OUR FIRST BASENJI

The beagle is Kabby, a junior dog Amy showed for a few months. Next to Kabby is Amy's bitch Sydney, and then Katie in the corner of the couch.

By the time our daughter was a toddler, Jim and I could see we had a dog lover on our hands.  I would spend many hours with her at any and all neighbors who had dogs she could pet and play with.  One day I said to Jim, “we should just get a dog of our own”.

We started attending local dog shows and reading books about dog breeds.  The AKC Complete Dog Book was one book we brought home from the library over and over.  We wanted a small to medium size dog.  At first we liked the Border Terrier and Jim had grown up on stories about his dad’s Scottish Terrier, Angus.  But when we saw the photo of the Basenji in the AKC book we were fascinated and had to find out more.

The first things we heard about basenjis were not good.  Not knowing any breeders and in fact not having seen one in person, I called an ad that appeared in our local newspaper one Sunday:  “for sale - 2 basenjis”.  The gentleman who answered the phone had nothing good to say about these 2 dogs.  By the time I hung up, I told Jim that I didn’t think the Basenji was for us.  But…we still kept thinking and talking about basenjis, and reading the AKC breed description over and over.

In the fall of 1986 I did a little digging (pre internet days) and found the breeder referral list from the Waukesha Kennel Club.  On that list was Lu Hewes of Dokhues Basenjs.  Lu was a former BCOA secretary and former president of the local club, The Basenji Club of Southeastern Wisconsin.  I called her to talk about the breed, and the rest, as they say, is history.  By the time our first phone call ended, we had an invitation to spend an afternoon at Lu’s to meet her basenjis and learn more about the breed.  The very next Saturday found us in Lu’s backyard with 4 or 5 basenjis.  It was a striking moment I will never forget: approaching her fence and seeing all these little red and tri dogs running around… but not a sound. 

Although we arrived assuming we would talk about getting a puppy from Lu’s next litter, we left with information about a 3 year old bitch Lu bred, sold to a show home, and was getting back soon because the couple had a baby and no desire now to keep their basenji they called Katie.  After some discussion at home, we contacted the family with Katie and arranged to meet this sweet little tri girl.  We brought her home with us that day and never looked back.  She was homesick at first but she loved to go jogging with Jim and they became a familiar sight in our neighborhood as they ran together for years.  She was a lovely example of the breed and a lovely temperament for a family’s first dog.  She was a big yodeler especially when I was making her dinners.

With Lu’s encouragement I tried showing Katie and although I never managed to finish her, we did win all of her small points.  We took some obedience lessons and showed, but didn’t qualify, in Novice obedience at the 1993 national in St. Louis.  She loved to lure course so we did some coursing too.  Amy showed her in juniors at our BCOSW B matches before she was old enough to show at AKC shows.   Katie let Amy practice stacking her over and over…she was very patient with children.

Katie lived a long and I hope happy life with us from 1986 until we helped her over the bridge at age 15 in 1999.   By that time we had added 2 more basenjis to our family and become breed fanciers.  Because of Katie we joined the BCOSW and then the BCOA and made many wonderful friends all over the world who love basenjis like we do.

Katie & Sydney