Animal Insting

This is the true story of another brave and famous dog.  His name was Balto, and he was a sled dog in Alaska.  As you can see from the photo, he was black-and-white, like me, which is one thing that made him very special.

But the main way Balto got to be famous was that in 1925, the children in Nome, Alaska, were about to get sick because of a disease called diptheria.  Nome is way up in the really, really north part of Alaska, and it was hard to get there in the winter, which is when this happened.  There was some medicine called antitoxin that could save people from dying of diptheria, but this medicine was located in Anchorage, which was a long way from Nome.

At first, people thought they could fly a plane to Nome with the medicine, but there was only one plane that they could use, and it was all frozen up, so they couldn't get its engine to run.  That's why they decided to send the medicine by dog sled.  So first the medicine went to a town called Nenana in a train, and after that, a bunch of dog sleds took it in a relay to Nome.

The last dog sled team to carry the medicine was led by Balto, and the "musher," which is what you call the person driving a dog team, was a man named Gunnar Kaasen.  Mr. Kaasen was Norwegian, which is why he had such a strange name.  Balto got his name from another Norwegian whose name was Samuel Balto.  Mr. Balto was a famous explorer who lived way up north of the Arctic Circle.

Balto wasn't usually a lead dog in a sled team, but he got to be the lead dog this time, and he turned out to be very smart when it came to keeping his team on the trail, even though it was nighttime and there was a blizzard going on.  So when the medicine arrived in Nome, everyone said that Balto was a hero.

But there was another hero during this event, and that was a sled dog named Togo, who was the leader of the team that handed the medicine off to Balto's team.  Togo's team also had a very hard time because of the weather and all the bad stuff going on, but Togo led them bravely through it all.  The musher of that team was named Leonhard Seppala, and he was actually the owner of Balto, too.  He thought Togo should get as much fame as Balto, but it didn't work out that way.

Here's a picture of Togo and Mr. Seppala on the left, and Balto with Mr. Kaasen on the right.






Anyway, in the end, Balto got all the fame and glory, and the people of New York City made a statue of Balto and put it in Central Park, near the children's zoo.


When Balto got old, he was living at the Cleveland Zoo, and that's where he died in 1933.  So the people of Cleveland stuffed him and put him in the museum there.  Later, the Alaskans wanted Balto to be in their museum instead, but the Cleveland people said no.  However, they let the stuffed Balto go to Alaska for a visit.

So that's the story of how Balto led the sled dog team to Nome and saved all the children there from dying of diptheria.  Nowadays, dog sleds aren't used so much for freight hauling and stuff like they used to be.  But every year there is a big race called the Iditarod, and a bunch of mushers and their teams compete to see who can run the trail the fastest.  It is a very hard race that lasts for several days, and it's dangerous because of the weather and also because there are polar bears lurking around, and they like to eat dogs.  Here's a map that shows where the Iditarod Trail goes.

But just in case you think that only huskies and Malamutes can pull dog sleds, here's a picture of a basenji sled dog team.  We don't know who took this photo or even if it's for real, but someone posted it on a basenji internet list one time, and Mom saved the photo because she thinks it's funny.  I don't think the photo is funny at all.  I think what it shows is that basenjis can be noble and brave, just like Balto and Togo.

This image, Mario, was submitted to the 2009 international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition by Team Osaka from the nanobiology laboratories at the University of Osaka, Japan.


They genetically engineered bacteria to express fluorescent proteins and carotenoid pigments to create works of art.


At the start of summer, the teams competing in iGEM are issued with a set of standard biological parts called BioBricks. They use these and their own bricks to invent new biological machines.

FAQ #1:  Why do some dogs drool so much?

A:  Some breeds of dogs have really loose skin around their mouths, so the drool just kind of falls out of their mouths.  I guess they can't help it, but I think it's sort of gross, personally.  Some examples of dogs that slobber a lot are St. Bernards, basset hounds, bloodhounds, and bullmastifs.  Also sometimes dogs start drooling when they smell yummy food or when they are excited or when they are feeling stressed.  If you have a dog that drools a lot, you may have to carry a towel around with you to mop up the drool.




FAQ #2:  Why do dogs eat grass?
A:  Dogs eat grass when their tummies are feeling upset.  If they eat grass, it can make them puke, and puking can make them feel better.  I know this for a fact because I have eaten grass before when my tummy felt funny.  Then I puked, and after that I felt better.  Also, grass just tastes good sometimes.  I especially like to eat new grass in the spring because it is very yummy.  My favorite kind of grass to eat is crabgrass.

Mom went to the shelter yesterday, just like she does most Mondays.  She took her camera with her, which she doesn't usually do, and she took pictures of the dogs she played with, and she told me all about them, so now I can tell you about them, too.

When it's cold and snowy outside, Mom stays inside and plays with the dogs in a little room.  Some of the dogs went outside in the snowy yard to play, but Mom is a wimp and doesn't want to play in the snow with the dogs jumping all over her and stuff.  So that's why she stayed inside.

Anyway, first she brought the three littlest dogs in the room.  I have told you about these dogs before.  They are all very nice dogs, and you should adopt them if you need a nice little lap dog of your very own.  First there was Sasha, who looks like a miniature wolf.  Sasha likes to play with toys.

And there was Poppi, who only has one eye.  He is not really into toys.  He just hangs out near Mom and politely hints that maybe she should give him a treat.

Taco really, really likes toys!  She collects all the toys together and tries to carry more than one around in her mouth, but she has a small mouth because she is a small dog, so usually she can only fit one toy in it at a time.

Then when it's time to go back to her run, she hides from Mom because she doesn't want Mom to take away her toy, but Mom has to take it away because toys aren't allowed in the runs.  And this is because if the toys get chewed up, the pieces will got down the drain and clog it up.  Which has happened in the past, and it makes a big mess.

