Laila, our Poodle friend, is the oldest dog among us. She celebrated her thirteenth birthday today.
The good thing with birthdays is that we all get treats. There were dog candy and meatballs. We all enjoyed it immensely.
It is a good thing we are many dogs. This means there are many birthdays in a year, thus, a lot of days with treats.
Paula made pancake in the oven for dinner. She was not quite satisfied with the result, however, she said it was too flat.
It was very tasty, nevertheless. It was moderately cooked and had a nice colour. I liked the piece I got. The main thing is that it is tasty. Flat or not, tasty is the most important thing in a dish.
At the Japanese Grand Prix in Formula 1 today, Max Verstappen from the Netherlands, drivning for Red Bull Racing from Austria, became world champion. He won the race, while his closest competitor came in third. This means Verstappen now has such a huge points advantage that nobody can pass him in the standings.
It was nice that the championship was decided in Japan. This is a great country, home of the Shiba breed. The race was very well organised, as usual. It rained, but this happen.
The UK came second in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Ukraine won. The winner country have the right to host next year’s contest, but due to the war, Ukraine will not be able to. The UK will host it instead. It has now been announced that the contest will be held in Liverpool.
Peanut is happy the UK will host the contest. He says the UK should have won, but that people gave Ukraine a lot of votes just to show sympathy due to the war. This may be true, but you can never be certain. We all believe it will be a nice TV show, nevertheless. I just hope there will be more songs relations to dogs.
A former pet shop owner in Japan has been arrested on suspicions of smuggling many small monkeys from Thailand to Japan. The monkeys could bring diseases. The smuggling itself was cruel. Apparently, small monkeys are sought after in Japan and can be sold for high prices.
If people in Japan want pets, isn’t it better to get dogs? There is no country in the world with more Shibas than Japan. Humans can never get better pets than Shibas. Then they would not face the risk of buying smuggled monkeys or dogs.
Morran is often, but not always, one of us who takes a longer morning walk. She did not come along yesterday morning or the morning before, but she came along today. This had its downsides. Morran is a nice friend and all, but she often wants to walk slower than the rest of us. She did this this morning as well.
At last, the rest of us grew tired of the slow pace and turned around to cut the walk short and go home. This got Morran going. As soon as she realised we were taking the quickest way home, she changed to a higher gear and we could all have a nice pace back home for the rest of the walk.
Walks are best when you have a nice pace. It is a shame that we did not have a nice pace until the short cut back home.
I love Morran, nevertheless.
Electrical cords are funny. They have the perfect shape and texture to chew upon, but if you do, your humans get angry, because you can easily break them.
Pepe had found an electric cord this evening, but Daniel took it away from him. Needless to say, Pepe was disappointed.
Electric cords should be manufactured in a way that they will not break if dogs chew upon them.
Human scientists have just learned that dogs can detect human stress by our noses.
This is, of course, nothing new for us dogs. We know what we can detect through smell. There are occasions when I just have to remind myself how much more we can detect by smelling it than humans can ever understand. Humans have other qualities, however. We make each other complete.
Paula called home really early this morning. It was around a quarter to 4, and the staff at the hospital were done with her, so she wanted to come home. Daniel got up and drove off to get Paula home, while the rest of us stayed at home watching the house. In about forty minutes, they were back home.
Daniel changed the time of his alarm clock. He could not stand the thought of just sleeping for another hour. He got up at eight and started to work around nine. This also made for a later and shorter morning walk than usual, which suited me fine. The day turned out nicely, regardless of the very early morning. This was good.
Paula is not at home tonight. She had to go to the hospital, it had something to do with the heart.
Paula has a big heart of gold. It should manage. We are not afraid.
Paula had a hamburger for dinner, but did not finish it. This meant she left parts of it for us dogs to taste. I liked it. Hamburgers are great food.
I wish we could have gotten more than just taste bits. Sure, we had already eaten, but tasty food is always tasty food. More of it would have been even better. I am grateful for what I got, nevertheless, one can always wish for more. It might come another day.
We got up earlier than we usually do this morning, because Daniel would take an early train to Solna, close to Stockholm. This was in the line of duty. He came back home to Örebro in the afternoon, but went directly to a meeting. This meeting went on for a couple of hours, then Daniel returned home.
I do not envy a busy day like this. Fortunately, my duty is normally at home, watching the house and so on. This means I do not have to take train rides for several kilometres. My duties are important, but on a day like today, easier than Daniel’s. I like this.
