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January 2011!

31/1- 2011
A new year and a new approach!
So, I've thought about this for a while now. I think I will change a few things here on Zodd's homepage.
I will update more often and not wait until the month is over until I add something (or wait three months like I have for a while...).
I've decided to start a blog!
I'm not sure how many visitors Zodd and I have here on our page, but I know we have a few and I hope my updates will keep you amused.
There are so many small stories that are lost while the month is marching on, and when I finally sit there, about to update, I have forgotten at least half of them!
I've always kept a diary, ever since I was a kid, but two years ago I stopped. I blame facebook, really. It was so much easier to write a few lines on the computer than to sit twenty minutes every night and recap the day in my diary. I would like this blog to work as Zodd's online diary, with me as his sidekick (much as we are in real life)!
Since today is the last of january I will start this year with a light transition from last year's system. So in this very first blog entry I'll recap our first month in 2011. How does that sound?

On the second of january Lucas and I packed the car full of Zodd and left for a quick trip to Norway. Well, no matter how you put it I suppose a trip to Norway can never be quick if you live in the very south of Sweden.
We had a long drive ahead of us and quite a few small adventures that awaited.
The first one was when we helped a man out of the ditch where he had ended up with his car. Something in the car was broken so he could not dive it properly even after we got him out of the snow, so we towed him to his place, not far from where he'd been stuck for the last hour and a half (according to him). Zodd was skeptical and I kept him in the car while Lucas talked to the man who seemed to be under the influence... We drove on with a feeling that something (or quite a lot of things) didn't add up with the story that man fed us.
For once you have to ask why on earth he hadn't walked home to call someone and ask for help since he lived no more than seven minutes from the place where he'd gotten stuck.

Our next stop was at Skrea beach, a wonderful stretch of sand bordering Kattegatt. Zodd enjoyed the stretch of legs and marked a few snow piles as well, with his famous pee ;)
It seemed to be a popular place to walk your dog since we saw dogs and people in every direction.

Skrea beach

Our next stop, and this was by far our favorite stop, was at Judit and Martin's place where Zodd got to meet Brummi for the first time in ages! She tried her very best to tell Zodd that she is the queen of Skee and he begged her to let him be king and rule by her side!
We took a walk on the meadows close to Judit and Martin's house and I let Zodd off the leash.
How he danced!
He tried so hard to charm the tibetan trousers of the queen herself, but even if she was amused she was far from impressed with his efforts. Brummi's "brother" Abbe (Jack Russell Terrier) was not even amused, since he's the one closest to the queen he wanted to tell Zodd to back off.
But Zodd saw him as nothing more than the court fool and danced on, eyes wild with excitement.
Zodd is in love with most females during winter, but I can swear on his tail that there is something else in his eyes when he meets a Tibetan Mastiff queen!
He is usually not very respectful when the ladies tell him to back off, but he took Brummi's words more serious than usual. If it's because she's a TM and they speak the same language or if it's because she is the queen of Skee I can't say, but it was nice to see him back away with respect in his eyes.
A funny thing happened when we walked back to the house. We had to pass the big road E6, where all traffic from Sweden to Norway pass by in a neverending stream of trucks, cars and pick-ups (and all the traffic from Norway to Sweden too, of course). Judit, Martin, Brummi and Abbe have walked there hundred of times and not once have the traffic stopped to let them walk over the road.
Today it did.
Martin didn't quite understand what happened so he stood there with Abbe while Judit, Lucas, Zodd, Brummi and I walked over the road. And then the cars strated rolling again. Martin had to wait for an opening in the stream of cars, like they usually do, and when he came over to us he just shook his head with a big smile.
"Amazing! Zodd stopped the traffic on E6!"
I told Judit that it was the presence of two Tibetan souls in one place and she liked that theory.
Zodd was totally unaware that he had just pulled off something earlier deemed impossible.
He was bummed that Brummi didn't see it fit to make him king and kissed the queen goodbye before he jumped into the car and curled up with a sigh.
Thank you Judit and Martin for the lovely walk! I hope we meet again soon :)

Zodd, Brummi and Judit

Zodd was mistaken for a bear on the ferry to Horten ;)
This is not the first time, I might add. Two men were fascinated by him and asked me about him and the breed. It's always nice to talk about what you love, and there is not much I love as much as Zodd and the Tibetan Mastiff ;)

Then we went to Lucas appartment in Horten to clean it out, the very reason for our trip. The work I put into cleaning it in november sure came in handy! Now we just had to get rid of some furniture and dust it off. The car was packed with stuff when we headed home.
I have to say Zodd is such a great boy in the car. He slept almost all the way, totally relaxed. He had faith that we knew what we were doing and as it turned out he got a date with a queen out of it!

There is one more story that must be told this month! It's the one with Zodd and the roe deer...
One morning Lucas, Zodd and I went to the beach. Well, beach is probably not the right word since there is no sand anywhere, only slippery rocks. Since we've had a really cold winter the ice had packed up over the stones and made a wide, white road of sorts. Perfect for hiking!
Zodd was off leash and minded his own business, trotting at the edge of the forest that border the white road on the opposite side of the cold waves of the baltic sea.
We had walked for a while when he suddenly disappeared into the dense bushes.
We called.
He didn't come.
So I walked to check what he was doing.
And what did I see?
Oh, I'll tell you...
There was Zodd with the skeleton of a roe deer in his mouth, the hoof and shoulder, looking all pleased. Looking as if he'd found the greatest treasure in the entire world. And for him it probably was.
And so the hunt began...
Zodd had decided to keep his treasure, to nurture it, to tend to it in every possible way.
I had decided to trow it away.
Zodd had his usual four legs and I was stuck with two, even if I did have an extra pair on Lucas. Zodd danced away, and when I pulled out my most serious voice imaginable he just laughed and threw the corpse into the air with a smile on his face, stuck his tongue out in my direction before he grabbed it in midflight and ran off...
It was when Lucas brought out his most serious voice imaginable that Zodd dropped his treasure and let me have it. With a glare, I might add.
And so we walked on (after I disposed of the corpse in the waves). Everything was joyful and peaceful and wonderful. We enjoyed the wonderful morning and the scenery.
Until Zodd came trotting back to show us his new and even better treasure - the head, backbone and a couple of ribs of a halv decomposed roe deer... Probably the same one that the leg, now floating in the baltic sea, once was attached to.
Oh, the joy we get out of life by sharing it with dogs ;)

//Sanna