Halloween Basenji Pictures - Part 3

Here are even more pictures submitted by BRAT-chat readers and BRAT-blog readers. Keep 'em coming! We love to see your basenjis in costume.

Left: Since Dora Jean is a therapy dog, she has a new outfit for Halloween visits each year. She enjoyed prissing around in this year's costume! Submitted by: Mary Gregory

Above: Here is Omar as a bat, and as a spacedog! Submitted by: Marckle Myers, New York City

Above: Here is BRAT rescue Saana as a Witch in 2009. Submitted by: Jeanetta Brown, Tampa, Florida

Here is Kirby as a Chippendale in 2009....


...and as Spiderman in 2007! He won 2nd place at West Dog Park's costume contest that year. Submitted by: Jeanetta Brown, Tampa, Florida

Halloween Basenji Pictures - Part 2

Here are some more basenji Halloween photos submitted by BRAT-chat and BRAT-blog readers. Enjoy!

Above: This is BRAT Dede in her Halloween costume a few years ago. She was not crazy about the hat. Submitted by: Mariko

Above: This is Cody (Clint Eastwood / Football Player) and Karly (Karlita Bandita / Cheerleader). Submitted by: Deborah Joslin, South Florida

This is Angel Lacie, Pumpkin Lacie, and (below) Ozzie-o-saurus! Submitted by: Christina Golden, Rockville MD

Update on Pona

Last month I told you about Pona, the little rescue boy with the broken leg. Here's an update on this sweet foster boy.

Pona has been a foster at my home for seven weeks now. So much has changed since last time I posted! He's still wearing the external fixator on his leg, but he's healed enough to have the rod and pins on his inner thigh removed. That has made him much more comfortable and mobile. His leg should be completely healed in the next couple of weeks, and he'll have all of the hardware removed.

It's surprising how much he can use his broken leg. He walks on it pretty normally when he's moving slowly (say, scrounging around the kitchen floor looking for dropped food). When he wants to move quickly he picks that leg up and goes "tripod", and can move fast enough to keep up with the other dogs.

Pona has easily fit himself into my pack from the first day he arrived. He has an awesome personality that is going to make the transition to his forever home very easy. When he meets other dogs he poses no threat, but he also is non-submissive. He is just pleasant. In the photo above, he's sitting for his daily ear cleaning from my alpha, Ike.

What is THAT?
Last week, Pona decided to remove the bandage around his hardware. I knew in my head what was under that bandage, but I had never seen it for myself. It's like a Frankensenji Halloween costume! Nuts and bolts and pins and rods. Sort of shocking to see.

Is there room for me?
I have FINALLY seen some typical (read: bratty) Basenji behavior come through in the last few days. When Pona is resting comfortably on the furniture (I still have to lift him up there), he growls when another dog comes too close. I suppose he's worried that the other dog is going to want to share his spot, and he's not willing to share. He growls, then the growl turns into a baroo, then the baroo turns into a gag. It is the most ridiculous sound. I know I should correct that behavior, but I'm usually too busy laughing.

As you can see, Pona is still very thin. I'm feeding him 50% more than the other dogs, but he hasn't put on much weight. I have to think it's the heartworms that are keeping him from beefing up. Heartworm treatment will start soon.

We had planned on starting the heartworm treatment while his leg was healing, but that has turned out to be too much to ask of the little guy (and me). While he's doing well overall, there has been one thing after another that has required extra trips to the vet, mainly having to do with the fixator. It does a great job of holding his bone in place, but it is also causing painful injuries to his skin. The vet has been tweaking things here and there to make it more comfortable for him.

But Pona makes the extra work and the sleepless nights all worthwhile. He wakes up every morning (sometimes too early for me) bustin' with baroos and wags. He's SO happy to see me and the other dogs, even though he's slept next to us all night.

Yes, all worthwhile.

I'm sure I'll have another update on Pona in my post next month. In the meantime, you can follow Pona on my website as well as my fickr page.

The Governor Called...

Exactly a month ago, I posted a blog entry about my old BRAT, Mr. Calvin. At 18 years old, I realize he is at the end of his years. He is skin and bones, has trouble holding it in between walks, and spends most of his time sleeping. Senility has set in, and he wanders around in circles when his legs don't fail him. Every day I debate - both in my mind, and with my husband - about whether or not to keep him going, or to help him over the bridge.


I guess I have been waiting for something in him to dramatically change, so that I can tell for sure that it's his time. But he seems to be generally the same.


Over the past month, he has been bumping into walls and furniture more and more. At one point, he cut his head on something, and has had a wound on his forehead. Despite general dressing, he opens it regularly by bumping into those walls.


