time. There is an auction in the UK where these sculptures are for sale. The proceeds go to dog welfare, so it is for a good cause.
Unfortunately for me, I do not have a lot of money. If I did, I would probably make a bid fordonen of the sculptures. It would make a fine addition to all the other fine things in our yard.
Summer is here and we have a warm and sunny day. It is so warm, that Paula made sure the window in our bedroom was open. This is good, it gives us fresh air. Life is good in the summer.
Paula went away today to celebrate her nephew Arvid and niece Nadja. They finished School for the year and have summer vacation now.
I guess there was cake at the celebration. The biggest lover of cake is Daniel, but he was not there, he had to be at work. When he came home, he was disappointed for missing out on the cake. I can understand him. This is as if I would have had the opportunity to get minced meat, but had to work instead. Life is harsh sometimes.
The weather forecasts for both yesterday and today have said there would be a lot of rain. We have hardly had any rain, however.
It is probably hard to make weather forecasts. They often turn out to be wrong. I do not envy the people doing them. Fortunately, however, we are not very dependent on the forecasts. I can see positive things about most kinds of weather.
This evening, Daniel was at a political meeting. He wrote the minutes from it, which he finished after coming home. It was a little boring that he did not want to spend time with us until he was finished. Afterwards, everything was as it usually is again. Then it was a nice night.
Daniel had a ber tonight with a great bottle. It could only have been better with a Shiba.
My material grandfather Kuro would have been pleased today. He was born in Norway and always rotes for his country of birth in sports.
Sweden played Norway in football, UEFA Nations League, today. Norway had home turf, but recently won on Sweden’s home turf as well. The result was 3-2 to Norway.
Sweden is not very good in football this year. It will turn to the better, it usually does. We have traditions to defend in football, and the traditions also make for a good basis to become better.
It is exactly three months to the Swedish general election, the 11 September 2022. Some polls indicate that there might be a new majority in parliament for a new cabinet after the election, other polls indicate the opposite. Many voters decide late, so the polls may not be good prognoses. My main hope is that the elected politicians will make decisions that are good for dogs. We will have to see what happens.
Daniel’s Facebook account has been hacked. Some ill meaned human has stolen it.
This is ironic, since Daniel works with information security as a Data Protection Officer. He will have to improve his own security.
🇦🇽
It is the 9 June, the day of self governance on the Åland 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. Åland 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.
