Well, it all started in a used bookstore in Davis, CA. That is where I picked up a copy of the AKC breed book to page through while killing time before a movie. While I was paging through the book, the picture of the basenji caught my eye so I started reading about the breed. I was attracted to the very cat like description and when I got hom I decided to search the internet to learn more. That is when I saw my first black and white and decided that, that was what I wanted. I wanted a black and white male. At the time I was in graduate school and my boyfriend, now my husband, was still finishing up his undergrad work. I told him that I wasn't seriously looking at getting a dog and that it would be a couple of years when we were ready to move into a house before I got a dog.
So, I decided to continue to research the breed to see if it was what I really wanted. I joined Basenji-L, an email list, and sat back and enjoyed all the stories about life with a basenji. All those reality tales that probably should have sent me running the other direction if I was at all sane only made the breed more endearing to me. October rolled around and the BCONC Specialty was taking place so I talked Sam into going with me. It was the first time I got to see the breed in person. His response, "They are so small. I thought they would be bigger." We stayed the whole day and someone's basenji curled up in my lap and napped most of the afternoon. At that point, Sam knew we would end up with a basenji. I swore to him that it would be at least a year before we would get one.
Puppy season arrived and the B-List was filled with stories of puppies. One breeder not only shared regular updates on the B-List about "The Brady Bunch", a litter of 3 boys and 3 girls, she also posted pictures weekly on her website so we could all follow the litter as they grew. Watching the pups grow, I became very attached to them. When she announced that one was available, I told Sam that I wanted to call and talk to the breeder even though she was in Georgia and I was in California. He told me I should do whatever I thought was best. Shortly before I started to talk with the breeder, I went to my first lure trial and knew that what I wanted was a dog that I could lure course with. So I started to talk to the breeder and told her that this would be my first dog since moving out on my own. I had never owned a purebred dog and wanted one that I could try everything with and really wanted to try coursing. We talked about the health of the dogs in the pedigree and finally she agreed that she had a dog that she thought would be right for me. The only hitch was getting him to me. She had never shipped a dog but after much planning Nicky was finally on his way to me. His trip did not go smoothly, he was put on the wrong plane, his 5 hour direct flight turned into a 12 hour ordeal. But when he finally arrived and saw me, he knew he was home and that he was mine. He made it quite clear that he knew he was mine and specifically not Sam's. Sam was OK but not his owner. To this day that is Nicky's opinion, Sam is fine and definately has his purpose but he is not Nicky's person.
So that is how I ended up with Nicky but if you go back to the beginning you will see that what I originally wanted was a black and white male. Well, Nicky is male but he wasn't the black and white that I wanted. After about a year and half, I started thinking that it would be nice to have a playmate for Nicky and I would really like it to be black and white. This was also about the time that I tried my first show match with Nicky and Nicky first "discovered" the lure after 12 months of attending lure trials. So for awhile I had my hands full with trying out showing and coursing but started to talk with Nicky's breeder about adding another dog. That is when she told me that she was planning a litter for the following year and had narrowed the possible sires down to either a black or a brindle. The final decision was the black and white and I got my name on the waiting list. Sam was at this point my fiancee and we the wedding was planned for the October before the litter was due. We talked about whether we should add a boy or a girl and everyone counselled us that a girl would be the best choice since we already had a boy. We had agreed that we would show the new pup too, we figured we would hopefully get Nicky finished before we would have to separate the house. So then the waiting came in. We waited and waited. The breeder sent updates, so we knew when the litter was expected, when it was due I checked my email frequently. Got the email that the first pup was born, black and white male. Next email, red and white girl. Then the last email, black and white girl. Yay! The only catch was that the co-breeder might want to keep the black and white girl. So we followed the litter growing up. This time I planned to fly out and pick up the pup so there was no repeat of Nicky's experience. When the time finally came, the black and white girl was available and that is what I came home with. Even though, many people thought I was nuts for getting a black and white as my second show dog. So that is how Rally joined us. She settled into the family immediately and is very bonded to both of us but is Sam's special girl.
I think how we ended up with the next two are off limits since who their breeder is, is sort of obvious.
If I would ever get another basenji I would definitely do more research into where the dog came from, since its hard to not know much about her history, but it did feel very good to rescue her from the humane society, and I know that going with an adult dog was the right thing for us. Now she is great, is a typical mischevious basenji, but we love her and she fits in great with our family!
