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There are people
in this world that seem obsessed by challenges. We must be among them. Not
that we intend it to be that way necessarily, but if you look at the choices
we’ve made… years of Akita owning, showing, breeding and bonding,
and then we decide to add a Basenji to the household. That was eight years
ago, and we have battled wills with our determined Basenji,
“Jenga” ever since. People think Akitas are stubborn and
independent, but they’re nothing compared to this semi-wild, barkless little dog from Africa, who are born knowing the
world is here for them to rule.
About
the time Jenga turned five years old, we finally seemed to come to something
of an understanding and life became a little more calm. Basenjis are challengers by nature, and a
family of Akitas is a wonderful job to sink one’s teeth into, so to
speak. Jenga (aka “Shrimpy” to her friends) has assisted in the
raising of so many Akita puppies over the years that it has given her a vocation that helped
bypass boredom and the sometimes destructive tendencies that can follow.
She’s had a job, and she’s loved it! Not that we don’t have
our share of Shrimpy stories! We have a book full of hair-raising episodes
and adventures; Shrimpy and the white donkey, for instance. But we’ve learned what works with
her, and what we just have to accept as her nature, and our loving direction has
paid off with a wonderful family member. In fact, years of debating if we
were mad for bringing this force of nature into our midst developed into as
strong and devoted a love as one can have. We can’t imagine our lives
without Shrimp. And that should be the end of a happy story, but our own
obsession with challenge must have surfaced again because right about the
time things got comfortable, we decided to add another Basenji to our family!
We went back to Carol Webb at Kazor Basenjis and told her we wanted a
tri-colored puppy, and here she is – and she just happens to be sired
by the 2006 National Specialty Best Of Winners Dog!
Since
all our dogs interact, our new puppy “Roxy” also helps keep the
Akitas in line, and she takes her new job very seriously!
with Shawnee, 3 days after
arrival
special edible housing
with Shawnee
with JonTerry – the two terrors!
with Shrimpy
with JonTerry –
both still terrors
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