The Rip Van Wrinkler, Volume XIV, Issue 3, August 2009

Back Page <previous page return to contents>

 
© 2010, Chris Maxka, “Elk Watching”

Mark your calendars!

Our 13th Annual

Tail Gate Luncheon

will be at the GONE ASFA lure coursing trial, in Starkville, NY,

Sunday, Sept. 5th

FMI -  Susan K-M


The Wrinkler is published quarterly:  February, May, August & November.  Deadline for receiving material for publication is the 1st day of the previous month.

The contents of The Rip Van Wrinkler do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editors, or the membership.   All rights to reproduce any part of The Rip Van Wrinkler® shall be done solely with the permission of the editors.

The RVW Club is affiliated with the BCOA

The Rip Van Wrinkle Basenji Club & Wrinkler ONLINE: www.rvwbasenjiclub.org


As the Tail Turns

Too Much Excitement for 6 am/Karen P. Christensen

An unfortunate demonstration of the allure of a "lure." Prey-driven dogs will indeed stay with their quarry if it is cornered or van-quished... I went up to NY State for a weekend of racing. Saturday at the crack of dawn all 12 dogs were outside in Susan's yard. I called; 7 came in. Nice morning so I headed out to round up the stragglers and was panicked at the sight of what looked like the whole dozen, flashes of red and white in the undergrowth OUTSIDE the fence!

The mama cat and her weanling kittens nested in a rocky crevice between the yard fence and the electric bear-defense fence, had proven too attractive -- and the fence inadequate in. just. the right spot – for four of the hounds to wriggle out. Laser yodeling his head off at mama cat crouched and growling under a rocky overhang, TuTu trying to decipher the nest entrance, Cherry pretty much just sampling the surroundings, and Fern -- not sure what she was doing, as she made it back to the patio by the time I got there.

TRYING though not fully succeeding to squelch the adrenaline rush I was feeling knowing my dogs could take off into the NY State wilderness any time (remember Ruth Piwonka's Lilly?), Susan and

I grabbed leashes and collars and Susan switched off the fence charge, and I slipped thru the wires and got the three naughties secured, not happy that I was wearing shorts and didn't have time to scan for poison ivy. The whole time it took to get the leashes, navigate the rocky-forested hillside to get to them, none of my dogs moved more than a few inches from where I had first spotted them. None tried to evade my grip when I grabbed them!

Sadly, one kitten was clearly no longer living. No sign of any of the others and little clue other than inference that one of the keen young bitches had dispatched it, then instantly lost interest in it. Later in the day after Susan and I had done a makeshift patch of the hole and scanned the rest of the fence for gaps, the dogs streamed out and quickly discovered the new lair -- again, just outside the yard fence but covered by the bear fence -- about 30 yards from the old one. Mama and two kittens in evidence, and mama had a meal down at the garage not long after. TuTu had to be kept leashed after that, she was just as determined to get through the fence in the new spot as she had been before.  See Page 11 FMI

 

Moot & Laser (mama cat did NOT want to play)

Bubba Chuck and Margot the Katz (we were home in NJ)

Ian the Beanie Baby (I went in to tattle)

Cherry on Top (inside the fence, outside the fence, where's the best place to work on my tan?)

and TuTu, too (I could show you the ezzact spot where they were, where they are, ezzact. Then I could show how I get the fence apart....

 

<previous page return to contents>