A walk in the park

Drama in the dog park yesterday, 13 weeks old.

13 weeks

The weeks are flying and Drama is already 13 weeks old. She grows like weeds. Yesterday we took a walk on the Billingen (a "mountain") and ended up at one of the small lakes that exists up there. Guess who wanted to go nuts in the water?

A dog is part of the family, not a toy.

I get so angry, frustrated, sad and many other feelings when I see all these Pet Rescue-pages on Facebook (mostly dogs). So many cute individuals get abandoned for several reason of which almost everyone is stupid and the owners own fault. It can be allergy (I can understand that one), "aggressivity", the dog is just "too much" to handle, it doesn't obey, there's no time etc...

So many people doesn't think before they go buy an animal. The pups or kittens are really cute, the children are nagging for one, you feel alone. But then what? For me a dog is equal to a child in every way.

• If you're not parenting your children they may be nasty against other children, destroying toys, furniture or other things and they will not respect you. 
• If you doesn't rise your dog it may be aggressive to other dogs and humans, will destroy toys, furniture and it will not see you as it's leader. 
• If you feed your children fast food all the time they might get a lack of nutrients. That leads to sickness and diseases as allergy, obesity, osteoporosis etcetera.  Give them healthy food with a lot of minerals and vitamins in it. 
• If you feed your dog cheap fodder it might happen that your dog will get sick. Fodder-related allergy is very common, and hairloss. The most expensive is not always the best but the important thing is the nutrients. 
• Your kids need school and activities to learn and to be happy. To be "good" citisens and grown ups and be prepared for work. 
• Dogs need obedience-training (school) and playtime to be happy pets. If they don't get these two you may have a dog that disobey and go rioting in your home and everywhere else. 

The list can be longer but I think I've made my point here. A dog is a family member and should be cared of as one. It is not a toy. 

Sorry. It's not me, it's you...

After some weeks I have finally finished The Magicians and The Magician King. The last half of the second book was a struggle. The Guardian reviewed it  as a Harry Potter for grown-ups. I cannot agree. Without saying too much these novels are a mix up of Narnia, Harry Potter and some religion with associated existential questions, and not in a good way.

Ingredients:

• Very intelligent teenagers
• A magical college
• Another world called Fillory
• 7 keys
• A plot to erase all magic

 

Grossmans characters doesn't convince me that this is a grown-up story. It's not his fault, the characters are after all teenagers but the praising from The Guardian and other reviewers made me disappointed in the end. The story could have been really good but it's like Grossman tries too hard to make something "new" by using every successful part of other stories which makes it all  messy and non-unique. 

The characters are sometimes hard to read, and it's because there's no steady flow in describing them. Sometimes you have a clear picture in your head about the character you're currently reading about and sometimes it is blurry and  I didn't get to know them enough. 

Evil characters is combated, some people die and some people get going. In the second book one character, Julia, gets a lot of pages with her own story. In the end I don't understand why. Of course something special is happening but it doesn't make that much sense. The last half book happened too fast, as if Grossman discovered he didn't have that much space left to tell the story and I was really disappointed by the end.

So...In summary this is a too big story for only two books, with too much happening and all the story feels truncated.


I am not quite satisfied with my first bookreview in a lot of years, but it will be better. I promise ;)

Family meeting

Yesterday we went to Vinninga, Lidköping to give grandmother Nira back to her owner. This event became a family meeting since both daddy Cairo and big sister Dilaila was there too. 2,5 hours of playtime resulted in a knocked out puppy at home later in the evening.

It is really nice to see how much Drama grows mentally when she gets the opportunities to play with the dogs of Kennel Eranthis. In 2,5 hours she became tougher, more curious, more respectful and she went home with a bigger self-confidence.

When we first arrived Drama was greeted by her Father, Eranthis Cairo. 

More "getting-to-know-each-other"-sniffing.

Old Uncle Mischaland's Qwerro.

Big halfsister Dilaila, 2 months older. 

Daddy Cairo wants me to throw the stick. 

This is the "stick" Cairo put down at my feets for throwing...

"Come on, Throw it already!"

Taking a walk on the road. 

All the dogs: Drama and daddy Cairo in the back, uncle Qwerro
in the front left, grandmother Nira to the back right and sister
Dilaila at front. 

A lot of playing is tiring. Here she got company with our
bedpet; Harry the Hippo.

