A Typical Day with The Dogs

It was a rainy day today, but we didn’t just sit here all day. In the morning my wife Claudia and I had a French lesson. It was over zoom. We discussed tourism including tourism to cities. I spoke about my visits to Paris and Aix-En-Provence. Daisy, our Pug sat and slept under the computer desk during the class. Her snoring was audible to the rest of the class. Rollo, our mini-Australian Shepherd is very afraid of the sound that rain makes on the roof and on our skylights, so he was very nervous.

A comical cartoon showing a man in a rainjacket and a dog. The dog is saying "Thanks, anyways. But I think I'm just gonna poop somewhere in the house tonight."

Falling in mud

After the class it was no longer pouring, but it was still raining. However, Rollo still wanted to go for a walk so I took them for a walk. Daisy is old, 15+ years old, and she has a problem walking. Therefore, I put her in our pet stroller and raised the hood of the stroller over her. It was wet and muddy and after walking a quarter mile I slipped badly, feet straight up, and landed on my behind and back in a muddy puddle. Daisy’s stroller fell over but luckily, she did not fall out. I was not so lucky though. I was soaking wet; it was cold and my back and behind was covered in mud. I tried to nudge Rollo to go home, but he insisted on continuing. I was worried about what people who saw me would think but we took a long walk.

A photo of my muddy jeans and my muddy jacket
My muddy jacket and jeans after the walk
Our wet mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo in front if the front door.
Wet pup at the door
our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo inside but still a little bit wet
Rollo after the walk
Our pug Daisy in her green and black stroller. She has a coat on.
Daisy in her stroller
A little video of Rollo by the door.

Behold, the vaccine is killing us all

When I came home, I had a text from one of my Swedish aunts. She thanked me for a Holiday Card I had sent, and that she had just gotten. What’s wrong with the post office? She also warned me about the covid-19 vaccine (Pfizer)s, which she claimed have killed 17 million people and given 567 million people injuries for life. In other words, one in ten people who received the vaccine worldwide was injured for life. I know about people in my circle who died from Covid-19, but I don’t know of anyone who died from the covid-19 vaccine. I don’t even know anyone who was injured by it. How is that statistically possible?  In addition, my family doctor, who is an extremely good and caring doctor, recommends it, and thinking about it, so does every doctor I know. Most importantly, there are no reliable sources backing up her claim. Her claim was bunk of course.

So, I told her that her information was false and not to worry. When I was young, I did not want to contradict people, but I’ve come to realize that we are drowning in misinformation, and it is very common that people blindly believe whatever seems to support their preexisting beliefs. Therefore, it is important to contradict misinformation when we know that it is false. It is a public service.

Our pug Daisy with her tongue sticking out. She is on top of our sofa.
Daisy after an exhausting day of doing nothing.

We don’t pick up dead animals

After doing the laundry I noticed that the city had picked up our recycling, finally. They are supposed to pick it up once a week, but it took them three weeks. Last week I tried to file a report about the missed pick up. I was not able to do that using the city’s cryptic website, and search yielded nothing useful. I know you can file a report because I’ve done it before. Therefore, I started the chat, and I got a chatbot.

The bot: How can I help you?

Me: The recycling has not been picked up and I would like to make a report.

The bot: We don’t pick up dead animals.

End of chat……

So, the chatbot was useless. It seems like they are always useless. I’ve gotten restricted on Facebook several times, for selling beer outside the marketplace and without stating the price, when all I did was write a beer review in a beer review Facebook group. When Facebook still employed people for those tasks I could complain, get the restriction revoked and an apology. Once all that remained were bots that ended.

Photo showing our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo on the left, then our pug Daisy and then a visiting dog, Oslo, on the right. Rollo is threatening Oslo.
It was Daisy’s birthday (pug in the middle). Rollo is growling at Oslo sitting at the end of the table. It is an old photo.

After I gave the dogs dinner Rollo came to sit next to me on the sofa. He loves sitting next to me and pushing his back towards my side. It seems very cozy, but there’s a problem. Rollo is very possessive and jealous, and he gets aggressive towards others he thinks may threaten his position. Yesterday, he started showing his teeth and growling at Daisy as he was snuggling with me, and I immediately put him down on the floor. He screamed like a choleric two-year-old as I did that. This is one major reason we are hesitating to get another Leonberger. We don’t know how that would play out with Rollo. We have a behavior problem with Rollo that we need to solve. We also set up another baby jail for Rollo.

Picture of our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo inside a playpen. He has a toy and water.
Rollo’s Baby Jail
Our late Leonberger Bronco and our pug Daisy sharing our red sofa.
Photo from the past. Our Leonberger Bronco is sharing the sofa with Daisy.

Towards the end of the day Rollo and I played with his duck, and then he asked for a belly rub. When Rollo wants a belly rub, he lays down on the floor on his side , a couple of legs up, and then he barks one time and then he waits. If no one comes he loudly barks one time and then he waits. Eventually he gets his belly-rub.

Rollo our mini-Australian Shepherd holding a duck in his mouth.
Rollo with his Duck
Our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo lying on his side in front of our Leonberger Bronco as if he wants a belly rub.
Rollo wants a belly rub.

Now Daisy is asleep, and Rollo is almost asleep