New canine addition for the holiday

[njsteve]

Our new addition.

We went to the grand opening of the new Tractor Supply Store in town a couple weeks ago. They had the local puppy rescue service there with a bunch of their adoptable critters. Of course I made the mistake of taking the family with me.

Just to keep the family quiet I filled out an application knowing full well that someone out of the 200+ people before us that signed up for this particular pup would get him, leaving me in the clear.

Of course we get the call two days later congratulating us. It turned out that out of those 200+ applications, just about all of them were disqualified! The rescue person read us some of their answers to the basic questions. They were scary.

Here's a sample of answers to the question "Where will you keep this dog?"

Sample answer:
1) "On my balcony on the 23rd floor."
2) "Tied to the same tree my other dogs are tied to."
3) "In the garage if the temperature gets below zero."

So I guess our answer of "In the house or in our fenced 2-acre yard when it's warm out" must have sounded miraculous to them.

His name is Widget, which as you may know, is the technical term for a hypothetical mechanical device of dubious usefulness.

He is about the size of a sub sandwich. We think he is Jack Russell and Dachshund.



Here's Widget being crushed by one of our other dogs, a female Basenji (also a rescue dog). Just to give you an idea of relative sizes, she weighs 17 pounds. In the background is our other Basenji. He's a grumpy 8-year old who went blind as a puppy from the genetic eye disorder PRA. He really doesn't know he's blind, he has adapted very well over the years. He's just curmudgeonly, which is a Basenji trait anyway.




The wife was preparing the house for the Holiday season. I heard a rustling sound and saw the pile of plastic wreaths moving. I pulled the top wreath off and there he was. This is his commentary on the season:

[Jeff H]

It's amazing how many people don't really qualify for a rescue dog. We were in the same situation with a nice fenced in yard and keep the dog inside(duh). So we qualified easily for a rescue dog. Dog looks happy already! We're still dealing with the chewing on everything with our dog. Rescue dogs tend to be an interesting mix a lot of the time. Our dog is a black lab/whippet/pit bull mix. Good luck with the new pet!

[Chateau Slate 66]

Thank you for getting a rescue dog. I don't know why people would buy from a breeder when there are sooo many good dogs that need a home. Here's our second rescue Sheltie.

[Mr70]

You guys should all be commended..
We always get our dogs from the local shelter,for the very same reasons you mentioned.

In the spirit of this topic,did anyone see this incredible video taken off a Chilean traffic camera?
It's an amazing testament of K9 Heroism of one Dog saving another during daily traffic.The beginning my be hard to watch,but rest assured both dogs were rescued shortly after this video was taken and are fine today

http://wtop.com/?sid=1539175&nid=456

[njsteve]

That sheltie's color is amazing. Looks like Picasso's version of a Blue Merle Sheltie.

We had a Sheltie for 17 years. He was my wife's dog before we met. He was a happy little dog though he got so pudgy in his older years he looked like a wooly bear caterpiller when viewed from above.

[Novadiecast]

Welcome to the Jack Russell rampage!!!!!!!

Here is my Jack Russell Mix and he is 12 pounds soaking wet and thinks he is the King. He rules my 85 pound Lab like it's nothing. They are a handfull.
[image][/image]

[markjohnson]

Nothing like a puppy! A dog's aim is only to please its' master (unlike a selfish cat). The world would be a much better place if people were more like dogs. You know, I once read that in the Canine vocabulary, the word 'lie' doesn't even exist.

[77Z28]

Hey Steve congratulations on new addition. We had a Basenji dog which died about 4-5 years ago. Have not met many people who knew what a Basenji was. Our dog was brown and white, no black. Do you get odd responses when you tell people you have a bark-less dog?

Have a great holiday.

Todd

[njsteve]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey Steve congratulations on new addition. We had a Basenji dog which died about 4-5 years ago. Have not met many people who knew what a Basenji was. Our dog was brown and white, no black. Do you get odd responses when you tell people you have a bark-less dog?

Have a great holiday.

Todd

[/ QUOTE ]

The Basenjis are a bizarre breed. They still exist in their native form in the Congo region of Africa. They may be "barkless" but certainly not mute. They can make the cutest yodeling sounds and then emit the most blood curdling banshee screams you ever heard.

I got hooked on them from an experience as a little kid. The summer camp I was at in CT had one. That dog was named "Barkus". I was amazed at its athletic agility: he was able to avoid the attempts of 250+ bratty kids trying to grab him on a daily basis. It was an amazing athletic fete to observe - like watching a running back sprint from the opposite endzone, weaving through the opposition, for 99 yards and scoring a touchdown. No one ever got a finger on him.

We had a male Basenji for 9 years. He died of a brain tumor back in 2001. We then got a pure-bred, brindle Basenji puppy who was 2/3 new African gene pool (a group of Basenji fanatics actually went back to Africa in the 1980s and brought back some Basenjis to add more diversity to the gene pool.) Unfortunately, he lost the genetic lottery and came down with a new version of Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA) that hadn't existed before. PRA is one of the genetic eye diseases they were trying to weed out with the new dog breeding stock. The old form of PRA would strike in middle age. This new version hit him when he was less than 1 year old. Of course, the well renowned breeder offered to take him back but we knew that would have meant he would have been euthanized immediately. We couldn't allow that to happen, so we kept him. He's adapted remarkably well. He's amazing to watch as he runs the back yard, he can sense where things are from memory...and really long whiskers.

The tri-colored female, we got as a rescue from the Basenji Rescue and Transport (BRAT) http://www.basenjirescue.org/ . Her elderly owner had died and the relatives didn't want to be bothered with the dog.

Here's the three, pre-Widget.

[Postsedan]

Very nice, Congrats.

Dan.