37.25 kilograms

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We had an appointment with the veterinarian on Saturday and were pretty surprised to find that Otava now weighs 37 kilograms at the tender age of five months. HB only weighed 65kg when he was fully grown so, considering that Otava has 13 more months of puppyhood, I think he's going to be a bit bigger than I had originally thought. :) We asked the doctor about a slight limp in his left front leg we noticed that morning and, after a very thorough examination, the doctor thought it might be a slight sprain and that we should keep exercise to a minimum for the next two weeks in addition to a course of an anti-inflammatory drug. Already he is pretty pissed about not being able to go play in the dog park with his friends. He's young and it will likely heal and pass quickly, but HB had a sprain when he was 9 that never quite healed so I'm a bit nervous. The real disappointment was not being able to take him to the puppy show in Ruoholahti today. I went anyway and there were quite a few adorable puppies in a wide range of breeds, but not one single Saint Bernard.

I had to giggle at a friend's response upon hearing the name of the veterinary clinic; "HauMau? Is that a vet or a Chinese restaurant?" [to explain: hau hau = bow wow, mau mau = meow meow, HauMau sounds plausibly Chinese/Japanese and it's not unusual to joke around about the origin of the white meat in your Kung Pao Chicken.]

Of the many euphemisms for vomit and vomiting, Ralph is unusual as it can be male first name. I still giggle that the Finnish word is yrjö, a.k.a. George, which is also a male name. I don't know enough slang from various languages but I'm wondering if it's common to use a male name for vomit. Guys get a bad rap in Finnish slang [nice on-line Finnish slang website] as Urpo is a male name that can also be used for 'dimwit'. :)