The Shin High Terror
I suppose today is as good a day as any to take this on. About a year ago I did some work on the overall design of this blog, including (some of you regular readers may have noticed at the time) a hand-drawn banner at the top. That banner features none other than the ‘Shin High Terror’ himself, my beloved dachshund Loki.
As soon as Loki grew into his adult shape (long, low, and silky) I started working on a drawing of him (and today our flat is peppered with dachshund artwork; prints, drawings, cushion covers, whatever you can think of. To be more specific I started drawing the fold at the corner of his mouth, what we called “Dackel’s Corner”, and the rest of the picture sort of grew around it. He’s either guarding the entrance to some sort of dungeon, or just relaxing on a fine carpet in a castle. I suspect I know which he’d have preferred. As usual, I was doing my best to channel the art style of Russ Nicholson, of Fighting Fantasy fame. I stole the door straight out of one of his drawings.
We lost Loki tragically young, at just a year old in a traffic accident near our flat – I don’t think anyone was to blame, we were just awfully unlucky. He wasn’t in our lives for anywhere near long enough (even if he, himself, was always exactly long enough), but we’d made loads of happy memories together on all sorts of adventures. Here’s a few of my favourite photos of him, and a few rare pictures of me.
Sleep well, my dearest Sausageman. May you always have all the chicken you can eat, faces to lick, and may your slumber never again be interrupted by foxes.
Shin High Terror! 
That is a great picture. I know Russ Nicholson’s art mainly from Fiend Folio. Where my young mind was probably simultaneously repulsed but also awestruck. Similar to my first encounter with Erol Otus’s art. It was so ugly and I hated it, then I grew to admire and love it. Loki was such a cute pup, makes me sad to hear that he only lived a year. We had a few dachsunds growing up. They are damned smart dogs and loyal. Ours often thought with their gut and could be quite mischievous as well. But I’d say there was rarely a dull moment with them around! 😀
LikeLike
Good to hear that there’s another dachshund fan around here! Yeah there was never a dull moment with Loki, he really earned his name – but also really full of love. We’re hoping to move to a bigger house either later this year or early next, and one of the first things we’ll want to do is bring a dachshund into our home again.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Hocus Locus – Shin High Terror!