The world according to Sikoya

8 = 11

I can't wait for Oasis to come back home. Mid-way during our 8 week camping trip she needed to go back to Granny Laura's at Koyote Kennels for a long visit.

I sure miss her. I know we'll yuk it up bigtime when she returns in December. Granny sent along a few photos to help us with the missing her part. Check out her Dogster page and you'll see the new pictures.

Our 8 week camping trip turned into 11 as Mummy and Daddy's house retrofit went a few of weeks longer than planned. BUT I got my backyard just a couple of days after they got the keys, *and* that means I got to run around, leash free, in my own backyard for the first time in 8 weeks. I also showed the first Shiba 500 in a couple of months [Daddy: and that means we knew she was truly happy].

Our first visitor to our new home was the esteemed moderator of the Yahoo ShibaInuCrazyinCanada group. I was honored to be in the presence of such royalty. I simply cannot wait to meet the rest of her pack, Kira and Suji. Mummy and Daddy had coffee and learned a couple of tricks that they think will keep me in check a bit better, but I'll show them true Shiba Spirit! Did you know that the Ki in my name means Spirit? That makes me a true expert in Spirited-ness :)

[We chose the name Sikoya because we liked it. We later learned that Sikoya -- this exact spelling -- was the North American Native's God of the Animals. Our dearest friend, our breeder, added the Ki to the name.]

Just this week the boxes got delivered into the house. It's pretty topsy-turvy around here with a bit of foul language every now and then when they can't find something they need in a box but I think that's how all cross-country moves happen. When their stress goes up I think they are getting excited and playful and I become their counsellor and jump in with the closest toy I can find in my mouth and doing a full Shiba Smile :) That calms them down pretty quickly...

Yesterday I got into the remnants of a compost pile and got pretty stinky pretty quickly. That earned me a bath... and then today, me, Sikoya Ki, the fierce hunter, scored a mouse! I rolled in it before Daddy could stop me, and that earned me another bath! [just a half bath...]. At least one of the retrofits they got in the house was to get one of them tankless water heaters that comes with precise temperature control -- and that meant my bath was *ekzactly* 108 degrees F. Not too hot, not too cold, just riiiight.

Dear readers, they have unpacked my dog beds and my leather couch and loveseat, as well as my dishes and food and their bed (or is it MY bed?). I really don't care what else they unpack at this point as long as they let me go out and mousehunt in the big ole backyard. Anything else they unpack that I can sleep on is simply a bonus at this point!