PRICELESS!

Big honkin' pile o' dirt: $271

Large wheelbarrow: $176.50

Laughing hysterically as basenji digs halfway to China - PRICELESS!

Available BRAT Rescues: East Coast

NAME: Buster
DOG STATE: Pennsylvania
DOB: 11/24/2001
GENDER: Male
COLOR: Red
WEIGHT: 36

When you take Buster outside for a walk, he will be complimented numerous times on his good looks. He walks well on a leash, but if he smells something particularly interesting, he will pull. Buster is an older fellow, so he does not really need long walks, but he does like to spend a lot of time outside in the yard. He is equally content cuddling with you on the couch, playing video games with your older kids or snuggling with you under the covers while you watch tv or a movie. His main goal in life is to be with you and be cuddled, belly scratched (in the superman position), ear scratched and loved.

Click HERE to learn more about Buster!

NAME: Ace
DOG STATE: Maryland
DOB: 9/21/2008
GENDER: Male
COLOR: Tricolor
WEIGHT: 19

Ace is a gorgeous two-year-old tricolored boy with a soft coat just meant for petting. He is friendly, loves to play, and is extremely active. Ace loves to play with the other Basenjis in his foster home and he loves to be close to his humans. At night when his foster family watches TV, Ace can be found sleeping contently next to one of his humans.

Click HERE to learn more about Ace!

NAME: Maggie Moo, AKA Turtle
DOG STATE: Maryland
DOB: 2006
GENDER: Female
COLOR: Red
WEIGHT: 32

Maggie is a sweet girl with her humans. She especially loves to cuddle next to her family every chance she gets. But when no one is with her, Maggie is content to sleep peacefully on the couch, or in a sunny location. Maggie is a talker. She loves to yodel, baroo, and make all kinds of sounds for her foster family. She is a really good girl in her house manners; she is not destructive and totally house trained. You can also touch Maggie all over and pick her up.

Click HERE to learn more about Maggie!

NAME: Rebel
DOG STATE: Maryland
DOB: 12/20/01
GENDER: Male
COLOR: Red
WEIGHT: 26

Rebel is a beautiful, tall, stately, and loving Basenji boy who is a true alpha and a wonderful addition to the pack in his foster home. He enjoys being with his humans, cuddling up next to them on the couch, sleeping gracefully in sunspots, playing with the other basenjis and cats, and overlooking his pack, making sure all is in order.

Well past those turbulent puppy years, he is house trained (as long as he has access to the backyard when he needs to go) and he is not destructive. You could leave a roll of toilet paper by him and he could care less! He plays well with others, including cats, and loves people. He IS a true treasure.

Click HERE to learn more about Rebel!

NAME: Nugget
DOG STATE: Virginia
DOB: Jan 2000
GENDER: Male
COLOR: Tricolor
WEIGHT: 24

Nugget has become quite a good pack-mate. He waits his turn for treats and is not food aggressive. He has learned to share lap time with his foster mom and to snuggle with the pack at bedtime. Rarely does he snark at the others, now that he’s discovered the joy of being part of a pack. There are no fights. He is such a clown and wants to play all the time, including at bedtime, of course. He is without question a wonderful boy.

Nugget is a charmer. Belly rubs are a must for this boy and he’ll gladly roll over to make it clear what he wants. Snuggling is also a must for Nugget; he will not be happy if he cannot sleep in the bed with his person. He just can’t bear the separation.

Click HERE to learn more about Nugget!

NAME: Gambit
DOG STATE: North Carolina
DOB: unsure, about 2 years old
GENDER: Male
COLOR: Red
WEIGHT: 26

Gambit is a young dog, about two years old, with a lot of puppy left in him. He has tons of energy and loves to run with his foster brothers and sisters. He loves to wrestle with them too. Gambit loves to cuddle and will fall asleep easily with a human and start snoring away. He loves TOYS, all toys. In fact, if he can't find someone to play with, he'll just entertain himself. When it's time to go to bed, Gambit will happily hop on the bed with his foster mom and dad as well as his foster siblings. He likes to be touching either one of his foster siblings or foster mom or dad while he sleeps.

Click HERE to learn more about Gambit!

Looking for a Basenji rescue in your area?
Many more are listed on the main BRAT page.

Do You Tattoo?

Tattoos seem to be a divisive topic in general among those love them and those who would never get one themselves. In the dog world, I have only ever met one dog with a tattoo. In the human world, I have met many people with tattoos. Some of the most interesting tattoos to me are ones commemorating beloved pets.

First, the humans:

For as many animal tattoos as I've seen, I am always excited when I see one commemorating a basenji. I have no tattoos myself and have spent my life saying "there is nothing I could ever want on my body permanently." However, the more and more time I spend with my pets, the more I can see why people decide to add a little art to their skin to permanently remind them of the pets they've loved - or more importantly, who've loved them, unconditinally. I'm sure many of you have seen this video, but it definitely speaks to how important our pets are to us. . .