Daniel had two meetings this evening. Both were on line, so he was at home. The later meeting was very late, however. It started at 19:30 and went om for an hour. I am glad we did not have to wait to get food until after the meeting, as Daniel did himself. Now it is time to rest, hopefully to go to sleep. Life is good when you have had food and can go to sleep.
We had thunder and heavy rain in the afternoon. Thunder is unusual this late in the year, but not unheard of. If there is thunder, you hear it. We had a cozy time inside.
Daniel has been working at a dog show today. This was most probably the last show of the year where he were supposed to work. Summer is over and the season for outdoor dog shows is almost over as well. There are not many dog shows in the winter, because there are few indoor facilities big enough for dog shows. There will be a new season next year, however. This is good for everyone who likes dog shows and for every dog who needs dog show results that can be registered. Life goes on.
It is Friday night, and we got minced meat. This is about the best treats there are. I think this is much better than crisps or candy.
Taste varies, however. Some would rather have other kinds of treats. I can respect other tastes, even though I do not agree with them. It may leave more minced meat for me.
We watched a TV show with Paula tonight, where humans would run an obstacle course. For dogs, this is called agility.
I have never really understood the joy of obstacle courses. If there is ever an obstacle in my way, I rather walk around it, than try to pass it. This is the most intelligent way, in my mind. The TV show was rather funny this way, because everybody took the obstacles dead serious. It was better watching it than to participate, anyway.
Paula and Daniel have discussed contracts for electricity. They might change suppliers of electricity.
While Paula and Daniel know how to make and control fire, they purchase electricity. Daniel says that human control of electricity is of equal importance as human control of fire. I have got no reason to doubt him, even though I do not know much about electricity. It provides heat and light, et cetera, which is good, I just do not know how. It is good to have humans who know.
Daniel has a cough. This is annoying, not only for him. It disturbs everyone when he coughs. This is usually the early stages of a cold, which is a common virus infection with humans.
Dogs never have coughs. I do not know why, but I am thankful for it. When Daniel coughs, I wish the same would be the case for humans.
For the first time in many weeks, we have had a lazy Sunday. There were some Sundays in August when Daniel worked at dog shows, then he campaigned for the election. Last Sunday was election day, and he went around to different places where votes were cast, inspecting them, since he is a member of the city’s election board.
This Sunday, there was some cleaning and then Paula and Daniel went to visit a friend. In the morning, we did not need an alarm to wake up early. In the evening, we all could just take it easy. Life felt good today.
It is autumn, but a couple of flies are still flying around inside our house. They are really annoying. Peanut tries to catch them with his mouth. Daniel tries to hit them with news papers. One of the good things about autumn is that the annoying flying insects go away. These flies have not understand that they are supposed to go away, since it is autumn. I hope that this will soon cross their minds.
It was time for Peanut to take a bath this morning. At least, this was what Daniel thought, since Peanut had roller himself in horse manure on the morning walk. Peanut did not like to take the bath, but he had to.
I am glad I did not have to take a bath. I knew this was a probable outcome of rolling in horse manure. Peanut later asked why I did not warm him, but he learns better if he faces the consequences.
Life is good in a Shiba coat, because you seldom have to take baths.
Mourners can pay their respect to the late Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. We watched some of the procession on TV. It was very graceful. Peanut mourned the most, it was his queen.
Long live the King of the United Kingdom!
There was a party meeting late tonight, which Daniel attended. It dragged on and on. We wished he could have sent us a message that it did drag on and on. When he finally got home, he told us it had been an important meeting, as if this had stopped him from Sindings a short message that he would be late. Now that he is home, we can finally take it easy and go to sleep.
The election result from yesterday was very close. Nobody is quite sure that the predicted result will be the final result. Some votes will arrive late and will not be country until Wednesday. Until then, we do not know which parties can form a cabinet. The preliminary result lean towards a conservative prime minister, but we will have to see later in this week. The thrill is still with us. This is exciting, isn’t it?
It is a very close election for the Swedish Parliament today. For the moment, it looks like a majority for the opposition, but nothing is clear yet. We will have to see what happens.
There was an error message on the washing mashine. It turned out that the drain had been clogged. Daniel unscrewed it and got rid of the dirt that had clogged it.
I am glad I have such a great Shiba coat it does not have to be washed nearly as often as Paula’s and Daniel’s clothes.