<3

What do you want to be when you get old?

Some people have asked us what we want to do with our German Shepherd, a fair question since Gsd's are a working breed. And the answer? We don't know yet. Even if Drama's father Cairo is a patrol dog/ army dog with a lot of merits behind and her mother is doing obedience and tracking we don't have the claim or pressure on us with little Drama. Even so we want to do something, since she is of a breed that need stimulation.

I like obedience, and everytime we've seen grandmother Nira, uncle Hummer or daddy Cairo I and my boyfriend had said to each other that our baby girl is going to be that good also =) We have talked about tracking too, but only time will tell. Drama was from the beginning a really quick learner, and in two days she knew how to "sit" and "lie". Since the puppy-courses doesn't begin until autumn we have started on our own and this weekend we did the first obedience-training. With a lot of candy, patting and a cute voice we came far!

What she can do, more or less:

• Sit
• Lie
• Stay (I walk away 10 meters, waiting a few seconds and then call her in). Of course she follows after a few seconds some times but more often than not she is actually sitting/Lying until I say "here".
• Paw (a greeting with your hand)
• Heel (By having a candy above her head so she has eye contact with me she is walking really nice by my side. After a few rounds she automatically sat down when I stopped)
• Let go

Drama is only 12 weeks and I'm really impressed of her quick learning. The challenge now will be to let Christoffer do some of the obedience-training. He is still working, but I have summer vacation from the Registered Nurse-programe a few more weeks and have a lot of time to spare with Drama. He will get his chances when he has vacation and I'm at work ;)

Congratulations and celebrations

Today Drama has turned 12 weeks and we have had her for 3,5 weeks. It was time for her vaccinations (parvo, distemper, kennel cough + rabies) and we went to Vara Veterinärstation since we have heard many good things about them. I was a bit nervous though how Drama would react to the station. I wanted the visit to be as positive as possible so she wouldn't develop a fear for veterinarians. 

No need to worry. She was a bit tired after the 1 hour car trip and we were first in place after lunch. One after one 3-4 dogs with their owner dropped in and Drama behaved really good. She sat down at my feet and waved her tail while I gave her candy and told her what a good girl she was. Thore the veterinary came out and we followed him to a room, Drama a bit sceptical. Inside she sniffed on everything and greeted Thore carefully. He tricked her with some more candy on the floor and Voilá... two injections and she didn't even react. She just ate her candy and waved her tail expectantly. I'm really proud of her =)

Earlier today we went to the dog park with grandma:

I have HUGE ears!

Trying to take the toy from grandmother.

Learning by doing what the grown ups do. 

Playing.

Playing.

Longing for the toy...

...and when I can't take it I bark instead...

...and watch from a distance when grandmother chew on it.  

Grandmother, what big teeth you have!

We have the honor to look after Bacteroides Nira, who is Drama's grandmother on the fathers side. She is parenting Drama a little, and it is nice for Drama to get used to bigger dogs. Nira is a lady of 9 years, but behaves as 2, both young in mind and body =)

We got some more Drama in our life!

Say Hello to Drama!
She's a pure-bred German Shepherd who compliment our life. Drama is born 19th of March 2013 in Norway.

Mother:    Rewyr's Oxygen (Norway)
Father:     Eranthis Cairo (Sweden)
Breeder:  Kennel Senterro
Owner:    Me (Zarah) and my fiancé Christoffer

Drama is 4,5 weeks old here and she looked
more like a bear cub than a puppy =)

5,5 weeks old. 

8,5 weeks old, on our way home from
Norway to Sweden. 

9 weeks, and one ear is already standing.  

9,5 weeks and both ears standing. 

First time at dog park, about 10 weeks. 

Visiting "grandma and grandpa" in Stockholm,
and celebrating Christoffers brother's exam.
11 weeks. 

Cozy time at the balcony, 11,5 weeks. 

Play time at the dog park with the real grandmother.
(Cairo's mother). 11,5 weeks.

Visiting grandmother, halfsister and Uncle Qwerro. 11,5 weeks. 

An old start or a fresh beginning?

So...this is about the fifth or sixth time I restart my blog. Time will tell if I will keep it alive. Now I have found a purpose for my writing so instead of letting you read about my random life-adventures only you will now be able to read about our new family-member Drama. She's a German Shepherd from the kennel Senterro in Norway. Besides you will also be able to read about my other big interest: books!

Happy reading!