We are planning to go back to Japan and my girl, Rita (10+ years), has to be in a crate more than 12 hours.

She is diabetic so we give her an insulin shot twice a day.

That by itself is a worry. On top of that, since she now completely hates a crate from her recent experiences (blood glucose tests) at the vet, she absolutely becomes out of mind when being placed in a crate.

We've been trying to re-train her, but she becomes so panic that she bit into the gate to cause some of her teeth completely chipped.

Do you have any good idea to make this trip easy for her??

We even thought of finding somebody who would take care of her and leaving her behind, but we don't believe not so many people can diligently give a shot twice a day like us who are working at uor home office.

Rita Mom (Naoko)

WBL and Kebasmom,

Looks like now the quarantine time is only 13-14 hours wherever we are flying from as long as we have the right documents. Thank you for the info. (Where have I been reading all these time??)

It’s nice to know that so many people are kind and supportive in this forum.

I’d like to develop more friendship here. Thank youall!

RitaMom

Thank you all!! This is such an encouragement. More than anything else, by writing those posts and reading your answers, I realized how deeply I'm attached to Rita. Thinking about leaving her behind made me depressed to the level of numbness. Now, thinking of the possibility of living with her forever (I mean until her end) changes everything into different color. (When I listen to love songs, I first think of Rita. I’m in love with her that much, which I’m sure you understand. –or not.-)

Also, about the house sitter, a sushi chef couple of the sushi bar where we are a regular customer, may agree to stay at our house while we are gone.

(Last time, a waitress at the restaurant stayed at our house to take care of Rita. To her kindness, Rita responded by chewing up her underwear and bras.)

So we may be able to expect that Rita’s fur is shining and so are our Japanese knives, when we come home.

Although, one thing… Hawaii is one of 11 locations which Japanese government designates as a non-rabies occurance location. But you have to stay in Hawaii for at least 8 months to be considered as eligible. This way, quarantine time only takes 13 hours.

Being a free-lancer, we can be anywhere, so I thought of staying in Hawaii for 8 months (not a bad place to stay that long, ha?) and then fly to Tokyo. But this way, it still involves 5.5 hours flight each from San Francisco to Hawaii, then from Hawaii to Tokyo.

Plus: Tokyo weather is harsher than Bay Area. It’s too hot in summer and too cold in winter.

So it’s better off for Rita to find a new home, although that’s, as you can imagine, very very very had to us.

RitaMom

My intention of becoming a member is to know people virtually (and in real life) to find a new home for Rita in the future. (It won't happen for another couple years, though.)

Meanwhile, I am trying to find a dog sitter/sitters locally while we are out of country.

We aren't planning to have her go through long plane travel and a quarantine.

How did you find that person? Online? Could you find somebody you can trust with the first try?

Thank you all for your advice.
When I picked Rita up this morning, I asked them to show me the place where she was kept. She was sitting on a plastic board on the concrete floor. The heater was on and room was actually warmer than our house, but it broke my heart to see her sitting with her back pushed against the fence as if eagerly waiting for someone to pick her up. Apparently twice a day walk was not enough for her.

The kennel is really clean and was the best and largest among a dozen of kennels I looked at in the area, but I’d regret like no tomorrow (is this the right expression?) if something happens to her.

Last time when we were gone, our dog-walker left Rita at our house for about seven nights when her husband told her he no longer accepts Rita. At that time, we were already in Japan and didn’t know what happened to her. Later we heard from our neighbor that Rita was crying all nights on the first couple nights then came to know that the dog-walker left her here all night.

I don’t want to leave Rita all by herself for many nights either.
Like Barklessdog wrote, it’s probably the best to hire somebody who can come to our house twice/three times a day. But in that way, she’ll still be all alone at night.

So if we cannot find a house sitter who is willing so stay here over night, I’ll make a circle of friends and relatives who are willing to stay at our house. I’ll create a rotation chart by Excel.

What do you think of that?

Yes, I did, but our breeder’s health no longer allows them to be active in showing nor offering kennel services. I also called around other Basenji breeders in the area to get a recommendation of Basenji friendly boarding places, but Rita had a scuffle and was rejected to stay…
I'm also trying to correct her occasional aggressiveness (which is fairly normal level as a Basenji, because we tried our best socializing her since she was a puppy) by going to a training session.

RitaMom

Hi,

I live in Northern California with my husband, a 6 year-old female Basenji, Rita, and two step-sons, one is already out of home.

Our concern is, as I posted in the forum, that we are often out of country. Also, eventually, we have to go back to our home country, Japan, probably in a couple years and it's so heart breaking to leave Rita with somebody.

But at the same time, having Rita go through 11-hour plane ride with baggage and stay at a quarantine office for three weeks (Japan is notorious with tardiness of the bureaucratic procedures. This is one of them.) is out of question.

So I decided to try to make friends in both virtual and real communities to come to know trusting Basenji lovers whom we can leave Rita with.

I'm also hoping that our experiences will help some other pet owners with the same concern.

RitaMom (Rita, 6-year old female Basenji)

I left my female Basenji, Rita, 6 years old, at a dog-kennel for the first time.
I tried to put her in a cage-free place, but she had a fight with other dogs and I thought being in her own cage might be less stressful for her. (She is crate-trained, although most of the time, she is free inside the house.)

Since my husband and I often have to be out of the country (minimum twice a year, mainly due to our business and my family in home country), I thought she has to be used to the kennel environment.

Until recently, we left Rita to a dog-walker, who took Rita to her home to take care of her. But since last time, the dog walker’s husband no longer wants Rita because she made a mess.

I’m thinking of having Rita getting used to the environment of the kennel by regularly having her stay there, like once a week. Last night and tonight, for the second time, I left Rita to the kennel, but the attendant told me on my follow-up inquiry on the phone that she is totally freaked out.

Also tonight, I heard a horror story from one of my friends whose dog died recently after staying at a kennel for 10 days. When he came back, he could hardly walk (he was 11 years old lab with arthritis) and the blood test results showed that his blood turned out to be as thick as petroleum.

I want Rita to be reasonably strong with any kinds of environment, but exposing her to stressful situation to shorten her life is a different story,

I appreciate any advice on this.

RitaMom (mom of 6 years old female Basenji)