The late Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom has also been famous for her dogs. Most of them have been of the breed Welsh Corgi. A lot of these dogs have been bred by HM the Queen herself.
It is not yet clear what will happen to the Queen’s dogs. Perhaps family members will take care of them, or some of her staff who know the dogs will.
No matter what happens, I am sorry for their loss of a beloved human and wish them well.
The Kennel Club have issued a statement about the Queen, highlighting her love for dogs and her breeding. (Note that, while some people say the Queen created a new breed called ”Dorgi” after an accidental cross breed at the royal court, if you search The Kennel Club site for ”Dorgi”, it gives 0 results. Thus, there is no breed called ”Dorgi”.)
Hello, Peanut here!
Karatuhl has been kind enough to let me write a blog post today, because I was born a Briton.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories have passed away. This is horrible, but the Kingdom prevails. Her oldest son, Charles, is now King Charles III of the United Kingdom and his other Realms and Territories.
The Queen is dead, long live the King!
Paula and Daniel went over to Paula’s parents, to celebrate Paula’s mother. It is her birthday today.
We had a celebration at home as well. All of us dogs got minced meat in the evening. This was great.
We watched a weather forecast on TV tonight, where they said there might be frost tomorrow morning. Frost in the mornings in September is not unusual where we live, but it proves that autumn is here, and winter is coming.
Paula and Daniel hope that this winter will not be cold. The price on electricity will be high, thus, also, the price for warming our house. I want a lot of snow, because it is fun to play in and makes for less dark winter days and nights. Snow on the roof helps to isolate the house against the cold. We will have to see how the winter will be.
Daniel got up earlier than usual today. He would campaign early for the upcoming election. He told me and Peanut that we did not have to go on a morning walk this early, if we did not want to. We wanted to. Thus, Daniel did take us out for an early morning walk. We all enjoyed it. Morning walks are nice.
The new Artemis rocket for the upcoming Moon missions have technical difficulties. There is a fuel leak and repairs have to be made before any launch can be made.
I look forward to new Moon missions. My name is Full Moon Eclipse, and I am interested in the Moon. Will humans walk on the Moon again before my life is over? I sincerely hope so.
Russia held military parades on three islands illegally occupied from Japan after the Second World War. The Soviet Union seized the islands after the Japanese surrender, but maintained it was fair spoils of war. Russia has continued to claim the same. Japan claims the islands, but Russia keeps troops there.
One of the positive outcomes of the Russian war against Ukraine may be that more people become aware of Russian occupations of territory in other parts of the world. More nations should condemn all of Russia’s occupations. I do, but my voice does not amount to much in the big world.
There were some interesting pictures of giant hail stones that fell in Spain just recently.
Hail is an unusual and interesting form of weather. I am still glad that we have never had hail like this by us.
There have been some complaints across social media that summer ends with the end of August. I do not agree that this is something to complain about. Autumn is also a great season. In many ways, autumn is better than summer. You do not have the flies and other insects around, bugging you. The temperatures are never too warm in your coat. The air is often fresh and nice. I like autumn. I will never complain that summer ends and autumn begins.
It is getting darker in the evenings. We had the lights on above the front porch, when we went out for the night tonight. Autumns are cozy, dogs can see almost as well in night light as in daylight. It is still nice to have the lights on, so Paula and Daniel can see what happens.
Daniel got up very early this morning. The aim was to participate in a morning campaign with his political party, since there is a general election in just a couple of weeks. I am glad we did not have to go on a morning walk this early.
It will be better after the election. We believe Daniel will be at home more often then.
US warships sail in international waters between China and Taiwan. This is a good thing, the USA is a good force who helps protect the democracies of Taiwan and Japan against China. There is tension in the area, the good forces must not back down, but I hope for less tension.
We cleaned and took care of trash today. This is a good thing about the days when Daniel is not at work, he is good at cleaning.
Piffy helped Daniel cook lunch. Unfortunately, it was not to Paula’s taste. I wonder if she would have liked the food better, if I or anyone of the other dogs would have helped Daniel. I do not think so, I think the fault was in the cooking skills of Daniel.
Prices go up, everything is getting more expansive. You get less goods for your money. It is inflation.
We do not just have inflation in Sweden, it is all across the world. They have it in Japan as well. However, even though inflation gets higher in Japan, it is not as hick as in Sweden.
