Dear Jon and Susan,
First I would like to say how very much I enjoyed Russell Brown's article in the April issue of THE BASEN-
JI, "Hereditary Disorders of the Basenji". It was written so that all could understand, avoiding both unnecessary
technical terms and any scaremongering. This is exactly the ideal sort of article we need, in my opinion, when any
Basenji health problems unfortunately present themselves.
 Having written about cream Basenjis, and why among the original dogs they were the only color we felt
should be carefully avoided. I think this photo of a cream will be interesting as prob-
ably very few of the present day owners have ever seen a cream in the flesh or in a
photo. I do not know the name of the bitch nor her breeding very undesirable feature
of a pink nose, pink lips, and pig-like pink eye-rims. The eyes were a very curious
green-yellow. In fact it was very reminiscent of the albino kangaroo In the London Zoo
at that time. Creams were known from among the very first Basenjis, Bongo of Blean
having sired creams and Bokoto of Blean having produced them, but Bereke of Blean
never to my knowledge had any creams. Mrs. Burn herself was adamant that they were
very undesirable, and they always went to pet homes without pedigrees and with as-
surances that they would never be bred from. It is possibly from these creams that we
get the rather washy noses in the reds, though with time these are becoming much
more rare.
There was never any malice or ill-will over the banning of creams. We all used to say that if only they had
black noses, dark eyes and dark eye-rims, they would have been a most attractive and welcome color in the
breed, and I am sure would have become very popular. But their semi-albino points made their inclusion out of
the question. Veronica Tudor-Wllllams
East Molesey, Surrey, England |