Avongara Manu

Manu was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on the edge of a village called Epi (3°58'47.3"N 26°40'17.1"E). He was seen at about 4 weeks old and then again at about 6 weeks. He was a square and leggy-looking black, tan and white puppy, showing some decent curl to his tail.

At about 8 weeks he traveled by motorbike through the jungle for about 150 miles to Dungu, DRC. From there, he traveled about 500 miles and crossed the border into Uganda and arrived at Kampala. He was in pretty rough shape when he arrived at the vet clinic for health inspections, so what was to be a brief stay turned into about 2 months with excellent care provided by Dr. Burna. Once relatively healthy, Manu moved on to the Vetluv Pet Travel and Clinic under the care of Dr. Alex Mugisa in Kampala.

The new USA importation regulations required time between rabies vaccines and rabies titer results, as well as having restrictions on importing puppies. We finally completed all the CDC requirements when he was about 7 months old and he was scheduled to fly from Kampala (Entebbe Airport) to Dubai to LAX then on to Denver, Colorado (an 11,500 mile trip!). A dropped "O" in his 15-digit microchip number on the travel documents almost cost him his trip to the United States. Due to quick handling by Dr. Alex to revise the flight paperwork, Manu finally arrived in Colorado! It seemed like a miracle!

I would like to express my sincere thanks to the MANY folks including Ethel Blair, Manu (his namesake) and Joseph as the motorbike team, Dr. Burna (Kampala Veterinary Surgery), Dr. Alex (Vetluv Kennels), and Tailwind Pet Transporters and Kennel Club LAX in Los Angeles, in helping him make this successful journey.

He has many typical basenji features: almond eye, alert expression, square outline, level topline, curly tail, and lovely yodel. He is aloof with strangers and on the wary side but enjoys being out and about when not too much attention is paid to him.