The Official Story of Carmelita Linda and the Big no so Easy

She's a mutt, a Basenji hound mix. She looks like a little like a pit-bull terrier cause an idiot cropped her ears, but she is more hound than terrier; she's very slight, has a very long neck and her ribs are well-sprung. Also, she has webbed feet which may indicate retriever. She's about 35 pounds, approx 1 1/2 years old, has one blue eye and one amber. Her coat is short, smooth and ticked, like a miniature Great Dane. Where her ears used to be is soft and fine.
She's a Katrina rescue, from New Orleans where she swam, floated on flotsam, ran with a pack, had a mate ( who was adopted too) and was pregnant and with twelve puppies when they found her. Sadly, she was starving so her puppies had to be taken by surgery. She has been socialized and living in a rescue home for six months in NYC, part of the Companion Animal Network and a wonderful man named Garo. He filmed her and her mates capture, as part of an instructional video, so she is already a media star. We got her only last Monday and she's already housebroken and leash-trained. She is friendly, affectionate, sweet, smart, gentle and calm, but not over shy although she is afraid of trucks and water, which makes perfect sense considering all the swimming she did. They say Basenjis are very much like cats; she doesn't bark, grooms herself and believe it or not, she purrs! We can't believe how lucky we are! She is perfect.

Carmelita in the boudoir

Apologies for the lack of pix. We have had spring fever and need to be outside and sometime the Blogger, she do not upload the pix. Also, we have been working very hard on training. She's doing well on the leash, loves people and kids, not so sure about some dogs. She knows "Sit" and "come". After only four days, my Caramel is housebroken! Unfortuntely she's still a little freaked by traffic and only goes in the back yard. We will transition to the front eventually. It took ten years to get my garden together and now this interloper comes in befouling it all. And I'm not upset about it! She is the best puppy!!!!! Her favorite toy is the rawhide bones from Uncle Sid. Karma-lita! Did I mention that she purrs?
More photos to come when I feel a little better.
I've been reading the AKC book( 800 pages) and this puppy is definitely a hound mix, Love hound, I believe.


A quick non-canine anecdote:
Coming home from Philly last Sun, we stopped for dinner. Our young waiter asked if there was anything else we needed. World peace, says I.
Says he: we need to get Bush out of the White House. I reply, You youngin's need to make that happen, get those GOP's out of office. He replies, I'm a Republican and I voted for Bush, but I realize my mistake and he MUST go.
Now Andrew Card is the latest rat deserting a sinking ship.
You can't make this up.

Carmelita, hold me tighter

Our babygirl puppy arrived last night ! Words cannot express her temperment, her beauty, her sincerity and the love between us, but believe me, I will constantly endeavor to do so. We are so happy!! She posed for these, she's a ham!( her right eye is blue, left is hazel)