Sixteen basenjis at the dog park

Today we have a guest blog from Anne MacMillan in Tampa, Florida.

A few of us have been getting together at the dog park every Sunday morning for over 8 years. At one time our group got quite large and divided, but we are reaching large proportions again!

Today we had 16 basenjis, it could have been 21 if all the 'occasional' folks had shown up. Some dogs have known each
other for many years, others are newer, but all get along and seem to really like being together. My Topper is the elder statesman, almost 14, and the youngest are 2 pups now 8 months old, we have known both since they were 4 months so it has been a treat to see them go from real puppy to near-adult. All the adult girls get along as well, amazingly. A caveat is that all our basenjis are neutered so I think that eliminates some of the territorial aggression.

Two of the humans have only 1 basenji each, all the rest of us have 2 or 3 so it doesn't take too many humans to bring a crowd of basenjis, obviously, and what a fun time they have. They dig holes and lie in them, while others try to lure them out so they can dive into the hole, sort of the inverse of "king of the hill". We sit under trees so the bold and stupid of the squirrel population keep the dogs running and stalking and racing around. A couple of weeks ago 2 actually fell out of the tree right in our midst! Lucky for the tree-rats, all the dogs were so stunned that the furry things got away!

The other thing that gets them moving is a fence race with the yappers in the small dog park, there are usually several of those every Sunday. Then they all plop down on the grass or the table top and rest together, leaning on each other or lying side by side. We go home after 3 or 4 hours dirty, hot and tired with dogs that sleep all afternoon.

The funny thing is that all the dogs know its Sunday. I can take 2 or 3 weeks off work and have no real schedule for them to notice, but on Sunday they know it! Another friend commented that while she and her husband were in NC last week a friend kept their 2 basenjis and was amazed that they got excited and kept wanting to go out the door on Sunday morning, but not on any other day.

We humans have forged deep friendships as well, some of my dearest friends are members of our "Pack". I mean, we're all nuts, of course, and we love our basenjis, so we obviously have a lot in common, hehe!

At any rate, today there was a beautiful swirl of little red, black, tri and stripey dogs having a great time...like every Sunday! We feel lucky to have such a nice park and such nice people and dogs to play with every week!


You can see four of Anne's dogs in the photo at the top of the BRAT blog. To read more about this photo, click here.