This weekend, infection set in. Sadly, I figured that this was his time - that this might be the change I needed to see. So today I brought him into the vet's office, ready to make that decision.


Or so I thought.


Our vet looked him over, and looked me over, too. She said there was no real change, and the infection would just be treated with some antibiotics.


It was like the governor called, giving Mr. Calvin another shot.


How many of us get "another shot"?


I wish there was a way to reverse the aging process. I know he is not "getting better." And I know that at some point it will be his time.


I just dread going through the process another time, but I am relieved to see him sleeping his bed again tonight.

Halloween Basenji Pictures - Part 1

Greetings! For some Halloween fun, we thought we'd post some pictures of basenjis in costume. Here are some from the 2009 BRAT Calendar. We're looking for more pictures to post in the BRAT blog on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of this week, so if you've got some pictures of your basenji in costume that you'd like to share, you can email them to basenjiblog@gmail.com We'll try to post as many as we can! Happy Halloween :)

Epic Carsickness and other Stunts

Last night, Eric took Denny down to his breeders where he stays quite happily when we go on the road. Usually, I go with him on these trips, the goal being for me to hold on to the dog and take evasive action when car sickness threatens.

Now, just so you all know, I have tried transporting him in a crate. I have tried the backseat and front seat harnesses. It only makes it worse. He gets motion sick so easily, and though I was assured it was a puppy thing, he never grew out of it. So now, he sits in my lap, or lies down if he gets relaxed enough, and I lock my arms around him.

I always carry paper towels, plastic grocery bags and febreze. Denny is really embarrassed by the whole thing to and does his best to cooperate...to the point that when he starts to heave and I open the plastic bag, he sticks his head right in with perfect aim.

But there have been a few times when he hasn't made it into the bag, or we didn't have the other person there to help. And let me tell you, those times are EPIC.

First come the warning signs - the salivation, the licking of the chops, the woebegone look, the grimace...and then the full-body heaves, just to make sure he has your attention. Then...the eruption. Thar he blows. Bits flying everywhere. Nothing escapes. Dashboard, windows, gear shift, upholstery, floor mats, seatbelts, windows, door handles. Me. Eric.

I've had to strip down to my skivvies in the middle of the street, ball up my clothes, and make a mad dash into my building to avoid dripping. I once tried to put his head out the window when were were racing down the higway and couldn't pull over (it's a bad idea...I forgot about the blowback).

All the while, Denny plays up the martyrdom. His sick is your fault, and don't you forget it.

So for anyone who has suffered with their car sick B, this post is for you.

Halloween

Apollo is very agreeable to playing dress-up. This photo is from the dog parade in Williamsburg, Brooklyn several years ago. We are still working on his costume this year...

Bullys, and collars, and kongs, oh my! :)

A nice haul of loot!

Lady aka Official Postal Box Inspector.

Ajani (resident dog) is wishing someone would send him some goodies too!

Princess looking like royalty in her new collar and harness.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, at the Shelburne Museum Goes to the Dogs event I entered Basenji Rescue and Transport (BRAT) in a rescue raffle and we WON a $250 gift card to Pet Food Warehouse. Ironically, there are no foster dogs up here in Vermont right now (and won't be until I have more time or we get more volunteers) so the question was what to do with the gift card. After taking with the "big wigs" at BRAT, I learned that the Missouri district coordinator was in need of almost everything as they get a lot of unwanted dogs out in the mid-west (puppy mills grrrr!). So off I went to PFW and had an awesome shopping spree for the little BRATs. I filled a big box of stuff with over half a dozen fun colored leashes and collars, some really cute harnesses by Lupine, Kongs, chicken strips, bully sticks, greenies, and other yummies. I got an e-mail from the MO coordinator and she said her fosters are LOVING everything!

A Happy Fantastic THANK YOU goes out to PFW for being an AWESOME business that really cares about furry friends (even the BRATs) in need. :)

A Parade of Basenjis

I'd like to share with you some of the basenjis that have passed through my home. Some stayed longer than others; one never left! And this is just a "sampling." There have been many others...


Pixie (nka Shandi) a sweet 6 month old girl, adopted by one of my neighbors. :-)

Jake, escape artiste extraordinaire! Escaped from my house in the middle of the night, but he was back the next morning. He's living the good life in CT. :-)

AJ, a BIG boy, now happily living in the Boston area. :-)

Keops, a sweet old man who found a loving home to spend his last days in. :-)May he R.I.P.

