Tiegan and Miles Come Home

Tiegan, AKA Princess Sunshine and Magic

After we sent Ivan back to the angels on March 10, we walked from room to room looking at empty little dog beds and crying until we decided our broken hearts needed a change.

We gave away Ivan’s treats. We washed dog beds and packed away little dog coats. I finally stopped filling the upstairs water dish. We will always love Ivan and Dasa, but our home seemed so empty. The silence was deafening.

Eric said the right dog always comes to us, the one we are meant to have. We believe they’ve all been heaven sent. We were not looking; we were simply pining. And then there she was. Something told us to ask about a tiny girl.

Much to our delight, we were approved to adopt, and off we went to pick her up at the foster mom’s house. (There should be national holidays dedicated to foster parents. BRAT has some of the best.)

Our tiny Tiegan is enchanting. Her name means Little Princess in the Big Valley. However, we live in the Midwest with no valleys on hand, so we decided Tiegan is the Little Princess on the Prairie. We adopted her when she was 16 months old, and we are her fifth home. She is wonderful. We were Ivan’s fourth home, and he came to us as an amazing, exuberant, energetic two-year-old basenji boy. It’s a similar situation with our beautiful girl. If you have not done your research and do not know what to expect, adding a basenji to your family can be a disaster, especially for the basenji. Tiegan is really quite well-behaved. She is also a door-bolter, a high energy, high prey drive typical basenji youngster. We think she’s a treasure. She is cute, snuggly, sweet, and social. Everything she does is clever and amazing.

When we say she’s our tiny girl, we do mean tiny. She was a 15-lb sprite when we brought her home. (Eric said my purse weighs more than she does.) Tiegan has an excellent appetite so we had no problem reaching the 18 pounds our vet recommended at our wellness visit.

We feel so extraordinarily blessed with sweet Tiegan. Our hearts are smiling once again.

Miles

Tiegan is such a social girl. We thought a lot about finding just the right basenji to adopt as a companion and brother for our magical pixie. Our wonderful little girl was the first consideration. The goal was for us to have two basenjis who would not just get along but also develop the type of positive dynamic that Ivan and Dasa enjoyed.

For a while, we considered adopting an African or half-African young adult or puppy. Our little Avongara Dasa was truly amazing; sweetness personified. However, we finally came to the realization that while we could get another African, we cannot get another Dasa so we needed to think about what was best for Tiegan. We then decided to take our time and wait for the right dog to come along. (That plan worked spectacularly well with Tiegan, our Princess of Sunshine and Magic.) Mere days later, there was Miles, and the same feeling that told me to ask about Tiegan, once again said, “Ask about that dog.”

As Eric dryly observes, Tiegan has leadership potential, so the new boy had to be the agreeable sort who wouldn’t mind a tiny girl taking charge. Miles has had some very rough periods in his short life, but BRAT foster parents provided him loving stable safe havens so he is sweet and affectionate.

The last weekend of July we drove to Iowa to bring Miles home. Miles is two weeks older than Tiegan, and we are also his fifth home. Tiegan, at 18 pounds, is small for a basenji, and Miles, at a lean 31 pounds, is large for a basenji. He is sweet and agreeable, and usually follows Tiegan’s lead.

I am happy to say they get along well. At first I was worried that Miles would be too big or would play too rough for my tiny girl. No worries. He is really a teddy bear, very cuddly and affectionate with us, and careful when he plays with our little brindle whirlwind. They have a very high combined energy level. We now have two very active 23-month-old basenjis to keep us busy. When they do the Basenji 500, it’s best to simply stay in one place, unmoving as they careen around us, bouncing off the couch, galloping around the piano, catapulting off the couch again and scrambling around the corner, through the kitchen, down the hall, flying over a stack of dog beds that were flung off the couch during this series of leaps . . . .

Tiegan and Miles play, run, chase squirrels, and run more big circles through the back yard. They race at high speeds, feinting and crisscrossing. Occasionally Miles leaps over Tiegan and continues on. They stand with their front feet on tree trunks, willing the squirrels to come down. They trot around with their chins up, looking for movement in the leaves overhead. We have enough trees in our back yard that the squirrels never have to touch the ground; they can run from tree to tree, and occasionally up the excitement level by running along the top of the fence.

Tiegan and Miles each have their specialties. We have childproof locks on the cabinets and a yard stick through the handles of the chest of drawers by the bed so Tiegan can’t open them and help herself. It often appears as though there was a blizzard in our house as fluff from toys and beds is liberally distributed due to Miles’ enthusiastic unstuffing. Miles also likes to chew laundry while Tiegan is very adept at neatly severing shoe laces. Miles is a tall basenji and can easily countersurf. We are working on “Off” with the help of a small plant mister so we can spritz him when he’s caught in the act.

They keep us on our toes, and they make us laugh. We feel so very blessed.