We had four Intrepid Dachshunds, between 1998 and 2012.

Benson came to live with us in November 1998 at the age of nine weeks. He was a shaded red, long haired, tweeny (or tweenie) dachshund. (A tweeny is bigger than a miniature, but not as big as a standard dachshund).

Then came Lucy Lou in April 1999 also at nie weeks. Lucy was black and tan and weighing in at less than 5kg, was a true long haired miniature dachshund.

For seven years we were a family of two people, two dachies and lots of alpacas. We decided to adopt two more dachies into our family, and Heidi and Hamish arrived at the end of April 2006 at nine and a half years old.

Heidi, also a shaded red tweeny, was a little bigger than Benson, but still not as big as a standard dachsie. I called Heidi my funny chook as she did hilarious things and made me laugh. Heidi never had any puppies, but was very much the mothering type. Always trying to lick you clean.

Hamish was Heidi's brother and so much fun. He was a shaded red too, but had much less black than the others. Both he and heidi had some blondie bits on their bellies too.

Hamish had major problems with his back (common in dachshunds) but was so full of life. He couldn't walk very well towards the end, but would still hop about when he got excited and was a fun loving dog. He loved his treats, toys and laying out in the sunshine. He was awesome.

The dachies had a doggie door to take them out onto the deck where they would often be found laying in the sun.

Out the front they had another garden with daisies and roses (which I never maintained very well, but the dachies didn't mind). It was a fun place to go exploring.

Out the back, is a big lawn with a willow tree which is nice to sit under on hot days. We all spent a lot of time there. This is where all four dachies are now, under the willow tree.

Beyond the lawn, is a paddock where we've planted a few trees. We're going to plant more trees to make it like a park. I've planted some raspberries and blueberries here too.

We've dachy proofed the paddock securely so the dachies could explore and sniff about, roll in paca poo and bark at the alpacas through the fence.

Alpacas and dogs don't get along well natually. Dogs are predators and alpacas are prey. A herd of alpacas will band together to protect themselves and their crias against any dog that come into their paddock. Of course, alpacas would not stand much of a chance against a large determined dog or a pack of dogs, but they could certainly make a mess of a little dog like a dachsie, so we keep them separate. Our alpacas became well used to the dachsies, as well as the other local dogs, but they surely let us know when there was a new dog about.

Our dachsies always went on holidays with us and we found some very nice, dog friendly holiday spots in Tasmania.