many thanks for all of your kind words and sharing your personal stories of loss. they make me feel less pathetic for being an emotional mess over this.
and more excited about bring home the new pooch. who we will be picking up near boston from jemba basenji in one week!!! I have some photos to upload and will start his forum experience soon.

even two months later it pains me to write that my dear omar passed away from end stage liver disease just two weeks before his christmas day 7th birthday. i have never felt that sad and numb before.
we were so lucky to have that basenji beast for even the brief time we did…and we thoroughly embraced & adored the totality of his basenjiness ~ our only complaint was he didn't baroo enough!
he was the king of the neighbourhood..enjoying as many walks a day as he could pester us into, lounging at the local dog friendly bars & restaurants..or just people watching out the window from his custom built perch.
there are a million memories that i will cherish forever & nearly a million photos of him to give colour to those memories.
he was my omi, my poochliepoodlehead, my bunnie, my scooter simpson, my poo head, my love.
the heart & the home have been yearning for some basenji love. yielding to the pleasure and not the pain we decided to bring another basenji boy into our lives sooner then later. so this sad story has an agreeable ending. in two weeks we pick up male no. 3, as of yet unnamed.
it is with a tinge of basenji owner trepidation and a tad of new baby jitters that we enthusiastically puppy proof our apartment! it feels good to be on this side of the full circle. sweet dreams little buddy ~ i can't wait to see you again!

interesting. i guess i have been looking at young puppies whose noses are still pigmenting.
janneke- thanks for the pics. i love a visual aid…specially when the subjects are so adorable!

gorgeous boy! but yikes! it looks cold out there…

my last basenji had a full black nose. now as i am looking a the new 2010 puppies so many of them have white or pinkish blotches on their noses and not the full black - which i prefer. this is probably a superficial preference on my part… does anyone know the "standard"?

how delightful! what a great afternoon break from work…watching the basenjis!!!

they are peculiar buggers. omar loves his teeth to be brushes. manual brush only, please. but HATES to have his body brushed?

it could also be a topical yeast infection. omar had a 24 hour case of huge hideous hives followed by months of itching and scratching. he ended up bald on his sides and neck in places. raw chewed paws. awful to watch him suffer.
we bathed him with malaseb - [rinsing VERY well] a few times a week. quite an effort with a water loathing dog. but it worked! you can go have a skin scratch test taken to see if it is yeast. very curable. but you have to be diligent.
people think we are pathetic to take him to a doggie dermatologist/allergist. that's what we have insurance for!!

thanks for the welcome. i had been begging to get a dog for YEARS. any dog would do. right before my 40th birthday i told my man i needed a good present, not expensive but meaningful and appropriate to celebrate my aging…like a dog! it worked! after searching high and low at the shelters and countless hours "looking busy" searching petfinder.com at work..we went into a pet store 'just to look'. they let us hold a basenji puppy and it was love at first cuddle. it took another four months to find a breeder. when we went into the yard where the puppies were, with their mother and father, omar came right up to us and sat right in front of us to say "don't even bother looking at the others. it's me. i'm the one. so get me out of this trailer park and back to the big city where i finally take the throne that is my birthright" and so it was....

hi all. i finally signed up to the forum after perusing for awhile. i have a basenji, omar who is the love of my life [sorry dave] i am slightly obsessed with his basenji-ness. could you blame me? one of my favorite basenji things happens while on walks. people come up to us and ask if he is a basenji and then tell us their own basenji related history. people get mesmerized by watching him and recalling a basenji from their youth or past. USUALLY a fond memory. of course omar ignores them completely. anyhoo. omar is a celebrity and knows it! i look forward to getting to know the forums and its pack of basenji lovers.