I may talk about them like I can’t stand them, but the truth is they are two spoiled dogs and my wife and I love them to death.

Pepper & Basil are half-sisters.  Both had the same (small) mother.  Both Pepper & Basil are at least 50% larger than their mother.

Pepper was born in March of 1997.  Her father was fairly large (roughly twice the size of her mother) and had very thick fur.  Pepper, although smaller than Basil, is more stocky.  Pepper’s front paws are about 50% larger than Basil’s front paws.  Pepper is probably tougher than Basil physically, but Basil often “wins” the play fights they have because Basil has a propensity to be a, well, pain-in-the-ass.  And I suspect Pepper frequently gets sick of Basil’s aggressive, spoiled-brat attitude and just lets her take the chew stick or whatever.

Pepper is a MUCH quieter dog than Basil.  Pepper was raised in our apartment before my wife and I purchased a house.  So we did not encourage Pepper to bark when she was growing up because we didn’t want to be the neighbors with the yippy dog.  We got Basil after we moved into our first home.  Basil is loud.  Basil is very loud.

Pepper is the more peculiar of the two dogs.  She doesn’t like being held, but would prefer to just lay next to you.  If you pick her up she just looks at you like “Ok….what are you doing?  Do you think I like this?”.  You get the feeling like she is putting up with you.  She also, in contrast to every dog I’ve ever known, does NOT like her tummy rubbed or scratched.  This makes her sneeze and shortly thereafter get up and walk off.  Pepper REALLY likes her crate and spends, in my human opinion, entirely too much time in it.  But this is her choice and the door is always open to her crate.

Basil was born in December 1998.  Her father was smaller than Pepper’s father.  In fact, Basil’s father was so small we though Basil would be…small.  But Basil is as tall as and a good four to five inches longer than Pepper.  Basil has a thinner face than Pepper and finer hair.  Basil is a “cuter” dog than Pepper.  If you saw both of them, you’d probably want to pick up Basil.

Basil is also a big baby.  This animal needs constant attention.  And if she doesn’t get it, she’ll scream for it.  Basil is a higher-maintenance pet than Pepper.  And a louder pet.  Whenever it’s playtime, the key thing to do, as far as Basil is concerned, is bark.  Bark a lot.  Barking must be a part of it.  A part of everything.  I think Basil likes the sound of her own bark.

I usually address Basil as “Bo-zull”, “Bee-zull”, “Bum-zull”, or when I’m mad at her, “Bays-hell”.

Basil loves to have her tummy rubbed.  Or her ears scratched.  Or her head scratched.  She just wants to be right next to you all the time.  Without blinking, Basil can sit and stare at you while you eat your ENTIRE dinner.  I’m not making this up.
 

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