We are currently on our summer vacation and right now we are at Haapavesi. Boys are sleeping, Pauli is chopping some wood for his mom and I'm here writing to you guys.

So much has happened since our last story that I don't even remember all. One of the most important ones was that Chili learned to lift his leg and be like big male dog on our walks :) He learned it right after our last story but I haven't had time to write it here. First time when I saw him lifting his leg while peeing I thought it was an accident since the ground was wet after a rain. He did it again in the afternoon so it wasn't accident. He still hasn't mastered that skill, but he is getting there. Sometimes he just lifts the leg but nothing comes out. He sometimes even scrapes the ground like he would be big and powerful :) He has learned to sniff all the wonderful smells in the outside world but mostly I think he is just hunting for food.. bunny poops, bird poops, rocks, dirt, corpses... what ever he can put into his mouth. One of his most delicious founds was in the forest few weeks ago.. Pauli saw that he was eating something and went there to take it away. Chili didn't want to let go. Ants were running in his face from his mouth.. Finally Pauli saw that it was some animal corpse that he had found. It was in such a bad condition already that it couldn't even be recognized. Chili thought it was yummy we thought it was absolutely sickening.

Last weekend I trowed a surprise party to Pauli. He had no idea before all the quests came in :) Pancho took everyone very well since he knew all the quests but Chili was afraid some of the quests. He was afraid of Pauli's friend Sami. Even thought Sami gave him cheese he still didn't trust him. Other quest who Chili really didn't like was Pauli's cousins girlfriend. If Chili was sleeping on the chair and she came to sit on the next chair Chili gave her evil look and left.

Last Monday we drove to Oulu. It was around 7 hours drive. Boys behaved very good in the car. We made some stops so that they could have walks. It was raining so perfect weather to drive that long time. In Oulu we were living in Pauli's dad's apartement. We were walking every day more than 6 hours. We were geocaching all week long. It was perfect! I LOVE Oulu! If it would be located a bit nearer to south Finland or even center of Finland I would be happy to live there. It is just a bit too far away from everything else. When ever we were walking in the center of Oulu boys behaved very well. Chili is still pulling in the lead a bit too much but he will learn when he will get over that puppy period where everything is exciting and new. Now for the first time ever I can say that we got boys tired with all that walking. First days they did fine but after 3 days of walking when we got back to the apartement both fell asleep right away. Have to say that my legs are sore also.

Yesterday we left from Oulu and started to drive to Haapavesi. We stopped at Turkansaari which is a museum island 10km from Oulu. There were lots of horseflies (paarma in finish) there and Pancho was bitten many times. Pauli slapped one from Panchos side and maybe minute later Panchos ears went down. Pauli said "what is wrong with you Pancho?" and at the same time he fall over to his left side. Pancho passed out. Pauli just catched him before he hit the ground. Pauli carried Pancho to the shade and I poured some water on him because we didn't know what was wrong. Pancho was almost totally out so I started running to the car with Chili and Pauli carried Pancho into the lake. He watered Pancho and carried him to the car. I took Pancho into my lap in the car and Pauli started driving back to Oulu and we tried to call to vets. Then we realized that it must have been caused by those horsefly bites. Pancho got at least 6-10 bites so it was allergic reaction. We gave snake pill (cortisone pill) to him and maybe 15-30 minutes later he started lifting his own head up. Then after that he started moving and his legs started working again. Now he is doing fine! I didn't even know that one could get allergic reactions from horseflies. I read from the internet that even humans can get those reactions. Especially from "chrysops relictus" (sokkopaarma in finish).

One thing that makes me wonder is how difficult it is to get to the vet when there is an emergency. It was Friday afternoon around 3pm and one vet that we reached (akuutti in Oulu) just said that we must give that cortisone pill and then "we are totally full so you must go somewhere else". At that point we didn't know what was wrong with Pancho and we didn't even know if he is going to survive. I find that a bit odd.. We tried to call to city of Oulu's emergency duty vet and there was just answering machine answering. Machine gave us other number to call which gave us other number to call which didn't answer and just gave us that original number.. Looooong (or at least it felt like eternity) time we tried to call and finally Pauli just left a message into some vets answering machine. She called back quite quickly and Pauli talked with her some time. At that point Pancho was already feeling better. Now I don't find it very comfortable to be here in Haapavesi since here is also lots of those horseflies. We just ran inside since we were attacked by many of those. I hate that there is no protection against those little devils with wings. There are all kinds of sprays against mosquitoes and buffalo gnats ("simuliidaes" or mäkärät/mäkäräiset in finish) but nothing works against those damn horseflies. I fell so tired after going out with boys since I have to watch them all the time incase there is some horsefly biting them. I am really happy that were we live there are not too many of those horrible creatures.

Like that wouldn't have been enough for poor Pancho today I saw him standing on one leg on the grass. We went inside and Pancho was just licking his foot all the time. I put some "bebanten" grease on his leg and it seemed to help for awhile. Then he started licking his foot again. I went outside to that place where he was standing and I noticed there was tiny nettles on the grass. They burned his leg. I washed his leg with cold water and that seemed to help. Now he doesn't want to go on that side of the yard at all. He learned fast.

All these troubles that naked dogs owners have to think about and be prepared. At least I have learned that don't ever go anywhere without those cortisone pills!

I will add some pictures later or then if I can't get it work in here you just have to wait until we will get home. -Johanna