Adoption, holding area, kennel cough - Nurhan's take:

Nurhan's take:

Henry David Thoreau, is recorded as having come up with the line, "most men live lives of quiet desperation." I can truly say that my 'desperation' with my work has been voiced quite loudly, but no one listens, not even those who really should. This led to the following conversation (with two of the good guys):

Auden: "have to go, have someone waiting for me."

Me "so do I."

A "My girlfriend can voice her displeasure."

Me "my pup mouths me more when I come, home. You don't fancy taking him out do you?" (said in jest).

Almo "you two live quite close together."

Which led to him being 'adopted' for a few hours:

Ida (shown), and Auden, collecting Kin on the way home from work, taking him home and introducing him to Stella (Nova Scotia Duck trolling Retriever - 4 year old bitch), and potentially their cat (who was last seen evacuating out of the kitchen window). Despite taking both (water) dogs for a walk around a lake, Kin at least remained dry! I'm going to have to ask how this was achieved, as I've never managed this trick! Picture shows Stella, Ida, & Kin.

I was hugely grateful for this as it meant that I could stay longer at work without worrying about him, didn't have to walk Kin when I came home, any work I manage to do during the week, means I have less to do at the weekends, and not least Kin loves company - any walk where he gets to play with another dog, is a good walk. Here he got to 'play' with a bitch the entire trip. Auden proposed that he'd fallen in love... what can I say, Kin is a bit of a dog!

This is Kin in a 'holding pattern' before a walk. It's almost like Kin's trying to say that when he goes to his bed, it's either walk, or food time. Occasionally he grabs it and comes running into the living room. Karma used to do the same, but Karma used to bundle it up and lie on it, Kin just seems to want to destroy it! Still he's a pup and pups are supposed to have lots of energy! 

Kin has one characteristic that I've not seen/noticed before in other dogs, for no reason that I can determine, one of his legs will start to shiver, for those folk that climb, this looks like 'sewing machine leg' where your leg muscles start trembling with strain just before you either overcome what it is your climbing or you take to the air for a (hopefully) brief flight. It doesn't seem to cause him any discomfort, you can press on the leg and there is no voiced pain, doesn't favour any leg, can't find any cause for it, and he doesn't seem to notice it's going on. 

Now Newfies are built more for comfort than speed. I could easily out run Karma (my last Newfie). Kin I suspect is faster than me... which is irritating as with Karma, other than when I was injured, I knew I could get to places before him (such as roads), Kin I don't have this with; but it does mean that functionally he's growing into a great boy. One thing I enjoy almost every morning, is the walk before work when I let him off the lead and he 'takes off' through the long grass, just happy to be alive. High speed turns and more often than not, a high speed wipe out. It's great to watch.

Today I suspect that Kin has kennel cough. Karma never had kennel cough, if Kin does have kennel cough, this will be the second time that he's had it, in his short life. I thought that once a dog had it once he didn't get it again for awhile as he had antibodies to it. Still it looks like kennel cough, or at least kennel cough lite. It's taken me awhile to register, he has very occasional retching and occasional snot coming out of a nostril, but nowhere near as bad as the first time he had it. Will see how he goes and keep him away from other dogs for a couple of days. Which isn't easy to do and means that we can't take a trip out to Bråstein, this weekend, which also means that he won't be so tired, which means it'll be harder for me to work, talking of which...

What does a pup have to do? - Kin's take:

Kin's Take:

Really, what does a pup have to do to make his human learn?

Sitting down when my human tries to dress me doesn't work, so here I am lying down and after about 2000 heart beats my human disconnected the umbilical cord and walked away, then I just felt silly and had to get up and run after him... What else can a pup do to stop these indignities?

Resistance & Roads - Nurhan's take:

Nurhan's take:

Kin's putting up more resistance when we head for home on the morning walks. Do you have any idea how much of a drag it is to take a 50 kg(ish), 9 month old puppy out before work; it's almost like he's trying to tell me something...

Even when he is up, he likes to have the illusion of choice...

Now for a rant and rave about the local kommune... in their 'wisdom' they decided last Sunday that for nine hours they would shut the motorway into and out of Stavanger, including all the access roads, for nine hours and claim a 'car free day', indeed they even built a stage in the middle of the motorway to hold a dance workshop on. On Monday they expressed surprise at the huge traffic jams that this resulted in, not to mention folk who'd gone out for a trip out of Stavanger and were then faced with hour long delays in the gridlocked traffic to get home. Kin and I were stuck in it as we tried various roads only to find them closed. Seriously has no one mentioned to these morons that roads are for driving on, not for having dance workshops. Sadly this being Norway, no one is held accountable and fired for gross stupidity...

Which leads me onto my next rant on a similar subject. The Kommune has decided the bus is king and are doing all sorts of odds and sods to kowtow to the bus. This surprises me somewhat as when I cycle past buses they generally have as many people in them as I have on my bike. Lots of folk cycle here and the cycle paths/facilities seem to be designed by people who hate cyclist and seem to be actively trying to weed them out of the population, by horrendous road 'planning' (I use that term in it's broadest possible form). So now the Kommune/Statens Vegvesen (road service) has decided that the bus driver needs bigger bus stops for him and his bendy bus to park in, so they are shutting main roads and sending all the traffic through residential areas. Now you'd think, okay a bit of inconvenience for a couple of weeks... but you'd be grossly mistaken because to do this to 600 m of road has taken them seven months and they are still not finished. This mainly comes down to incompetence and not having anyone accountable. Soon they will start on the next section of road which means all the traffic will then pass straight past my front door, which makes the area infinitely worse for the many school children who use the road (that in places has no footpaths and has no crossings on it); but worse for Kin and I, if he does get off the lead the chances of him being hit by a car (probably) raise by a factor of 20. If this was for a couple of weeks, it would be tolerable, but it'll go on for months. And over the winter when snow/freezing conditions will doubtless lead to delays. Ring the number to talk to the nominated public interface and naturally they don't answer the phone... Much like the Fylkeslegen i Rogaland who nominate a person to be your interface and naturally this person seems to be blind, deaf, and dumb, as he doesn't answer letters, phone, and it's not possible to arrange a meeting via one of the secretaries... This weekend is local election day, I will be placing my vote after talking to see if anyone is going to give the disproportionate number of bureaucrats  here a shake up, and make them accountable to the people who they are supposed to serve.

