My little sister Amira

Lookie, it's my little sister Amira! My doG, she's grown! Uh, perhaps that's because she, too, is one year old today.

Hey Sis, let's play! I'll chase you around while barking like mad, and you'll run, OK? No? Oh, com'on! It's fun! Let me show you how it's done! [bark, bark, bark!]

Oh, don't be so sceptical! I'm your brother, remember? Brothers are supposed to tease their little sisters. I read it in a book somewhere. I think the title was "How To Drive Everyone Around You To Insanity In Seven Days". Or something to that effect...

Fun, fun, fun!

It looks like my birthday will be a day of fun and sun! And adventure, too. I guess this stay in Skodje will be worth the dreary train ride. First we started by having breakfast outdoors. That was great, even if I had to eat my food outside the other dogs' enclosure. I'd rather have had my birthday breakfast alongside my doggie Mom and Dad, but my breeder Granny Line said that I could eat with them when things had calmed down a little. And Mom said that was a good idea, because I eat so slowly. Humph! I don't mind sharing my food with anyone who's bold enough to steal it from right under my nose. I am used to Teo, aren't I...?

Then followed a short walk in the area around the house, so that I could do my business and sniff around a little. There were many things to check out. Imagine, they have their own river - with trout in it! Trout are a type of fishies that humans are particularly fond of, especially the wild type. But no matter how hard I spied into the water, I couldn't spot any. Even though Mom says they have lots of spots. Oh well, I wouldn't eat them anyway. I am a meat eater! I mean, how many fish eating dogs do you expect to find in the Sahara...?

There were other things to check out as well. Horsies, for instance! Granny Line had two Arab horses, and they shared their stable with an English thoroughbred horse. And in a large pasture behind the house, three Islandic horses enjoyed the sun. Wow, that's a lot of horses. I said hello to one of the horses, a young stallion named Chindit. He spoke a dialect that I didn't understand. Probably Arabic, I guess. I myself, being a Berber, speak the Berber language Tamazigt, which is nowhere near Arabic. I suppose that's the reason why he and I couldn't understand eachother. Or maybe it was because he's a horse and I'm a dog. Who knows.

It's my birthday!

Today's my first ever birthday! Gosh, I feel so much older and more mature already! Amazing how quickly I feel the effect of having the life experience of an Entire Year! Wow.

But what to do today? Will there be a party? Will all the other dogs come? And the deer I saw last night? Do I get a present? A wheelbarrel-full of treats, for example? Now that'd be something...

But while I wait: Gimme breakfast! I'm starving!

Deer!

Mom! Wake up! Wake UP! There are animals outside. Look, they're right outside! Ohmigosh, they're deer! Oh, can I go out and play with them? Can I, please? Please??

No? Go back to sleep? You gotta be kidding! Can't sleep with deer all around the house! I'll keep you awake until you let me out, and if you don't let me out, I'll keep you awake all night.

No, I don't want to go back to bed! Ow! Don't push! OK, OK! Oh, you have no sense of adventure!

Silly, stupid, boring.... mumble, mumble... zzzzzzzz.

Train, train, train again...

I've only just had the time to recover after the trip to the South Coast, and here we are on another train? Only this time we seem to be going somewhere else. Somewhere new. Instead of heading south-west towards the South Coast as usual, we appear to be on our way north. North?? Hmmmm. Whereto?

Mom tells me it'll be a surprise. A wonderful surprise, even. Something to do with my first birthday, which is tomorrow. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Oh, I hate having to wait! Can't she just tell me where we're going? C'mon, Mom!

Jeesh, look at that mountain! I can't recall ever having seen anything like that before. It looks kinda dramatic and ancient. We've passed several mountains, one more majestic than the other. They look a bit like the mountains we saw on our trip to Bergen. Could we be heading for the west coast? But no, the train is definitely on a northern path. I don't understand a thing!

The plot thickens. We've just gotten off the train after four boring hours, the conductor announced "Next stop: Dombås!" But it seems like we'll transfer to another train. A small, very modern looking one. It has only two cars, and both have pointy ends where the driver sits. I guess that means that, instead of turing around at the end of the track, the driver simply walks to the other end of the train and drives back the way it came.

But Mom still won't tell us where we're going.

At long last, the train has stopped. This appears to be our final destination. "Åndalsnes", the conductor said. But where's that? I smell the sea, so we must've headed straight west from Dombås. Oh, I'm tired! It's been five and a half loooong hours. But what now? There's nobody here to pick us up.

But wait. Mom's on the phone. She smiles, says "See you soon", and then we wait a little longer. And then a white van pulls up, and an oddly familiar looking man steps out. They put me in the back of the van, and off we go. For ever and ever, it seems. A whole hour. I can't see anything, but I don't care. I'm tired!

But eventually, we stop. Thank heaven for that! What's next? Where's the surprise? Can I have it now? I think I deserve it after this long ordeal.

Oh, wow! WOW! We're in Skodje! Where I was born!!!

Look, it's my Dad! Daddy! Oh, let me in! Daddy!! It's me, Azaar. Do you remember me? I've grown, haven't I? I'm so much bigger than when I left last August. I live in Oslo now. You won't believe all the stories I have to tell from the big city. I have so many friends, and many of them aren't even sighthounds. But please, let me in. I want to play with you all! I've spent all day travelling, now I want to run and chase all the lovely ladies you have in there.

Oh yessss! I'm in! I'm in! I'm.... eeeek! There are so many of them! Oh, but I can handle it. I see ladies everywhere! They'll no doubt want to play with me. Hey pretty lady, come here! Let me chase you. Yoohoooo! I'm faster than the wind! And I'm chasing a pretty lady! I'm the king of the.... EEEEK! Daddy is chasing me!! Oh, shock & horror. Dad, where's your sense of humour? Come on, I just wanna pinch their butts and pull their tail. Surely they won't mind? If I think it's fun, then I'm sure they do, too.

Oh, how embarrassing! I'm being scolded by Dad in front of everybody. He tells me to behave nicely and not to chase the ladies. He's so big and intimidating and confident that I have decided to keep my tail low and my ears back, and stay away from his ladies, no matter how pretty they are. He blocks my way when I try to approach them. "They're my flock", Dad says, "and you're just a boy. You're younger than everybody else, so act the part, you hear? No fooling around, and no monkey business!"

I guess that means that I have to be nice, then. But that's boring! Bart Simpson and Calvin from "Calvin and Hobbs" are my idols, and I want to be just like them. But I guess Dad's no fan of either of them...

Is that a toothbrush???

What's this? Some sort of toothbrush? But Mom, you've never had to brush my teeth! Surely you're not so old and forgetful that you have forgotten that? But OK, if you want me to chew on it, I'll chew on it.

In fact, I'll chew it to bits. [Argn, argn, argn!]

Actually, I don't see any reason why I should have to brush my teeth at all. All my teeth are pearly white, and my breath doesn't smell at all. Thanks to all the bones I eat, plaque never gets a chance to form on my teeth.

Come to think on it, can I have a bone before bedtime? I'm a bit peckish. A little snack in the shape of a pork thigh bone is just the right thing to tie me over until breakfast...