Great Swedish Victory

One of the happiest Swedes today must be tennis player Robin Söderling, who beat world number one and defending champion Rafael Nadal in the French Open. The tournament is far from over, though, Söderling plays in the quarter final next. I hope he will win the whole tournament. Having beaten Nadal, he deserves it, but there are matches to go first.

Summer

It is summer, the day has been hot. Dad dislikes the summer, because he hates flying insects. The rest of us kind of like the heat. Auntie Linni really likes to lie in the sun outside. It is a comfortable season. It was warm enough in the morning that Daniel did not wear a jacket on the morning walk with us, this is good, because we do not have to wait for so long while he puts the jacket on. I like the summer time.

Norway

Paula went to Norway today with April, Kenny, and her parents. The Norwegian Shiba Inu Specialty is their goal. For once, I am not the one who are most disappointed with not going. Dad is more disappointed than I am, even though he does not like dog shows. He would, of course, have wanted to see the country of his birth and get a chance to meet his breeder, but he had to stay at home too. Well, I have started to get used to the disappointment of not going to dog shows, so I understand and I can comfort Dad a little.

The Future of Car Manufacturers

The European car marques of General Motors, Opel, Vauxhall, and the Swedish Saab, etc, may be purchased by the Canadian company Magna International. There are people who understand the car business say this may be good. I hope so, for the Swedish manufacturer's sake.

My Beautiful Daughter

We got these pictures of my daughter Meja today. They speak for themselves, I think.

A Heroine

Last Saturday in Umeå in the north of Sweden, a police officer was shot and killed when robbers opened fire against the police force. She is a heroine, of course, who sacrificed herself for her fellow police officers. Her name was Kita and she was a Malinois, i.e. of a Belgian dog breed. I mourn with her friends, two legged as well as four legged. No words are enough to commemorate Kita. I wish the robber who shot her will be sentenced to a long time in prison.

Show Weekend

The annual Shiba Inu specialty show in Sweden was today. I did not participate, but Calvin (father of my pups) did as well as Kenny and April. Calvin finally got a good coat as an adult. He did rather well in the show ring, ending up as 3d youth male with excellent out of 8 youth males (champion quality). I wish Calvin would eventually become a champion, not least because it would look good in the pedigrees of our pups. We have some shows planned for him now.

Kenny was 4th champion male with excellent out of 8 champion males. April was 4th champion female out of 8 champion females and was also placed in best bitch as reserve best female with excellent. Still, the results are all in all good, because there were quite a lot of shibas there (total entry 68). I guess I should have been there, because there was not a single dog with the Aangenaam prefix in the show catalogue. We have to hold our prefix high, and the best thing to do that is to allow those of us who has this prefix in their name to be shown. I hope I will be shown later this summer.

Birthday Celebration

Somehow, I forgot to write in my blog yesterday.

We had a great celebration of Daniel's birthday, with blood pudding. Suri got some as well, for the first time in her five-and-a-half week long life, and she enjoyed it just as much as the rest of us dogs did. This is good, it goes to prove that she has got good taste for the great things in life.

Celebration

Paula and Daniel went away this evening to celebrate Daniel's birthday. His real birthday is tomorrow, but Paula is away on a dog show tomorrow. I am not so much annoyed with not being on the birthday celebration, we can celebrate that many times, but I am annoyed I will not get to go to the dog show. Well, I guess my time will come, at that time, I will once again be able to stun the world.

Flight

I have never flown anywhere. Mum flew across the Atlantic Ocean when she moved to Sweden. April did too, and has flown back to America and returned here again as well. Calvin, father of my pups, was also born in America and flew to Sweden. Today, we celebrate that Jesus Christ flew up to Heaven almost two thousand years ago. He did not use an airplane, though, as the dogs I mention here did. Thanks to this holiday, both Paula and Daniel have been home all day, which means this has been a great day for all of us dogs. There are not as many traditions surrounding this holiday as, for example, Easter. We celebrated on pizza in the evening. This was a really good way to celebrate in my mind. Holidays are good days.

Five Weeks Old

My little sister Suri turns five weeks old today. We have played a little in the yard, she is fun to play with. She is also cute - small wonder, since she has got the same parents I have.

In a little more than three weeks, Suri will move away from home. She does not yet comprehend what will happen, but she does not have to worry. We met Suri's future humans last Sunday, they are nice people and she will get a good life with them.

