Hi,
I just joined the site tonight.
We had a Jack Russell Terrier/Basenji mix we privately adopted 5 1/2 yrs ago from using the Petfinder site. Sadly Sakari [means 'sweet'] passed away this past April from an apparent heart attack. I let her out on her chain run [she loved to sit outside and watch the world go by so we would let her do that once or twice a day for a little bit as she loved the sunshine!! … and she loved to hunt moles in our rural yard! LOL] and 45 minutes later when my DH came home from work, he found her laying in the yard. I was just devastated once again!
Our first pets were parakeets [and the elementary school rabbit on some weekends] as we rented the first 10 years of our marriage.
When we bought our first home we bought our first dog, Chim Chim - a mutt whose mom was a champion show dog who got 'mixed up' with a local terrier. [What's a home without a pet or two or three … or more??? ~~]. We lived in that home for just about six years, and then moved here as we wanted to be in a rural area, not stay in the subs of a city [we are originally from a small rural-type area town].
After our move here 17 1/4 years ago, we still had her and then got us a couple of cats [one was a stray dropped off], but my asthma could not take the cats so we had to find them a place.
We acquired another dog a week before Christmas not too many years after our move here. I named her Angel - she was an 8 wk old Golden Retriever/Beagle mix and was found in the middle of the road in our tiny boro in front of the post office. She got hit by a car when at age three years she figured out how to get the basement screen door opened.
About a month after that, I adopted two smaller dogs … 'pen mates' ... we found through Petfinder, so they shared the house with our first dog too. Three in the size of home we have was something to see! 
Sadly, Hassani's [mini doberman; name means' handsome'] chain broke a month after we brought them home and he got hit by a car as well [we live on a highly traveled main raod in a rural area; suppose to go 35 mph but you know how well people do THAT when not in a place cops are all over!]. So it was just Chim Chim and Anika [means 'very beautiful'], an Australian Shepard/Beagle mix.
Then, Chim Chim's many medical problems became overwhelming [ex: had no body function control, blind, cataracts, bad spine from birth, was in pain] so we put her down. She was 15 1/2 years old.
When Anika was 2 1/2 yrs old she developed a spinal aneurysm and after four days in the vet hospital and getting worse each day … our daughter and/or I would go there 2 - 3 x a day to feed her and visit her; fed baby food on a spoon and water from a syringe as she could not lay or sit comfortably ... I had her put down. Again, we were devastated once more.
We picked up Sakari a couple weeks later; again, too quiet in the house - even with kids here. I mentioned her when I began to introduce myself to the site.
Our pets have always been my 'babies' and are always adopted in my name ... but of course are very close to the other members of our family as well; the animals just seem to always 'migrate' towards me the most though, as if I am 'ma' to them. Anyway, it was way too quiet in the house by the time a week or so went by after Sakari died, and once again we were on Petfinder. We were searching for another Basenji, but although we preferred a purebreed we were open to adopting another "1/2 & 1/2".
We almost adopted a purebreed through BRAT but she had a 'personality problem' I just could not deal with ... she ate her own 'body function' if it was not cleaned up immediately; was a puppy mill pup.
So we continued our search and found a Basenji breeder [of showdogs; lived 4 hours from us, in a neighboring state] who had a terrible MVA and wanted to find homes for her last litter [born Christmas Day 1 1/2 yrs before May of 2008] as she was unable to care properly for them at that time. So we continued to contact her and her husband … still do to let them know how Bisa is ... [and] filled out the questionaire breeders will ask you to. Then we filled out the adoption contract breeders usually ask you to fill out before we went to pick Bisa up.
We originally were going to get two sisters from that litter, but after a month of having Bisa home [name changed to that; means ''greatly loved"] we decided we could not afford two dogs again at the same time.
So, in the end, Bisa's sister was kept by the breeder. She was so happy we did not adopt her too as their grandmother, who was the showdog that started the breeder's Basenjis, passed away soon after we brought Bisa home. Bisa's sister apparently has the same temperament, etc. as the grandma and the owner was just beside herself thinking we would be also adopting her too. We were very happy that our decision was one that ended up making the breeder very happy too.
Seven months have passed since we brought Bisa home and she has slowly become used to her new home. We knew it would take awhile as she left a number of family members when we adopted her. Now she has begun to REALLY show the Basenji attitude/ behavior we fell in love with when we had Sakari … although the trying to "grab and run to rip up blankets/pillows/etc." behavior is not something we want her to become accustomed to! We find torn kleenix all over the place as it is! LOL Bisa and I have wonderful Basenji noises 'talks' and she loves to cuddle right up beside me with a blanket or more overtop of us. She is surely 'my baby'!!! She turned 2 yrs on Christmas Day ?08!
Sorry this is so long!
Sanuye_Zonta~~