On the subject of voting, there was a statistic in the last American election that more people watched 'Oprea' then voted... If you don't vote you don't deserve a say. Voting should be mandatory, (i.e. illegal not to vote), even if you only go and mark the paper no vote. In most 'free' countries people have died to give us this right and if we can just make those folk who are voted in, accountable to the people the world will be a better place.

A/B Person: - Nurhan's take:

 Nurhan's take:

Kin is now an 'A' person. Up and out first thing in the morning.

This lasts right up until we turn back for the house.

At which point he becomes a 'B' person, and can barely stand up...

Crowds, parents, and getting big - Nurhan's take:

Nurhan's take:

This was supposed to be a cabin hunting trip, but then we went by water and, well you know how that goes...


Having a giant breed dog, you should normally be able to spot your dog when he's playing in a group...

 
 This isn't always the case...

(After carefully studying the pics and zooming in Kin is furthest one to the left, looking over his shoulder at the camera).

Sadly this is now a rare sight in the Stavanger area, that said this is a 'fast treff' (i.e. a regular meet) every Saturday and Sunday at one of the local beaches at kl 0900 (any one see the downside of this? As Robin William's says in the film, 'Good Morning Vietnam', "What's the '0' stand for? Oh my god it's early!" Okay 0900 isn't particularly early, but when you spend the rest of the week getting up before 0600, you tend to look forward to the sanctuary of the weekends and leisurely starts).

Here's a question, why don't pet shops carry collars/harnesses for giant breed dogs? They are not that rare as the above picture shows... Incidentally he's the only male dog in the above picture!

Some sad news about another Newfie, Santos, I think Santos was three years old and if you search through this blog you can find a picture of him. I'm not sure of the details but it turns out that he had a bone disease that splinted the bones in his front legs which would require operations on both front legs. Santos weighed in at 80 kgs, and given the nature of what was wrong with him, was going to have serious problems even if the operation(s) were successful. MayBritt was forced to do the kind thing which must have been agonising especially as it's not so long since they lost Marco (happily from old age).

 Here it's harder to pic the correct Newfie... This is at Bråstein and the lady is the one who mentioned the beach walk.

Kin is getting big, he's a week from being nine months old, this gate is head height on me and I'm 175 cm tall...

Now a big puppy could be a problem when your mother visits as he's probably heavier than her and he definitely wants to play more. She was briefed thoroughly on how to act towards him so he wouldn't take too many liberties with her, and it all went rather well. They each managed to step on the other one's paws but other than that no harm was done.

Although it's really hard working with animals and parents; between the two of them it took me three efforts to get this picture:

They got on well together.

Still keep bumping into deer on local walks, in fact on the local footy field, unless someone else has already woken them up, they generally don't even bother to get up. Last week one ran ~ five metres in front of Kin and despite being off the lead, he didn't do anything.

 The glowing eyes in front is a deer with the flash lighting both Kin's head in the bottom right of the picture and the deer in front.

 Despite having plenty of places he can lie down, he still insists on 'wedging' himself into the tightest spaces that he can find.

And sometimes after a trip, things like getting out the car are just way tooooooooooo much bother...

Favourite pastimes - Kin:

Kin's take:

 Now sleeping and stomach rubs are two of my favourite pastimes. I've found that if you take up positions like this, that your human will find it difficult not to comply with giving a stomach rub... sometimes you don't even need to wake up!

How cool is this!

The world according to an eight month old puppy - Kin

Kin's take:

This is a good day, hanging around in the woods, meeting folk and other dogs, most of whom want to play. Today was great as it was raining and not hot at all.

I've heard rumours that St Bernard's don't swim, from personnel experience seems to be true.

That's Jussi up there, normally when we meet we have a great time, today she was obviously feeling bitchy, as she jumped me and growled alot, sometimes bitches are really hard to understand.

Last couple of days have been good, my human has been around almost all the time, and he even let me sleep in. Hasn't had the normal piles of paper on the living room table and ignoring my advances to play.

Talking of which I've discovered that when he is doing that type of thing, if you repeatedly try to get him to play he ends up giving you something to chew for a long time on. How can you lose with this reaction!

Please notice the latest indignity, some type of bondage harness that fits around my chest, breast, and back. He puts it on and it seems to have no purpose, it's almost like he's trying to get me used to wearing it before he uses it for something else. I have tried rolling on the floor to pull it off, and into trees, nothing seems to work.

 Got to play the 'towel game'; perennial favourite. Not sure how the scoring is done, but think I won.

 Where'd he go?

Excellent, he understands the value of play and has filled all the holes in with fresh soft soil, what fun it's going to be to dig them all up again.

Don't let it be said that us Newfies don't pull our own weight...