Hello to all our visitors – we are pleased to be able to continue our tour.

As you know, Africa’s hot, dry climate is well publicized. What few visitors to our continent realise, is just how humid & sub-tropical, even tropical, some areas are in summer, and this is not just close to the equator.

The weather bureau forecast a hot & dry summer due to an expected “El Nino” effect. Of course, humans are often notoriously inaccurate at foretelling the weather, but we dogs can read nature very accurately. Mom received email from some friends in Haiti - dogs there were very disturbed before the earthquake, trying to communicate to their owners that something is coming. Take Granny for example, she can tell if thunderstorms or rain is coming –she keeps telling us all she feels it in her bones. Then she keeps on asking our humans to let her inside the kitchen, even when there are no clouds yet – but they don’t always understand that Granny is never wrong. We think that humans should pay Granny with big treats just to forecast the weather in our area.

Giraffe drinking water.

This year a large part of Southern Africa has experienced a very wet summer. Of course, a large part of the Cape Province is a winter-rainfall area so they are having a dry summer. A few of the farming areas are also way too dry, but for the most part, us here in temperate Gauteng Province and our cousins in sub-tropical KwaZulu Natal, have been getting very wet this summer, with some flooding very close to our own home. We don’t mind however, as we love the water & mud.

There are also those fellow creatures, part of our African (and other) wildlife, which enjoy water. We as chows know only too well that nature always has a purpose with everything, she may entertain onlookers with ‘antics’ and exhibit great beauty, but always it is with a functional purpose. For instance – for the Buffalo & Rhino, rolling in the mud gets rid of all kinds of unwanted parasites on their skins! Mom showed us this photo of the Buffalo in the mud, but then instantly forbade us to follow it’s example! That’s just not fair, it looks like so much fun to us. Didn’t mom also say that some humans do things like that…..?

Sun and Water

FIFA World Cup Soccer

South Africa is hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer, and great excitement is in the air amongst fans & interested parties. The first game will kick off in mid June, but in the interim, ticket sales within SA are not as good as FIFA would like. This appears to be due to the fact that much of the 7-step registration process is too complicated for the average fan here to accept. Very few have access to, or make use of, the internet and the only other place they can register to purchase tickets is at one of the major banks. Many have to make special trips by public transport at a fair expense to reach a branch of this bank. Then there is also resistance to not receiving the tickets immediately upon handing over the money. In Africa, resorting to this kind of trust of ‘strangers’ is just is not very well received. And of course the financial burden of outlaying such an amount of money (to many fans this is a hefty sum of money) many months before the events is also very troublesome in the current economic situation.
Of course, the fans visiting from overseas, will be so very delighted about this, as they hope that there will be much less of the deafening Vuvuzela noise than anticipated… 

The Twins having fun!

Chow Chow Statistics

From KUSA (the official registry body for dogs in Southern Africa – the Kennel Union of Southern Africa), we have these figures for the period September 2008 – August 2009:
Most registered Breed in South Africa – Yorkshire Terrier, followed by the Labrador Retriever
Championship Status awarded to 3 Chow Chows.
Chow Chows registered during this time – 36.

Chow Chow Activities

The show season is starting slowly with some Non-championship (Open) shows for practise. The Supa7’s Challenge (for the 7 top ranking dogs in each group) has just passed, and Chow Chows had cousin Kendo attending. He is one of the two cousins & their human that just loves shows & travels to them - the whole country over.

From a wet & humid summer time South Africa, we greet you with photos of some cousins that enjoy water just for fun! Our Chow mom Rush, taught us from a young age how much fun it can be - as you can see from these family photos… water & mud is really good!

Until the next time - from sunny South Africa - we hope you also enjoy a wonderful mud bath, even just once in your life!
Joel & Nurya