Posts made by bcraig

I was about to post the attached picture that I saw in episode 3 of Cosmos where I noticed for about two seconds this pair of Basenjis randomly playing in a 17th century English coffee house.

That is so awesome. Khalani even has the same blaze and the same little hint of a tooth peeking out. Adorable. How do they do it?

I am dog sitting two Vizlas this week and the cuteness is overwhelming me. Here are a few samples.

I haven't been active on the forum for about a year but I have collected a large number of good pictures. I mean, you can't take a bad picture of a Basenji right? Here are a few.

DebraDownSouth;164148]Okay so I am laughing. I clicked the link, posted there on Youtube that she is amazing, came back and read comments. Amazing is THE word she inspires people to utter! Do you use boots on her in the snow? How the heck were YOU moving so fast, holding a camera?

I have to admit I was hoping for this type of reaction. She is AMAZING. All of our Bs are amazing but Ella probably gets a little more notice since the accident. We make quite a splash on the cross country ski tracks.

I have never used booties for Ella but about 8-10 days a year it is cold enough that I think about it. On those days, she really doesn't want to spend much time outside anyway. I rarely hear a good recommendation for a bootie that stays on. But i would be happy to hear of one. She does have a nice winter coat from Montana Dogwear that we wear most of the time. It was pretty warm and sunny when we shot that video,

I managed to control the leash, my ski poles and the camera. But we have skied that section of trail hundreds of times so it really is not that hard. We are both expert cross country skiers. Thanks again for your support.

As reported here in the forum, she was hit by a car last year. A horrific day for all. But she is pretty much exactly the same dog she was before the accident. I was already wanting to write a book called, Everything I Know About Life I Learned From My Dog. But since the accident she really has shown us what life is all about! She is a joy and an inspiration. But mostly she is Ella, our Basenji.

Attached is a link to a short video of Ella and I doing our regular cross country ski lunch time walk. She starts to pick up a little speed about halfway through. To restate the obvious, she is missing one leg. Hopefully you will see that she gets around pretty good and we have a good time. I will try post another one later showing her going at top speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMMCiQyjcPo

This is a really silly post. But with the release of The Hobbit movie in the next couple of weeks I reread the book this weekend.

My wife and I have decided that although Basenjis came to us from Africa that they originally hail from Middle Earth. They seem eminently Tolkien-like creatures. In Middle Earth they use their ears to fly long distances and in dark and dangerous forests they sleep hanging from their curled tails. Although they have also been know to fly into Eagles nests and sneak in and bed down with Eaglets. Because as we know, a Basenji can get along with any creature, even a dragon if necessary. In Middle Earth they speak their ancient language of ur-Basenji, although they are famous for being able to keep secrets.

One breed to Rule Them All…

Well thanks for the overwhelming positive support Not that I am surprised. Although I am surprised by the number of responses in one day. Most of the things mentioned are things we have already thought about. Yes, she would be an good candidate for a therapy dog–except she is distrustful of strangers. Yes, we only have 3 paws to trim nails on. Yes, her missing leg is not even the first thing you notice on the videos. Yes, she can still run faster than most other dogs (she can fly when has a good reason!). And mostly, yes our dogs teach us to live in the moment and with joy. But thanks for mentioning all of those things.

I have mostly avoided the Basenji forum since Ella was hit by a car in April and lost one of her hind legs. She has been amazing and except for a few weeks of being drugged and having stitches she has been pretty close to her regular self since soon after the accident. She almost escaped from the clinic the morning after the amputation. They assumed she would be docile but she tried to jump a fence. She is definitely happy and healthy.

It has been an inspirational experience This terrible thing happened yet we feel blessed and lucky and we appreciate her all the more. And she is pretty much the exact same trouble maker, full of vim and vigor and a personality that really has not changed at all. Dogs don't dwell on the past or have regrets And we have taken our cue, in this matter as well as most other matters, from our Basenji.

If you ever thought it was hard to not be noticed while walking a Basenji, just imagine what it is like walking with a cute and energetic three-legged Basenji! We are stopped constantly. She is showered with attention and love, which mostly she wants little to do with–in typical basenji fashion.

I have attached a few pictures,most of which do not really highlight the missing leg. Which is as it should be. They are just cute pictures of her. I have also attached a link to youtube page with a few short videos from the last couple of weeks

Here is the you youtube link--there are 3 basenji videos on it, as well as few of bear in a tree in our neighborhood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLAg5kGnH5Y&feature=plcp

Thank you to all of you that have expressed your sympathy and support since we posted that our dear Ella was hit by a car and had to have a leg amputated two weeks ago. I am sure it is no suprise to most of you that our love and admiration for our Basenji is even greater now than ever before. SHe had her stiches out on Monday and is recovering amazingly well and is shining example to live in the moment. There is regret and sadness and every other emotion on our part, but for her part, she is just is bringing her usual love, humor and energy to our lives.

She looks a bit sad in these pictures, but don't be fooled. She was just sleepy. And yes, she tucked herself underneath the covers.

Truely the vet is very skilled, and her healing certainly is a testament to him. Thanks for sending the healing, we know just where to apply it!

Yes, it would seem that she is really living in the moment and does not seem to be haunted by any bad memories or PTSD. As you say, she does seem to be lacking the 'head trip' that her human pack members have gone through. For this we are grateful, but I noticed some over-protectedness on my part, which i hope to manage out once the sutures are out and she is less vulnerable. thanks ontario!