A Lack of Inspiration

Paula is writing a paper for her university course, but she has a hard time finding the right inspiration this evening. I can totally relate to that. Once in a while, I have a hard time finding any inspiration to write in my blog. I have made it a rule to try to write once a day, especially since I call my blog Daily Hailey, but this is just something I demand of myself. There will be no harsh consequences if I do not write a blog entry some day. In Paula's case, it is different. She has to finish her paper in a given time in order to complete the requirements of her present course.

As the concerned pet I am, I try to help Paula as much as I can. However, when it comes down to actually writing, Paula has to do the work herself. I could have helped her with the writing, but that would be cheating. Paula is a great writer, though, and I do not doubt that, in the end, her paper will be terrific.

Blogs in Our City

The news paper in our city has had articles about local politicians who write blogs yesterday and today. I am not a politician, but I am considering whether I will write to the paper to tell them about my blog. If they want to write about local dog blogs, I believe my blog may be worth mentioning. I am not sure they will write about dog blogs, though - not all humans are interested in dogs. I know not all humans are interested in politicians, either, but what a prominent politician does affect more people than what an ever so prominent dog does. This is sad, but true. Thus, there may be a greater value in articles about politicians' blogs than articles about dogs' blogs. This is why I hesitate to write to the paper to tell them about my blog. If they would not write about dog blogs, it would be a waste of time to tell them about mine. On the other paw, it might give them the idea to write about dog blogs. I will ponder some more over this issue.

National Holiday

Dad, who still counts himself as Norwegian, because he was bred and born there, celebrates his national holiday today. This meant we all got some extra tasty food with minced meat, which is always nice. I would like to have things to celebrate more often during the year, because we always get an extra treat or better food when there is something to celebrate. This is why it is so nice that Dad still counts himself as Norwegian, otherwise we might not have gotten extra tasty food today.

Dangers of Cleaning

Daniel dusted around the computer today, and must accidentally have turned the modem off. This made it difficult for us to turn the Internet on later in the evening. We did find the problem and got online, though, as you can see. You have to be careful when you are dusting, or maybe do what I always do: leave the cleaning to others. Daniel and Paula are generally good at cleaning, they do not need my help.

Norway is winning the Eurovision Song Contest tonight. Most of us do not think Norway's song is the best, but Dad never let go of his Norwegian roots and has hoped for the Norwegian song all week, though the semi finals. I had my hopes for the Swedish song, but it has not attracted many votes. It is not that I am very concerned, there are no dogs on stage and not one of the songs is about dogs. If there was, perhaps I would vote for it.

Late Last Night

We were visiting Mia, Emil, and Kesshi last night, and it was too late to write in my blog when we got home. It was a nice evening.

Playing with the Pup

Around noon today, I had the privilege to be out in the yard together with Mum and my baby sister Suri. I offered to play with Suri, but she was yet too young to take me up on the offer. I guess I should have understood that, my pups were not much into playing when they were just four weeks old, but it is not as easy keeping track of the progress of Mum's pup as it was of my own. After all, I spent almost all the time, day and night, with my pups. This is what Mum does with her pup now, while I just see the pup once in a while. Well, it was very nice to get to know Suri better today, anyway.

Four Weeks Old

My little sister Suri is four weeks old today. I wonder what she thinks about the world, she is not yet old enough to tell. Since she is the only pup in her litter, I wonder if she believes there is noone but her who is as small as she is. She has no other pup to play with, but I can see she enjoys many aspects of life anyway. The last couple of days, she has been able to discover the lawn outside our house. It must be a revolving experience to see that the world is so much bigger than the room where she has lived since the day she was born. Yet, the world is so much larger than what we can see from our yard. I thought about this when I had my own pups with me as well, I cannot quite recall how it was that I discovered the vastness of this world myself. My pups have surely discovered it, but I have not much contact with them and have not discussed this with them. Well, maybe Suri will tell me something about it.

How will it go?

Tonight Sweden will compete at the Eurovision Song Contest in Russia. Im not intrested though. There are no dogs allowed to take part in this competition.

I'm more intrested in the food tonight. Paula will cook sausage cassarole. Mmm. Hope I get to taste some.

Small Pigs

Today, I've read about what is probably the smallest breed of pig there is. It is only about 25 cm tall and weighs no more than 9 kg, so it is smaller than a Shiba Inu. It is a rare breed, so I guess you can rarely get meat from it. It would be interesting to see how small the bacon from these pigs would be, though, and to taste it.