Stumbling Onto Basenjis

Perhaps stumbling into Basenjis is more appropriate. Either way, the result is the same, true love.

We met our Basenji, Gizmo, when our neighbors' kids were home visiting. They had adopted him from a breeder, and quickly found out that he needed more attention than their 10 hour work days were allowing. My husband and Son were instantly drawn to the Tri-Colored aloof guy, I took a little convincing. We had recently lost our toy poodle and were living the one dog life. Angel, our holy Terrier, was lonely and so the sight of her and Giz instantly getting along convinced me he should stay.

My first bit of Basenji education came about an hour later. We had left Giz in our bathroom to run to the store for a kennel and tags. We returned to destruction. My tiny bathroom was covered in shredded TP, the plunger de-handled, the floor de-rugged, the shower de-curtained (the curtain and rug shreds blending fabulously with the TP). Having destroyed all the softlines in the bathroom, Giz moved on to the built in cabinet. The gouges a lovely compliment to the chewed apart woodwork. I thought my husband was going to commit an act of violence.

I SPRINTED to the Internet. Read, learned, gathered my wits, and explained to my husband that the bathroom destruction was all our fault. Separation anxiety you know, it's a bear! From that day forward we learned together. As we learned about counter surfing, trash tipping, TP nabbing, tissue shredding, and underwear thievery, Gizmo became more and more a part of the family. He went from aloof to a cuddle bug, and from unsure about his role to a wonderful pack leader.

I stumbled across BRAT when our local paper did an article on Liz Newton and her work with BRAT. I emailed her to offer my help and the rest is history. Our family has screened, fostered, transported, and loved this breed for a few years now. We couldn't be any happier.