Sod's law

Basenji are, say many websites, unusually cat-like. Habibi's only part Basenji, but she appears to have the cat-like thing down pat.

As Cleodhna and I recently blogged, we've acquired a third dog. Cleodhna regularly gets asked to house stray and/or rescue dogs, but (she assured me today) normally refuses. Habibi is special; she's pretty, house-trained, and well socialised with both dogs and humans (so probably wasn't abused by her previous owner - and whatever the nature of how and why she was left to fend for herself for days in the Botanic Gardens, there are far, far worse places to be lost or abandoned than a park in the West End of Glasgow crawling with dogs and dog people).

She arrived with a leash and a blanket (that's the thing with dog paw prints in the photos), and her blanket is the place she defaults to when she's not eating or playing the dominance/submission dance with Laszlo. (Any new addition to the pack has to find its place, and Laszlo wasted no time making sure that she knew he was top dog. Tails have been wagging nearly all of the time, and Cleodhna, as alpha female of the pack as a whole, has intervened whenever things got slightly too tense.)

Educated guesses say that her previous owner was probably a man, given that she appears to respond better to men than women. So Cleodhna decided to move her blanket into the office, so she's close to me. Fair enough. We cleared a space between the computer and the piano, and she happily plopped down, after a brief episode of blanket nrrr.

Problem is, I appear to be slightly allergic to Habibi. This will probably clear up in a few days - I'm mildly allergic to my cats Vali whenever I go back to France, and I end up sneezing for a few days and then it clears up. (I haven't been back since Helen died, but given that Vali is her daughter, and is an almost dead ringer for her, I'm betting I'm slightly allergic to her as well.)

So, to sum up: a dog I didn't expect or even particularly want (Cleodhna phoned me this afternoon: "You're not going to like this, but can we keep this dog for a few days?"), has ended up part of the household within roughly three hours, and has become my responsability, even though she causes me minor, but still annoying, physical discomfort. And yet I'm happy, uploading pictures to the Internet and telling my friends about this great new animal I have.

Cat-like? Down cold.