My first contact with Salukis was through my grandmother who gave me a set of Swedish Kicki-books when I was 8 years old. Kicki had a cream feathered Saluki called Tazi, a Saudi Arabian import and the real heroine of the books. I feverishly devoured every detail of Tazi and her life, her personality, her running career and her puppies, imagining how it felt to stroke their bony backs. Something about it all enchanted me completely and I decided that one day I too would breed Salukis.

Dog breeding as such was not unfamiliar to me as my family and relatives are Dachshund fanciers. Several Dachsie litters were born in my home and I was allowed to witness the births and help care for the dogs from the very beginning. For 15 years I shared my childhood and early teens with a wire-haired Dachsie bitch, Kivitorpan Grogga (Ali von Helvesiek x Black Spot Wyntermoon), who was about 6 months my senior. Grogga had three litters for my uncle Berndt Åström's Groggens-kennel (the M-, P- and S-litters). Grogga shared my bed from the crib onwards and was my best friend, a great personality whom we still miss.

After Grogga's death my family went without a dog for about 6 months until we could not bear it any longer. In -87 we purchased a longhaired Dachsie bitch, Ahotorpan Valentiina (Waiki vom Felsenhugel x Ahotorpan Paola), a.k.a. "Tiiti". She had a litter by Comans Joonatan in -89 from which we kept her son "Tennari", officially known as Amadeus. Tiiti and Tennari in turn surprised us with an unexpected and unplanned litter in -95, from which I had two neutered boys, Bacchus and Balzac a.k.a. "Nando". Nando passed on to greener pastures and Bacchus was rehomed in 2004. He became depressed after his brother's death, but in his new home has a Dachsie buddy once more and is enjoying life again. My mother still breeds Dachsies, having moved on to short-haired miniatures.

My kennel name Qashani stems partly from my first Saluki Akasha's name, as Qashani means "my Qasha" in Finnish. Qashani is also Arabic and means porcelain or china which is decorative, utilitarian and needs to be treated with care - just like the Saluki.