Zephy (full name Zephyr, aka the Zeph or Zeffirelli) came to us in June 1989 shortly after our first dog, Tassel, died. She was a Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier -- very stubborn (like all terriers) and very protective of her status, which was second only the Merike (the 'alpha dog'). We soon discovered that she would wander off if not tied up -- but why have 12 acres of country property and have to tie up a dog? But after we rescued her from a circle of our neighbour's cows down the hill, we decided something had to be done. The answer was the "invisible fence" system (a signal-emitting buried wire running around our property and a small receiver worn on Zeph's collar). One time (through our carelessness) she got out the door without her collar and was later found five miles across the fields to the east of us (we were phoned in the morning when her vet tag could be checked out). After that we were much more careful about always putting her special collar on when she went out.
After a year, we decided that Zephy needed a companion, and we got Mady -- and the two of them were inseparable for the next seven years. At the right is a picture (sorry, only a thumbnail) of the two of them together. In September 1997 Zephy died suddenly of some form of spinal disease (at the young age of 8 years 4 months). In he last 3 mnths of her life, some 70 people saw her image on the Web (including visitors from Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States). This is not a huge number in e-commerce terms, but more than enough to please a little dog who loved all people, whether friends, neighbours, or strangers.
Zephy features as an important character in the poem "Mady Surfs the Net". And, in addition, she stars more centrally in the poem "Zeph Gets her Way" and in the poem written just after her death: "Zephy the Great".