After Mom played with the three little dogs, she brought in Alvin and Molly.  Alvin is the beagle mix that you have seen photos of before because Mom held him at a satellite adoption one time.  He's a very nice dog, except that he keeps peeing in Petco if you don't watch him every minute.  And sometimes he pees in the little room at the shelter, but he didn't do that yesterday.

Molly hasn't been at the shelter very long.  She is maybe a greyhound mix.  Mom thinks she is really pretty, but of course, Mom is always a sucker for greyhounds and any dog that looks sort of like a greyhound.  Actually what Molly looks like is a coyote, at least in my opinion!  Molly is very shy.  Some people came to look at her yesterday while Mom was at the shelter, but they decided that Molly was too shy for them to adopt.  This is very sad, but it means that Molly is still available if you want to adopt her.

The next dogs Mom played with were AJ and Kola.  AJ is maybe a beagle mixed with a German Shepherd.  He's a very nice dog, but he likes to chew things up.  He was chewing on a tennis ball yesterday, and Mom was afraid he was eating the pieces, so she took it away from him.

Kola plays with the toys a little bit, but she mostly just wants treats.  Sometimes she and AJ play tug with  one of the toys, and when they are outside in the yard, they do a lot of running and body-slamming.  They really like to play together.

After that, Mom went and ate lunch in the volunteer room.  She always takes her lunch to the shelter because if she doesn't, she gets hungry and grumpy.

The dogs that Mom played with after lunch were Noel and O'Malley.  Noel is new to the shelter.  Mom already met Noel at the last satellite adoption event, but Noel didn't do very well there because she kept growling and snarking at the other dogs.  So Mom thinks that Noel won't be going to anymore satellites. Yesterday was the first time Mom played with Noel at the shelter.  Noel was very mouthy and kept trying to chew on Mom, which is a thing Mom doesn't like very much.  After a while, Noel settled down some and stopped behaving so badly, which made Mom happier.
Mom couldn't hardly get a photo of O'Malley because Noel kept jumping all over Mom, so she only got this one picture of him.  O'Malley already had a broken front leg when Animal Control found him, and his leg couldn't be fixed, so now he only has three legs.  O'Malley likes to chase balls and stuff, though, and Mom says he's a fun dog.

After that, Mom only had time for one more dog, so she chose Starla, who is Mom's new favorite pitbull.  Starla is not a very interesting color, but she is a very, very nice dog who just wants to sit in Mom's lap and be loved on.  So Mom took a bunch of pictures of Starla, mainly because she was the only dog who held still long enough to get her picture taken.  Here's Mom getting a kiss from Starla.

And here's Starla playing with a Kong.

And here's Starla just hanging out in Mom's lap.

Mom thinks it would be nice to adopt Starla, but we already have our Legal Limit of dogs, like I have told you before.  Besides which, Mom says our next dog is going to be a greyhound.  So that's why we can't adopt Starla.  But maybe somebody will adopt Starla soon.  Mom thinks that Starla would make an excellent therapy dog because she's so calm and friendly.

Well, that's all the adventures Mom had at the shelter yesterday.  All of the dogs I've told you about need somebody to adopt them, so if you know of anybody who could give them a good forever home, tell them to go to this website and they can find out more:  http://www.hsgkc.org

If you know anything about basenjis, you know that one of our best and cutest features is our curly tails.  Some people call them "cinnamon buns," although they aren't really anything you can eat.  Basenjis in Africa just have kind of loopy tails, but basenjis that are bred to be show dogs usually have tighter curls.  Gabe has a double curl in his tail, but I just have a single curl.  Either of these is okay to have, according to the Official Basenji Show Standards.

Here's a picture of Gabe's curly tail.  Mom sent this picture to a contest that Basenji Companions had, and Gabe won first place for "Curliest Tail."  I was very proud of him for winning this.

Some basenjis wag their tails and some don't.  I never wag my tail because that seems like something that only boring, regular dogs would do.  Gabe doesn't wag his tail either except when he is very, very excited, like if he sees his Mama Erin or his Granny Ruthie.

When we basenjis feel happy, our tails are all curled up over our backs.  But when we are sleeping or when we feel bad, our tails get uncurled.  My tail uncurls more than Gabe's tail because it only has one curl, which makes it easier to uncurl.  When dogs have really tight curls in their tail, it can actually hurt to uncurl them, so you shouldn't make their tails uncurl because it might hurt them and then they might bite you.

Sometimes other kinds of dogs have curly tails, too, but they're usually not as curly as basenji tails.  Barry has a curly tail that makes a big, round circle.  He wags his tail a lot, which Mom thinks is cute, for some reason.  We don't know why Barry has a curly tail.  It's possible that he is part basenji, but Mom can't afford to do one of those fancy, new DNA tests to find out what breeds Barry is made of.

It's not just the tail of a basenji that's cute, though.  I think the entire basenji butt is a thing of beauty.  Here's a picture Mom took recently of my butt while we were just hanging out one day.

And here's a picture of Gabe checking my butt to make sure it was all clean and pretty, even though we were hiking with Mom in the wilderness where nobody much was going to see us.  This is the kind of thing a nice brother will do for his little sister, so I'm always happy when Gabe does it for me.





Sometimes when I'm playing in the bedroom, I like to go under the bed and just leave my butt sticking out.  Mom thinks this is funny, which is why she took a picture of it.











And one way I like to sleep is to crawl under the dog bed instead of sleeping on top of it.  This adds variety to my life and keeps me from getting bored while I sleep.

So anyway, I hope that after reading my blog entry about basenji butts, you will agree that they are totally adorable.  And any time you happen to see a basenji butt, I hope you will take a little time to admire it!