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Doggy Passages

Saber is currently the senior canine in our doggy entourage (though he was born in 2006 so at the time of writing, January 2008, he's not really that old). He is (surprise!) a Belgian Sheepdog, and has brought a lot of much needed joy into our lives. Though he was named after a character in a book (whispers from the grave) written by my wife Kim Murphy, he's not quite like that Saber! (though they are definitively both Belgian Sheepdogs). That's him on the left, enjoying his first real snow in early 2007.

Phoebe is a sweet little Belgian Sheepdog with a totally wonderful temperament. She was adopted in December 2007 and was an instant hit with Saber. She enjoys chewing on her nylabone toys as well as playing with chewman (visible at her feet in the picture on right). There's nothing she enjoys better than to play "tag" with her big brother Saber, running up and down the hill in the backyard until they are both totally exhausted. Five minutes later, it's back to the hill!

	Who's this?
Shaman (left), Mystic (centre pictures), and Magic (two right pictures); three Belgian Shepherds.
Chinook's Story	King Kodiak	In memory of Artema, my son's Hedgehog, who crossed over the Rainbow Bridge on September 9, 1997.

 

Fondly Remembered

Isabella (1994–2007) A Mastiff/Lab cross, aka "Moose"... well, she was just a moose. In reality, she was probably a mix that included Lab and Mastiff; we're not sure what else. You can find her on some of the pictures on Magic's page.

Masque would normally be called a Belgian Tervueren ("Terv"; or the Terv variety of a Belgian Shepherd), but she's in fact a purebred Groenendael or Belgian Sheepdog. Clearly, genetics and breed rules are a tad inconsistent here! Masque has left us and returned to her original owners.

King (? – 2006), aka Kinglet, or King Kodiak, was a foster dog who stayed with us for a few months in the summer of 2006. We were just getting to know him when a Lymphoma took him from us.

Who's This? That's the phrase we used for Mystic (2001–2005) when she was a puppy. Alas, she didn't stay nearly long enough...

Magic (1996–2005) was probably the most intelligent, loyal, and fun-to-be-with dog I've ever known. He was our second Belgian Sheepdog (or Belgian Shepherd, Groenendael variety) and was actually nominated for President back in 1996! He didn't get enough write-in votes though. That's him in the picture at the top right of the main page. During his time with us, he became a Canine Good Citizen, did some tracking, went throug obedience all the way to "open", and thoroughly enjoyed agility. He managed to get more than 2/3 of the way towards a championship that I thought he easily deserved. But he too didn't stay with us long enough.

Shaman (1993–1996), our first Belgian (also a Groen). WARNING: kleenex alert, this story is a sad one, with a lesson for those who choose to heed it. His picture is also at the top of the main page (on the left).

Chinook, our Siberian Husky (1985–1999). Named after the warm wind. He had the unique distinction of having a pacemaker (since 1992). He will be sorely missed.

Heather was a Cockapoo who, with Moose above, managed to sneak in on some pictures on Magic's first page.

Somewhere I have a picture of Chandra (1982–1985), a Shepherd/(Husky?) mix who moved with us from Arizona to Maryland and thence New Mexico.

And of course, while we had her, the best dog in the world, Solo (1978–1992).

 

Useful Passages

Nothing in Life Is Free (NILIF), a method of dog training espoused by Lynda Oleksuk and many others. (I only did the Markup, Lynda and the others came up with the content).

The shy-k9s mailing list was started by my wife back in 1994 when we were trying to cope with Shaman (see above). We (her, yours truly, and of course Alicia) were instrumental in getting the first Belgian mailing list on the air around the same time. There's also another resource for the shy-k9s list, maintained by Lynn Herf.

 

Other Passages

Alas, The Doggie Home Page from Mike Buening (and Beamer) has ceased to exist; I can't find it on the Notre Dame servers anymore, or via google (only other references to it on other pages). Mike was one of the movers and shakers of the internet doggie community back around 1994, and started the first (that I knew of) ftp and later web archive for dog pictures. He was one of the rec.pets.dogs regulars back in the pre-spam days (remember those?).