Zoe, nka Dixie, the one who never left! This is a picture of her on the drive home after springing her from the shelter, who deemed her aggressive. She greeted us with wags, wiggles and kisses. It was love at first sight, for me! :-)

Brando, a mix who came to me from a kill shelter in OH. A very sweet boy my family wanted to adopt, but who now lives across town from us. :-)

Arie, another sweet boy. He is a happy boy in NJ with a Shiba Inu sister. :-)

BoBo; poor boy bounced around a bit before he found his forever home in FL. :-)

Buster, the bat-eared basenji! He found a home in CT with a basenji sister. :-)

Dillon; "silly Dilly"; was the longest foster I've had (13 months.) He found a wonderful home in CT with a B-savvy, retired woman. He never even looked back when I left. :-)

Moxie; a special girl who is loved and living in the Boston area. :-)

If you haven't yet joined BRAT, I encourage you to do so. Especially if you can be a foster home. There is a HUGE need for foster homes in every corner of the country and especially the MIDDLE of the country.

There is some "danger" in fostering; you might fail. But that's a good thing. :-)

Dancing with Fred Basenji

In January 2009, a BRAT email came from my mom stating something about a pair of bonded 14 year old basenjis that were owner-surrendered to the Plano Animal Shelter and they were distressed. Who could evaluate them?

I knew that Basenjis had a bit of a reputation for being snarky, but my Mom’s B always responded to me positively, even when he didn’t with others, so I thought I wouldn’t mind doing this to help out, since it was just right down the road.

There was a sense of urgency, as they were distressed in the shelter, and not very agreeable, and so the possibility of euthanasia was there. Mom and I went and met Neon, who was thin and distressed and howling in the cell by herself because Scottie was out getting his neutering surgery done. She was fine with me, just didn’t like to be picked up.

A couple of days later, January 10th, 2009, in the name of BRAT, I went back to get them both, and bring them home with me to foster. I could see how distressing and loud the shelter was for them. Just the thought of them having to be split up in order to be more adoptable was not acceptable to me. I hadn’t done anything like this before, but I had lost my Golden in August of 2008, and so I had an empty apartment.

After bringing them home, and taking them for a long walk around the apartment complex, they came in and immediately ended up right here:

I was very happy to foster them, knowing that I couldn’t afford to actually own one for my own, and since I really was a Big Dog person (or so I thought!), I would love them as they needed to be loved, but I wouldn’t become attached, since I had my sights on a Chocolate Lab someday!

I introduced them to my significant other a few days later, and they explored his house and yard, and didn’t make a mess, and then Scottie proceeded to get on the couch and lean on Daniel (the whole male-bonding thing, I guess) and I think Daniel got sucked in. He’s a bit of a neat freak, and with animals, he’s give or take (how am I still with him? ;]), but these doggies with their cat-like cleanliness seemed to win him over. So much so, that in February, when someone in Phoenix thought they might be interested in them, Daniel said, “no, Phoenix won’t be a good place for them… I think we should just adopt them”.
And there it was.

So, I changed their names, since they didn’t respond to them anyway, to Fred and Ginger, (for Astaire and Rogers, and I’m a dancer myself), since they can’t go anywhere without the other.

Read the rest of Jennifer's story about Fred & Ginger at http://dancingjenn.blogspot.com/2009/10/dancing-with-fred-basenji.html

Our Pink Nosed Princess

If Ivan is the sun we orbit around, Dasa is the sweet gentle moon that fills our hearts with joy and delight.

Dasa came to us as a very shy worried little girl. At first we had to put a line of spray cheese on the kitchen floor to keep her busy while we put on her leash for walks. She has a severe startle reflex, and does like loud noises or new situations. Just four months after we adopted Dasa from BRAT, we moved from Florida to Illinois and our baby had to get used to a new house. She decided her safe spot was under the futon bed in the spare bedroom. She has gotten braver, and the loud noise or new visitor that would have once sent her upstairs under the bed now sends her only into the next room or to the foot of the stairs.

Dasa has blossomed in the five and a half years since she came to live with us. Our sweet and affectionate little girl gives lots of dainty kisses, talks to us, and scratches at the door of whatever room we're in to let us know she wants attention. She leaps in the air with delight when we ask if she'd like to go for a walk. She came as such a timid little girl, but she has gained a lot of confidence. She's becoming quite the little snuggler, and even tries to edge Ivan off a lap so she can have his place. She does this either by stealth—slowly oozing into Ivan’s spot—or by subterfuge—lots of invitations to play and as soon as he's off the lap, she jumps up and settles in.

