In December 1997, the last time she permitted herself the luxury of Yuletide décor, Ridgeback lover and rescuer Elise Lewis of Chattanooga, Tennessee, penned a parody of breed-specific holiday mayhem. After posting “The Ridgeback’s 12 Days of Christmas” on a popular email list, and singing it at her office Christmas party, she promptly forgot about it.
But, like the literary version of a designer dog, it soon surfaced in unlikely mutations. “I’ve seen it changed to Shepherd, Xolo, Great Dane, Golden Doodle – any two-syllable dog breed will do,” Elise says.
A less amusing change was Elise’s name morphing into “Author Unknown.”
Here are the lyrics:
On the eleventh day of Christmas, my Ridgeback gave to me:
Eleven unwrapped presents
Ten Christmas cards I shoulda mailed
My wreath in nine pieces
Eight tiny reindeer fragments
Seven scraps of wrapping paper
Six yards of soggy ribbon
Five chewed-up stockings
Four broken window candles
Three punctured ornaments
Two leaking bubbles lights
And the Santa topper from the Christmas tree.
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my Ridgeback gave to me:
A dozen puppy kisses
And I forgot all about the other eleven days.
Excerpted from 100 Memorable Rhodesian Ridgeback Moments
Today, Ridgebacks are all the same color – various shades of wheaten, which is, of course, the color of wheat, from pale flaxen to a rich, ripe red. But eighty years ago, when the Rhodesian Ridgeback was still a rarity outside its native African, brindle dogs were common, as were fawn dogs that sported great, big white socks.
This 1935 short was filmed in England, where brindle dogs were exported in some number. In this news clip, they are being walked on the estate grounds by a kennel girl.
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/lion-dogs/query/ridgeback
A site visitor named Susanne was kind enough to share this with us, noting it is based on the research of Linda Costa: “These are the first Ridgebacks imported to the UK. They came out of Kenya from the Wallers, then imported to the UK by Mrs. Foljambe who did a great deal of promotion for the breed, including showing them for the first time in the UK at Crystal Palace in 1927 … This video was shot at Osberton, the Foljambes’ estate in the UK, and the lady with the dogs is the kennel maid who oversaw their breeding operations. By the time this video was made Mrs. Foljambe had died; her husband continued breeding into the 1940s.”
Today, the brindle pattern has disappeared, never to return: In order to produce a brindle, one of the parents has to be brindle, and those dogs waded out of the Ridgeback gene pool many, many generations ago.
Backyard smelling a little, er, ripe? I use this tried-and-true formula:
Take a large-size bottle of Listerine mouth wash, original formula. (CostCo sells two-packs of the 1-liter size). For a household with multiple Ridgebacks, I add it to one of those plastic weed sprayers you can pick up at Home Depot. Add a couple of squirts of Dawn dishwashing liquid (not too much, or you’ll create a bubbly mess). Next, two parts water for every part Listerine. Screw on the top, pump up to create some pressure, and then spray away!
The Listerine helps break down the bacteria that cause the unpleasant smell, and the Dawn helps it cling to vertical surfaces like walls as well as plants and shrubs, without harming them.
Reapply after rain, or as often as needed.
Your neighbors and garden guests will thank you!
You’ve brought your new Ridgeback puppy home. She is swaddled in her fuzzy blanket, and is peacefully slumbering. You grab your iPad and zoom in to get some Facebook-worthy outtakes.
And then – she does it. Twitching non-stio, with little jerky, hitching movements that look for all the world like aliens have taken over her body.
Not to worry – that’s just her nervous system developing, and it’s entirely normal. Newborn puppies exhibit this sleep-twitching in the whelping box, and it can continue to a lesser degree when the puppy goes home.
Of course, there’s a big difference between twitching and seizing – these benign, involuntary movements only happen when the puppy is dozing, and her body is otherwise relaxed, never rigid.