I had not thought of the therapy angle. After we are fully adjusted, and our new norm established, we will see where this goes. Happy to hear your aunts' dog had a long, happy life-this bodes well for us. Thanks for your thoughts.

thanks anne, we accept your hugs and appreciate your thoughts. In the past I think that injured animals were simply put down, but we too are seeing more 'tripods' out there, and realize with suburban life, cars and dogs meet often and we are happy we still have her.

Sorry to report our B was hit by a car. God bless the driver, she stopped in time and saved her life. We had to make the difficult decision to amputate but we are certain we made the humane and practical choice.

Finger waving and guilt aside, our dear Ella is healing nicely, and rather than saddle her with a long difficult road of healing, drugs, pain, and multiple trips to the vet, it was very important to us to maintain her sweet disposition. The skin and soft tissue were badly damaged and the vet could not give us much hope that our effort would pay off and that amputation was still not off the table down the road.

She is actually handling her situation better than us, and she is our champion. She insists on her regular schedule and habits, is alert and curious, follows the sun for naps, and sleeps in her regular spot on the bed.

When we meet people on our walks, we just say, 'sorry we can't play because we have stitches', rather than the negative, we are missing a leg and are still unsteady. We are focusing on what we have, rather than what we have not.

B strong on three pegs, and alive to tell the tale! B's rule!

It has now been a couple of days and Ella does not seem to have any after effects from the procupine qulls. We gave her a bath and rinsed out her injured area with a disinfectant when we got home. Stories of dogs getting qulled by a porcupine are pretty common around here. I was upset when it happned but did not consider it an unusual hazard. I was just wondering if it happened to ther basenjis on the forum and if they learned to give porcupines plenty of space afterwards.

It was bound to happen and yesterday was the day. Ella is now 3 years old but this is the first summer that she has been off-leash regularly. This summer she has had off-leash encounters with marmots, squirrels, fox, deer, elk and porcupine. The only encounter that I know of that she had with a pocupine was a couple of months ago and ended after a nervous stand-off , but no quills were exchanged. I was relieved.

We were about half-way home on a 3 hour hike. Ella was doing her usual wide-ranging exploring and disappearing into the woods occasionally but mostly being very good. I was calling her when I heard a high pitched screetch I had never heard before. A few seconds later she bolted out of the woods about 50 feet from me. She was wearing her jacket and the first thing that I noticed as she ran towards me is that the jacket had somehow been pulled over her head and she was wearing it like a skirt. As she came closer she was obviously distressed and then I saw them! She had about 10 porcupine needles stuck in her nose and muzzle. Luckily I was with a friend who is also one of Ella's most trusted people. After a moment of panic we got her jacket off, leashed her and began to assess the situation. She did not have quills anywhere else on her body. She seemed uninjured except for the quills on her face. We squated on the snowy ground and while my friend held her I tried to remove the first quill. Ella squirmed continuously and the barbs at the end of the quills made them very tough to remove. We decided we needed to move to more stable ground. We got Ella moving and hiked about 5 minutes to a sheltered area with dry ground and a good place to work. It would take over an hour to hike down and try to get her to a vet and I figured we should do our best to get the quills out ourselves. We tried again and this time I managed to get a few quills out cleanly and had an idea of how hard I needed to pull. Hard! Ella was whimpering and also bleeding slightly as we got the quills out. She had 3 or 4 quills right on her charcoal nose and several others in her lips. After about 5 minutes of work we got the last one out. I unleased her and she began to roll her snout around in the grass and snow and seemed unbelievably relieved.

We continued out hike down home. We met a black Lab on the way down and played and ran with him for several minutes. She seemed fine last night and appears totally normal this morning. I am pretty sure I was more traumatized than she was. I hope this is a lesson that we will only need to learn once.

I guess I must be lucky with Ella, my snow loving Basenji. I live in Colorado at over 8000 feet and we also have snow on the ground about 6 months a year. Obviously, there are some cold weather limitations on Basenjis. Deep snow can be a problem. She happily wears a coat during the winter but she still gets cold when the temperature gets much below 20 degrees, but as long as the sun is shining even that is OK. We have a lot of snow here, but bitterly cold days are pretty rare. So on the days when the temps are single digit or below zero, her walks are short. But on a typical winter days with packed snow on the ground everywhere and temps in the 20s or 30s, she is fine. She does better in those conditions than she does in extreme heat. She loves to play and run in the snow and we cross country ski together all the time (that took a little practice).

It so happens that I also love the winter and am happy to be outside on just about any winter day. Either I am really lucky with Ella, or your dog will pick up on your attitude to being outside. If you want to be outside, I think most dogs will want to be outside with you. If you are apprehensive and miserable, they will pick up on it. I say get a warm coat for your B and warm clothes for yourself and just go for it (of course paying attention if your B is suffering in the cold or deep snow). Ella's first winter and the first snow day of each new winter she is a little apprehensive about the change of season. Just becasue they hesitate or hang up for a few minutes does not mean they will not eventually love it. Ella is famous for that. So I would not rule out having somewhat normal outside exercise in the winter, as long as you are committed to it too. My biggest problem exercising Ella in the winter are the short days.

Ella ia called:

Ella T. Basenji-the T stands for various names depending on our mood, usually Troube (obvious enough) or Tiberius (the T. in James T Kirk was for Tiberius and we are Trekkies)
Ella Bella Boo
Little Miss Ella
Missy
Little Miss Puppy
Wedge head
Fox face
Freckle belly