Now, for the dogs:

Nearly every time I meet someone new when I’m with my Kirby boy, I hear “is that a tattoo?” in an incredulous tone. The answer is of course, yes – my basenji has a tattoo. I am always tempted to say it’s a biker tattoo, or a heart with mom in it (which I’m sure is exactly what he’d get if he had any say in the matter!), or even a fun tattoo that said “I love bitches”. . .but alas, it is actually a tattoo of his AKC registration number. Kirby came to me as a nearly 6 month old pup who had just been neutered – and at the same time, while still under anesthesia, he was tattooed by the vet.

Similar to a micro chip, it’s another way to identify your animal if it were ever lost. The hope is that someone who finds the lost pet would know to look up ownership or call AKC for contact information on the dog. At the time, I had no idea that dogs were ever tattooed – and I’m not sure I would have ever thought to do it. However, I think it’s a good idea (for a dog who will be under anesthesia anyway – not as a separate event) and Kirby never seemed to notice it.

I think someday I will get a tattoo for my beloved pets – perhaps a simple pawprint or an initial with a date. Because I am a bit of a chicken when it comes to needles, I am not sure how long it will take – but if Kirby was brave enough to have one as a puppy, then I hope my adult self can endure the brief pain for a lasting memory of my “kid”

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

When I was a child, my grandmother used to tell me to let sleeping dogs lie. I had no idea what she meant - so I always took that in the most literal sense and never, ever bothered a sleeping dog.

This is Kirby, my 1st dog, my first basenji, and the original 4-legged love of my life. He came into my life when he was a puppy. He loves to sleep and so do I - we are a match made in sleeping heaven.

Since everything I knew about basenjis I learned from my Kirby, I thought every basenji slept in a tight little basenji-ball. - which is the only way Kirby sleeps. Until. . .

This is Saana. She is my 2nd dog, my second basenji, and is the 4-legged love of my husband's life. Course Kirby & I love her just as much, so she is a lucky girl. She is a BRAT girl who found us last November when her foster dad brought her to OUR dog park.

Much to my initial suprise. . .she NEVER sleeps in a basenji-ball. Until then, Kirby was my only basenji-teacher. But you can wake her up and the first things she does is stretch and wag her little tail at at you - and your heart flutters too.

This is Bogey. He is one of Kirby's best doggy friends who rules the house where my friend Jenn lives. Kirby and Bogey have sleepovers, like all best friends do, and Bogey sleeps anywhere and any way he can find! But unlike Kirby or Saana, Bogey does not wake up and wag his tail. In fact, if you touch Bogey's backside anywhere while he's sleeping - you will be the unlucky recipient of a Bogey snark. He does not like to be woken up with touching. Who knew? A dog as grumpy as I am in the mornings.

And finally, this is Luey. He's not even a basenji. He's a Vizsla, and he is Kirby's other best doggy friend in the world. They are the same age and have grown up together since puppies.

And why am I showing you Luey? Because I think Luey really, really wants to be a basenji. . .

All I can really tell Luey is to just let sleeping basenjis lie!

(Even if they are on top of each other)

Adventures in Photography or Schrodinger’s Basenji

I often get the comment, “Oh, what a beautiful dog!”

I smile and nod like a proud parent, and Denny Basenji, if he’s there, will look at them with his patented, “Yeah? So you just noticed?” look. It’s the look of the cool kid in high school who knows he’s bad to the bone.

When I first got Denny, I pondered at great length why these adorable, scrunchy-forehead dogs with personalities a-go-go weren’t all over the greeting card/gift book/calendar industry. I mean, Poms, Pugs, Labs, Boxers, Weimaraners and Poodles all had their day in the sun. I decided on a one-woman crusade to fix this. I would take pictures of this Basenji and send them to my friends and family, starting a viral fad that would spread over the world, bringing people of the world together in adoration of the Basenji’s devastating cuteness.

I was prepared to spend some time trying to get these pictures. Turns out, Denny had other ideas about how to spend his time. There were toys to eviscerate, bones to chew, dogs to snark at, and cushions to be snuggled. There was barely enough time in the day for all of that, plus getting his two walks and two square meals, let alone for modeling.

I tried to get photos of him at different times of day, on different pieces of furniture, outside, inside, sleeping, awake, eating, playing, looking out the window. I must have shot thousands of digital photos during those first four years. In most of them, he’s blurry, got red-eye or reflective-eye, making a face, covering his face with his paws, sneezing, growling, barooing, showing me his butt, pawing at me, looking away at the last minute or just blatantly running away.

Getting a really good picture of Denny became like an exercise in Schrodinger’s Basenji, trying to prove that a Basenji can be in the room and captured on camera at the same time. My husband Eric has joined me as an enthusiastic photographer of our dog, and he has taken it to a new level with videography. My dreams have now grown to capturing a video that will go viral on YouTube. Ha!

If you want to see first-hand what it takes to get a perfect Basenji picture, I invite you to visit the album of us trying to take our holiday card picture this past December.

Cait and Eric Holiday Pictures

In the end, though, I’m beginning to realize that the charm of the Basenji is not about being picture-perfect, but being picture imperfect. I asked Denny how he felt about all those cute Yellow Lab puppies being used to sell everything from antacids to tires, and his response was to open one eye to look at me accusingly and then go back to his nap.

Picture Imperfect.

You can also catch me blogging about life, love and transplants over at The Borrowers Club