Maggie's Halloween Art

One of the things I love best about Basenjis is their predictability. There are just some behaviors you can take to the bank. Like what happens when you leave the dog in the backseat of your car and a bag of Taco Bell on the dashboard, while you run into the store for just a second. Or getting vigorously “frisked” by the nose after going out to dinner. Or how you'll find the dirty laundry you sorted and treated with Spray & Wash and left in neat piles on the laundry room floor. My Maggie has taught me that if it smells she will come - to eat, roll or play. And it’s hard to be mad at her when she succumbs to her nose. To see her wallowing in the laundry, using her nose to toss clothes high in the air, paws scattering my neat piles everywhere, a look of sheer joy on her face, is priceless. I try to remember to shut the laundry room door, but sometimes I forget. I can be a slow learner.


So back to the predictability thing. While preparing for Halloween I splattered blood red paint on a sheet and left it on the back porch to dry. This was not some fancy Ralph Lauren low odor interior paint, OH NO, this was the cheapest exterior latex paint I could find! You can guess what happened next-- Maggie followed her nose to the sheet covered in stinky paint! She happily rolled, scrubbed, dragged, danced and pranced her way through the wet paint. By the time I found her she was covered in paint.

She was so happy and proud of herself, tail wagging vigorously when I found her standing on the sheet. After I picked my jaw up off the ground, I started laughing. The whole thing was so awful - but it was funny! But then I discovered that most of the paint on Maggie was dry, and suddenly her escapade wasn't so funny anymore. Maggie REALLY hates baths, so I had to put her in the bathtub and climb in with her. The two of us soaked in a warm bubble bath for over an hour. At one point I looked up and there was a camera hanging over the tub's glass doors, because my husband was happily clicking away at the ridiculous scene below.

Eventually, the paint softened and I was able to use a shedding brush to gently strip the paint from Maggie's coat. It really was quite a mess. And of course, the whole thing was my fault! I knew she would be interested in the paint so I had thought to myself, “be sure to close the door so Maggie doesn’t get into the paint.” And yes, it was me who still somehow left the door open -- as I said, I am a slow learner!