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Can a Basenji and Cat Get Along? Only When Sleeping

Basenji Talk
  • Here is Chance and Maddox sleeping. This is the ONLY time they get along :p

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    attachment_t_880_1_chance-and-maddox-2.jpg
    attachment_t_880_2_chance-and-maddox-3.jpg

  • THAT is truly adorable! I'm sure they'll work it out and be best buds!

  • Yeah - looks like they will get along great - soon as they work out the kinks. They look adorable together.

  • Vanessa those pictures are SO cute!! Such precious "critters" you have!

  • You have to think if a B was going to hang out with another animal…...it would be a cat. They'd have so much in common and lot's to talk about.:D

    Very cute pictures Vanessa, glad Chance has a buddy!;)

  • Not my jack, MAN if i let him go, i think hes just rEALLY curious, but he'll take chunks of fur out of Jack the Cat, my neighbors cat…sooo sad

  • Hello- I'm new to the site :-) I have a 6 year old Basenji and 2 ferrets that are all the best of friends. My Basenji is also in love with my cat, when she comes in my Basenji (Pearl) thinks she has to run over to her and try to get her to play with her. The cat hates her most of the time. Pearl is pretty clever at getting attention as well. Sometimes when she isn't getting enough attention she will run to the cat and aggrivate it just enough to get swat at, then come to one of us crying. If we don't pay attention to her still, she will do it again. I have a few audio clips of her, but no video :( Maybe some day. I should get a picture of Pearl and the ferrets together. I was told absolutely not to trust her around little critters but she loves them to death. She even goes for walks with them, and will growl at anyone that comes near them. :-)

  • << I was told absolutely not to trust her around little critters but she loves them to death. >>

    giggling evily…I *bet she loves them....she doesn't want anybody near them, becuase she is growing them fat and tasty ;)

    Just kidding...welcome to the board!

  • In any other case, that would be my first impression. However she is extremely protective over these little guys, even cuddles up and sleeps with them. She's also our little tattletale–The ferrets disappear we tell her to go find them. She'll tell us exactly where they are. It's cute.

  • giggling evily…I *bet she loves them....she doesn't want anybody near them, becuase she is growing them fat and tasty

    ROFL!! :D :)

  • Vanessa626, our B and our cat act like they hate each other (cat ambushes the B when rounding corners; B chases cat for playing with toys) but we catch them sleeping together all the time.

    It's the whole love/hate relationship. =-)

  • It's a constant love/hate relationship between our cat and Basenji. We have had to "modify" our home by installing 4 ft baby gates. Thank god the cat hasn't figured out how to jump over this yet :)
    Any time the cat darts through the house I grab him and put him on the other side of the gate for some "time out time" he will sit there and howl.
    I have to admit though…in the beginning I thought this that it wasn't play. They looked like they wanted to do damage to eachother but now I see that it really is play but it does get out of hand. Seperating your house is a really good thing to do.

  • Those pictures were very cute. Our one cat, Amber, looks exactly the same. Dash can be too rough with Amber so when she feels overwhelmed she runs into the basement until Dash calms down. But they commonly sleep together. Our other cat, Giz, is older and Dash doesn't bother him at all. I think it is because Giz doesn't run.

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    Wow! Somehow, I never got emails letting me know I had responses to this thread and just assumed there weren't any. But now that I'm back in the loop, I did want to thank everyone for their feedback and provide some thoughts of my own. That makes me laugh about the rescue person who wouldn't let young families or lawyers adopt her dogs. :-D I can understand her rationale from both perspectives. It's a compelling argument on her part about lawyers, but not all lawyers are the same, of course. I know a lot of extremely busy lawyers in large firms who struggle to hit their billable hour requirement each month. They're machines instead of people, and I wouldn't even let them dogsit my babies for fear of neglect. That's not my situation, fortunately. The young family part will be, but I've been thinking really carefully on how I'll balance this when the time comes. My dogs are my first children, and I would hire as many trainers as needed and try as many alternatives as I could before I would give them up. Unfortunately, I don't think a lot of people have that mindset about their dogs. :( I would absolutely be open to the idea of having the breeder choose a puppy for us based on their experience and prediction as to personality. All basenjis are gorgeous to me, and as long as the markings aren't completely off-base and I can get a tightly-curled tail (I've seen that the Avongaras can be lacking in this area, and I need a cinnamon bun in my life), personality is the most important thing. I wouldn't nitpick it to death. I'll have to decide on a breeder at some point, and I'd love one who's relatively local so I could visit. The man I got Penny from had great pet Basenjis that he bred… I'd like to go with a more reputable breeder this time around. At the very least, he tested for Fanconi. I can be grateful for that, as all is well so far and I more than likely dodged a bullet when I ended up with such a fantastic dog. My plan would be to decide and get on a waiting list far enough in advance that if there were a couple litters that just didn't produce what my family and I were looking for, we wouldn't be waiting forever. In short, what I'm banking on is that the right pup with the right personality will fit in pretty flawlessly. I know what sets my basenji off in other dogs, and I'm hopeful that I could find one that would suit her and suit our home. Daisy certainly worked out well for her, and I'd love to have that same success again. I've done three puppies in my lifetime, and all of them have grown up to be well-adjusted adults. I know what it takes, and I know it's hard work. I would never go the route of having an infant and a puppy at the same time (isn't THAT actually the definition of insanity?? ;) ), but I am still trying to shoot somewhere in the next 3-4 year range so my two aren't past ten and too old to handle a puppy.
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