New canine addition for the holiday

[77Z28]

Hey Steve congratulations on new addition. We had a Basenji dog which died about 4-5 years ago. Have not met many people who knew what a Basenji was. Our dog was brown and white, no black. Do you get odd responses when you tell people you have a bark-less dog?

Have a great holiday.

Todd

[njsteve]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey Steve congratulations on new addition. We had a Basenji dog which died about 4-5 years ago. Have not met many people who knew what a Basenji was. Our dog was brown and white, no black. Do you get odd responses when you tell people you have a bark-less dog?

Have a great holiday.

Todd

[/ QUOTE ]

The Basenjis are a bizarre breed. They still exist in their native form in the Congo region of Africa. They may be "barkless" but certainly not mute. They can make the cutest yodeling sounds and then emit the most blood curdling banshee screams you ever heard.

I got hooked on them from an experience as a little kid. The summer camp I was at in CT had one. That dog was named "Barkus". I was amazed at its athletic agility: he was able to avoid the attempts of 250+ bratty kids trying to grab him on a daily basis. It was an amazing athletic fete to observe - like watching a running back sprint from the opposite endzone, weaving through the opposition, for 99 yards and scoring a touchdown. No one ever got a finger on him.

We had a male Basenji for 9 years. He died of a brain tumor back in 2001. We then got a pure-bred, brindle Basenji puppy who was 2/3 new African gene pool (a group of Basenji fanatics actually went back to Africa in the 1980s and brought back some Basenjis to add more diversity to the gene pool.) Unfortunately, he lost the genetic lottery and came down with a new version of Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA) that hadn't existed before. PRA is one of the genetic eye diseases they were trying to weed out with the new dog breeding stock. The old form of PRA would strike in middle age. This new version hit him when he was less than 1 year old. Of course, the well renowned breeder offered to take him back but we knew that would have meant he would have been euthanized immediately. We couldn't allow that to happen, so we kept him. He's adapted remarkably well. He's amazing to watch as he runs the back yard, he can sense where things are from memory...and really long whiskers.

The tri-colored female, we got as a rescue from the Basenji Rescue and Transport (BRAT) http://www.basenjirescue.org/ . Her elderly owner had died and the relatives didn't want to be bothered with the dog.

Here's the three, pre-Widget.

[TDW]

Steve...That's great you have rescued another one. My wife and I, both being retired now, have volunteered at one of the rescue shelters for dogs. We walk them around a 10 acre field, spend some time with them , feed them treats and just generally play. I sure would like to see all of them adopted by families like yours.

[x Baldwin Motion]

We rescued one several years back and managed to adopt a buddy last Christmas, sadly from a woman who was too sick to care for her. They enjoy playing ball on the "trampoline" off season. Greatest additional to the family since kids.