Daniel says inflation is made worse by raised taxes. This is why the conservative opposition needs to win the election in Sweden on the 11 September, he says, because the conservative Moderate Party will not raise taxes. I am not so sure, the Moderate Party has raised taxes before. On the other paw, every other Swedish party has politics for higher taxes than the Moderate Party has. We have to see what will happen in the election.
Daniel was early paying the bills this month. There is always disagreement between Paula and Daniel on how early the bills must be paid. Daniel wants to play them earlier than Paula wants to. He thinks it is best to have it done, whereas Paula believes in paying each bill on the last day. Paula’s strategy may be better, if the interest rates will go up a lot. With higher interest rates, you lose money if you pay too soon. So far, the interest rates are not that high. We hope they will not be, especially not on the mortgage, but we will have to see what happens.
This is the Independence Day of Ukraine. This is extra important now, when Ukraine fights a war against Russia to protect its independence. We all hope Ukraine will win the war. Russia is a country with a regime which is not nice. Throughout history, Russia has often been an enemy of Sweden as well as other neighbouring countries. Russian aggression has to stop. This would also benefit the Russian people. Peace is also important for the dogs who live there. Go, Ukraine!
All of us dogs and cats thought we would have a big party today, when Paula celebrated her birthday. This did not occur. For some reason, Paula felt very sad today and did not want to do much. Perhaps she felt old, felt like she has lost too many years? Nevertheless, she did not party. We did get some sausage in the evening, which was good. I hope Paula will feel better tomorrow.
We have started to celebrate Paula’s birthday. It is actually tomorrow, but it is Swedish tradition to celebrate on the eve before the day. This may not be true for birthdays, but it is for Christmas, New Year, Easter, Walpurgis, and Midsummer. It is only logical to extensivt this tradition to birthdays. Life gets better this way.
Daniel worked as a ring steward today. When he came back home, he brought pizza. We got some pizza for dinner. Pizza is tasty, except that I could not understand why Paula had chosen to have bananas on her.
It is a work day tomorrow again. Daniel has worked both last weekend and this weekend with dog shows and in the week at his day job and campaigns for the election. He should spend more time at home and rest with us, I believe.
I usually write in my blog using an app on a writing tablet. The app is a little strange, though. It normally works fine, but if you turn the tablet or move it in any other simple way, the app area where you write the text changes and becomes smaller and weird. I do not know why. I cannot imagine anyone wants this feature. If it is a bug, however, I wonder why they have not been able to remove it in the years when the app has behaved this way. App programmers may just have a weird sense of humour.
The Japanese national tax agency campaigns to make young people drink more alcohol. Tax revenue from the taxens on alcoholic beverages are down, because younger Japanese drink less than the elderly.
The campaign has been critizised for promoting less healthy habits. On the other paw, it promotes traditional Japanese beverages like sake. The promotion of that which is traditional in Japan is something I can support. My dog breed, the Shiba, is a traditional Japanese breed.
Heavy rainfalls are expected all across Japan. While rain is good for the supply of water to plants, wildlife, dogs, and humans, there can be too much of it. There are risks of floods and landslides in Japan. I hope for the best for all who live there.
We have had some days with hot weather. This afternoon, we had thunder. It came and went a few times. Thunder and lightning is exciting, but I did not see any lightning this time. I guess the lightning was too far away from us.
All he rain is welcome. We have our own well which can always use water.
In the month to come, Daniel will be away quite some time. He will spend a lot of time campaigning for the political party of which he is a member. There is a general election on the 11 September. We hope he will be happy with the result.
This evening, Daniel came home late. This was because he had spent about two hours campaigning.
Daniel was away this weekend, working at the dog show in Askersund. He is home again now. It feels better when everyone is at home, even though work for a dog show is about the best reasons there are to be away.
I am a show champion since many years, so I did not have to go to the dog show.
It is supposed to be many meteoroids visible in THE sky tonight. I prefer to stay indoors, trying to sleep, instead of watching for them.
Rumour has it, you may make a wish that Will come true, when you see a meteoroid. I think this is just human superstition.
We have got more treats than usual today. At first, I thought this was a good thing. Then Paula said to Daniel they did not have to give us as much dog food as usual, because we had had so much treats.
There is no good things that does not also come with bad things, I believe.
Daniel has packes the car for the dog show this weekend. This is different from when some of us dogs will be shown. Daniel go there as one of the organisers and will bring prizes et cetera in his car.
This evening, we learned that one of the judges had got covid-19 and has had to withdraw from the show. We still do not know how this will work out, but work is in progress.
I hope everything will go well.
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.
