Tales from the Backyard {Dedicated to the faithful friends in our lives}

Murphy is a Miniature Smooth Haired Dachshund. He was born on the 10th April 1997 and is spoilt rotten; I have even bought him Christmas presents!

He's my first Dachshund and I couldn't wish for a better companion/friend. He can always make me smile and has a sense of humour all his own!

We are a two-dog household; Jasper is a Rhodesian Ridgeback and belongs to my dad. He has a lovely gentle nature, which the little one takes un-merciless advantage of, especially where food is concerned!

Jasper has a heart condition and has to take several tablets a day, (11 years old in August 2003). It's a life threatening condition that will worsen in time. The vet didn't expect him to reach eight let alone eleven! But we're glad to still have him around and we appreciate him all the more for his tenacity :)

La Vizelle is an ex-racehorse and I 'sponsor' her at Hillside Animal Sanctuary, in Norfolk, England. You can see her picture on my Hillside page. They use the adoption scheme to raise money to feed the animals, as they get no government help. When I first got hooked up to the Net in 1998, I tried at least fifty handles for a Geocities user name before It dawned on me that no-one was likely to have La Vizelle! Just as well really, I was about to throw the computer out the window!

The photograph of the Pekinese on this page is our dog Timothy, now deceased. I just had to include it as it's my favourites. If Tim had still been around, Murphy would've been well and truly put in his place!

One of my favourite books about dogs is FLUKE by James Herbert. It's the story of a man re-incarnated as a dog and slowly regaining his human memories; something that's not supposed to happen.

Dogs can see violet, blue and yellow, which apparently is the way that red/green colour-blind humans see; they also have an excellent ability to distinguish between different shades of grey - in other words, they have great vision!

The Dachshund was originally 'developed to hunt Badger. As you can imagine this job required certain characteristics; Courage, stamina and perseverance above and beyond what is expected of most hunting dogs.

Having been bred to make their own decisions, you can understand the fact that they are mischievous, independent and complete lovable little rouges!

Dachshund translates to Badger dog and has been trace back to German and Latin writings around 1681 and pictures from about 1735. They first found their way into England in the 1850's - Queen Victoria was very taken with them - And made it to America between 1879 and 1885.

General characteristics of the breed are that they are adventurous, feisty, stubborn and very loyal and I can certainly vouch for that!