Nicole Tasker Woods

I think that Cali, my basenji-lab mix, was the first one who knew I was pregnant. Towards the last few days when I did not know I was pregnant, she was constantly leaning on me when I was on the couch and practically laying on top of me when we would be close to sleepy time in bed. After I found out that I was going to have a baby, I could see her doing this more and more.

Although she always followed me around before I was pregnant and would be at my heels or under foot throughout the house, she does so even more now than ever before. Even when I get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, she will hop out of bed and sit at my feet in the bathroom and wait for me to finish. Then she follows me back to the bed, does her circle-pace-circle-pace to find the right spot and lets her body fall to the mattress with a flop and a groan as she leans up against my leg.

Cali has also grown increasingly protective of me. Whenever Ryan and I are laughing and jokingly pushing each other around, Cali steps up and bites Ryan or pushes him away. She doesn’t ever hurt him, but she always finds a way to move him away from me to send the message–“Leave my momma alone!” We think it is the funniest thing and we will provoke this kind of behavior from her just to see how far she will take it. She is always serious about protecting me from Ryan–even if he is giving me a hug! She won’t let up until he backs away.

I think Cali is going to have the same protective instincts over my son. She has shown us that she can be very gentle around little people. Whenever we are out walking, Cali is always interested in strollers and wags her tail with and anxious look on her face as she tries to stick her head inside the stroller and see who is in there. This freaks out the mother/father pushing the stroller, which I think is a riot because the only thing Cali wants to do is give a smooch. She has so much love to give that if she doesn’t find someone to kiss every hour, she’d probably explode.

We have a couple of friends with 1 – 1 1/2 year olds and since they are already low to the ground at Cali’s level, she loves to walk up to them and give them a kiss, which also doubles as a tissue cleaning up a runny nose. She is very good about sharing her own toys with babies. One little boy was walking around our house, using her squeeky milk-bone as a telephone. As he was walking and talking into the bone-phone, Cali was following him around licking the bone from behind. He thought this was the best game ever!

I can see it now…my son sitting in his high chair eating cheerios and conveniently “spilling” them over the edge of the tray to the basenji that is patiently begging on the ground below. Cali loves cheerios.