The Rip Van Wrinkler,
Volume XIII, Issue 4, November 2009

Page 3 Next Page

Basenji Drinking Habits. . .

contest winners are:

Sun worshippers - Grewe

Debby Mayer’s Lulu

THE TANG OF THE CHLORINE . . . LULU’S DRINKING HABITS

Lulu drinks only water. In this she emulates Cooper (1986–2003), who would turn his head away, scornful, from a glass of wine or a shot of whiskey, and she contrasts Bambi (1984–1999), who enjoyed a slurp and probably would have gone for more, if allowed.

At home, Lulu drinks two kinds of water. In the kitchen, we have filtered water; here in Hudson, we’re on city water, which is not only chlorinated but also enters the house through the original basement pipe, which is probably lead. I figured by the time anyone noticed that Lulu and I had lead poisoning; it would be too late, so I bought a filter for the faucet. Upstairs, we drink city water straight; the bathroom sink is too small for a filter, and each life needs some risks. Lulu has a bowl in the bathroom, so she won’t have to find her way to the kitchen in the dark of night; even in the throes of our move three years ago, she learned very quickly that this was hers, her very own upstairs water.

After 21 years on a well, I still empty Lulu’s kitchen bowl into the watering can every morning, for the plants. Then I fill it with our sweet, delicious, filtered water.

And Lulu’s dirty little secret is that she prefers the upstairs water. Oh, she’ll drink kitchen water as accompaniment to meals, and if she’s too lazy to go upstairs. But many times we’ll come in from a walk or some other excursion, and she’ll run past her kitchen bowl, directly upstairs for a good long drink of bathroom water. That chlorine! Those minerals! Yum! She trots back downstairs, licking her chops, and settles on the couch to clean her feet and other parts. I stand there with my glass of filtered water, water I pay for, to protect her walnut-sized brain . . . is it the tang of the chlorine? Some special richness in the lead, the mercury, the heavy metals? Lulu gives me her big, happy sigh and small, inscrutable smile.

                       A.Kamen

Yvonne 't Mannetje’s Ch’ami

Ch'ami and Dana asked me to write to you about their drinking habits. Well, as you see on the sample-pic Dana LOVES a beer, Kees lets her have the last drop. She likes the "Hertog Jan" (as on the pic), but prefers a "wit biertje" J that is white beer, Hoeghaarden.

Now Ch'ami is a non-alcoholic-Basenji. Every night we have the same ritual: I take a glass of sparkling mineral water, have to put my fingers in it and Ch'ami licks the drops of my fingers. Fanatically that is J And if the bottle is nearly empty, he gets to finish this. When emptied, Dana plays with the bottle.

Rob Choddock’s Beck

Drinking habits - before Beck goes to bed he must get a drink of water and it must be in the master bathroom.  We use a takeout container that is put next to the sink. If he forgets, we'll remind him to "get a drink of water" which he does. If we forget, then he usually wakes up about 45 min - 1 hour later, hops out of bed, gets his drink and then waits for us to lift up the covers again.

Beck Chodock

Well of course!  Beck likes to finish our dinner by taking a few licks of red wine off of my finger.  He prefers it to white wine.

Susan Kamen Marsicano’s Occhi & M

M is one of several Apu dogs who ALWAYS use/have used the far side of the water bowl, licking up towards the edge.  How fastidious!  Always hoping for a dry nose. She also snorts as she drinks. I can absolutely tell when it is M having a drink.

Occhi loves when Moot comes to visit and shares her beer with him. He curls his tongue really round and tries to reach it into the bottle. All the dogs love it when people come over and drink some beer.

PS. When Apu died in 1972, we buried her in the garden behind 12 Little West 12th Street.

A young girl we loved poured a bottle of wine on her grave. Kyrie said, “Apu would have liked this.” Apu had liked a drink. The times were the 60s, early 70s & “the Times They Were a Changing."

 Apu & Stanley, Settignano 1964

 The Story of Apu