She started out as a dainty timid little girl, a companion for Ivan, and a much needed good baby with few destructive tendencies who gives us a rest from Ivan’s world domination and demolition. We marveled at her sweetness, rejoiced at each small step as she gained more confidence and came out of her shell. And, somewhere along the way, I realized she has become a precious vital piece of me. She occupies a huge chunk of my heart. Dasa is a sweet little girl who's so good it's sometimes difficult to believe she's a basenji. She doesn't chew things, is seldom ever grumpy or difficult, bravely trots out to potty in wet grass, and is the most wonderful tail wagger. I believe Dasa was sent by angels because she has been such a gift to our family.

Mutt Madness Contest!

BRAT is thrilled to have been accepted into Rachael Ray’s Mutt Madness Contest! This is an elimination bracket contest similar to March Madness (college basketball) in which BRAT is paired each week against other rescue groups. By virtue of being selected for the contest, BRAT has already won $1000. However, we now have the opportunity to win an additional $1000 each week for the next 4 weeks, and if we can stay in the contest all the way to the end, the Grand Prize is $50,000 and second place is $25,000!

How it works:
Starting on Tuesday, October 13th, each week BRAT will be paired against one other dog rescue group, and you will have the opportunity to vote for us to win the round against that group. If we win the round, we get $1000, and we move to the next round where we will be paired against another dog rescue group. The object is to win against our competitor each week so we don't get eliminated from the contest. If we can stay in until the very last round, we can win the Grand Prize and get $50,000 to help rescue basenjis! Here's what it looks like:



How to Vote:

1. Login - If you haven't already, register with rachaelray.com or login if you have an account.


2. Select Rescues - Each week (beginning on Tuesdays) you can vote for BRAT and your other favorite candidates to stay in the Mutt Madness contest. Note: You can't just vote for BRAT by itself; you have to vote for one rescue group from EACH of the brackets to have your vote count. Click on the brackets to learn more about each rescue organization by reading their profile pages. Then vote for your favorite selections by checking the box next to their name on the Voting page. Advice: Read about all the groups first, then vote, because a glitch in the system may cause your incomplete voting selections to erase if you leave the page to read about other groups.


3. Submit Vote - When you've selected one candidate from each bracket, click "Submit" on the bottom of the page to have your vote counted. If you try submitting your vote and it won’t go through, check to be sure that you’ve voted in all the brackets. Once you have voted you will get a message saying that your vote has been counted.

4. Vote once each week! It takes about 10 minutes the first time to read about all the rescue groups and pick your favorites, but then after that it should only take one minute each week to select your favorites and click Submit.


5. Tell your friends! This is a lot of money on the line -- think of how many basenjis we could save with $1000 each week, or the $50,000 Grand Prize. We've shown we have the power to win on the Petfinder contest, now let's do it here! If you want to get people to vote for BRAT, I would recommend cutting and pasting into your emails or Facebook our Why Vote for Us story about the 28 basenjis BRAT rescued last year from horrible conditions in SD puppy mill. If you haven't read it, it's an amazing story, and it shows how much good we can do with the money we would win in this contest.

Let’s all work together to see how many brackets we can win and how many basenjis we can save!

Can You Carry a Basenji African Style?

One of the first, most intriguing, native African stories about Basenjis for me was how their people would sometimes carry a weary Basenji home from the hunt on their shoulders.

For some reason the idea facinated me. I thought to myself, wow how valuable of a dog would that be that you would carry it? It was such an important part of your life and so valuable to you that you would carry it home after a hard day hunting. You have to understand, I was raised with working cattle dogs. We never carried them anywhere and they certainly were important and necessary to our survival as ranchers.

Then we got our first Basenji. My whole attitude changed. First of all, I couldn't imagine Libby being willing to be carried. I couldn't imagine her being tired enough to be carried. I couldn't imagine her being willing to sacrifice her independance enough to be carried. We still tried and just for the fun of it, Libby occasionally consented to let us pack her on our shoulders. After one particularly long day of backpacking, she even enjoyed the ride... for about five minutes.

When we got our second Basenji, Reno, we learned that temperament had a lot to do with the whole business about being willing to be carried. We also learned that Basenjis are smart about the whole thing... If you give them a good enough reason and they trust you enough, your shoulders are a very nice place to be. Reno WANTS to be on shoulders if:

1) The ground is too cold, too wet, or too hot

2) It gets him closer to the squirrels

3) it lets him see over the fence to where something interesting is happening

The bad part about some of these reasons for being on your shoulders is that nothing much prevents you from being a handy lauching pad to where your Basenji REALLY wants to be.

Not much else entices a Basenji to spend much time on top. Our continued facination with the effort is still that it looks cool to see a dog actually at home on your shoulders and hey, how valuable is that dog? After all, YOU are willing to carry HIM. Good luck with your attempts!