Greeting to all of you! I have been lurking for about 8 months and am consistently impressed with all of the knowledge (and passion) about Basenjis that I have found here.
I have wanted a Basenji for as long as I can remember. I read the story, "Weep No More, My Lady," when I was in grade school and was intrigued. Then, as a young adult, I was invited to a home where these guys had 6 basenjis (in an apartment in London!) and fell in love. However, my circumstances did not allow for a Basenji. I opted for a Keeshond in college and successfully prepared him for obedience trials. (My roommate had a family tragedy and my boy took to her side. In the end, I let him go with her - it seemed like his purpose in life was to take care of her.) I then got a Pomeranian, a beautiful, overbred little guy who had a host of problems from the beginning. It was a lot more difficult to research breeders back in the 1980s, so what I thought was a responsible breeder may not have been…
Anyway, fast forward to now - 25 years later. My time has finally come! I have researched breeders for almost a year and decided on Nancy Craigie from Flutesong. She has amazed me in every way with her attentiveness to details - although we have not yet met in person, I feel like she is an old friend - we have exchanged e-mails since June about all aspects of our lives. I am thrilled to report that she has a beautiful litter out of CH PEPPARSON?S UZURI BULLDOBAS and CH MATA HAURI SHALL WE DANCE (you can see the puppies on the Flutesong website). I have been on her waiting list since June, so went through all of the nail biting that comes with waiting for a successful breeding/whelping.
We are getting a brother and sister from this litter. Their names will be Kai and Willow. I cannot be more excited! I have done extensive research on how to successfully raise two puppies at the same time and we have been preparing as a family to do this right. I am not taking this lightly and am prepared to hunker down and spend an intensive year or so (or more) in puppy land to produce some responsible adults from these babies.
Nancy keeps her puppies until about 12 weeks, so our estimated date is March 10 or so...
A little more about me (us) - I am an epidemiologist and writer and I work from home, as does my husband (also an epidemiologist). We live in Houston. We have twin 6-year-old girls, who are beyond excited for these puppies. They have been helping puppy-proof the house, even giving up some of their beloved tiny toys and storing others up high in containers. For Christmas, they asked for toys for the puppies instead of for themselves. We have been working on training techniques together (they role-play on each other who gets to be the Basenji). One of my daughters has the makings of a true "dog snob" (like me, I guess) - she told her whole kindergarten class that Basenjis are a rare breed and probably very few of the other kids needed to think about Basenjis, since they were too special for just anyone.
Anyway, I intend to get back into obedience trials and perhaps agility/rally and show all of those naysayers who say Basenjis can't do it, that they certainly can.
Wow. This got long. I have been waiting a long time to introduce myself, so I guess I had a lot built up... Thank you all in advance for all advice and support, as well as for all of the inspiration that I have gotten thus far from reading all of the posts.
All the best,
Julie
