Daisy

Continuing on with the Dogs of Thursday blog entry my aunt does, I'm writing about daisy. Daisy came up to join me in my apartment today, so this entry will be about her (- duh!). She's in need of a home, she's a wonderful and she's an adult Shepherd mixed dog that I brought up from Georgia - the same shelter that One-Eyed Jack and Finn came from.

It was a "gallbladder removal surgery" present to myself. After some back and forth conversations with my contact down in GA, she was going to pick a dog out for me. I had mentioned no money (my surgery meant no paycheck) and she found sponsor money for me, but by that time it was the morning OF my surgery! I told her I'd be recovering and unless it was a tiny dog, puppy or a coach potato, sponsor money or not, I couldn't do it. I couldn't take on a large dog that would drag my around while I recovered from my surgery. So, there it was - I was getting a dog and leaving the choice of which dog up to my contact - thank goodness she's good to me!

Oh, and I say "it" referring to the dog up to this point because I knew Daisy as a cute, MALE Shepherd mix until my parents picked her up and she was definitely not a boy. Needless to say, I was terrified that after she was assumed to be a boy dog and at an overcrowded shelter that she might be pregnant - thankfully, she was actually already fixed.

Daisy is sweet, pretty quiet and likes to be by your side or sleeping on the sofa. She's yet to jump up on the bed. She sits for her food, though when overly excited (meal time or meeting new people), she does jump up. We're working on that. Aside from needing to get over some awful sneezing after getting out of the shelter, she's been in great health and, oh, is housebroken too.

The only real flaw I've been able to root up is that Daisy doesn't seem to photograph well though. She's predominantly tan and does not have as much dark coloring as a Shepherd might. It might be this that affects it, but she comes off looking older in her photos. She's only about 2 to 2 1/2 years old.

She's just reached that point in her life where she's lost that "puppy hyper energy" and, unlike Jack and Finn, it is very obvious Daisy had a loving family at some point. Jack lost an eye and was terrified of people, especially men, and he had to build himself up to sleep in "comfy" spots (for the longest time, he'd just lay down on the hardwood floor, instead of the bed I had for him, as if that was what he was used to. Finn was so skinny, isn't housebroken, possibly has a long untreated allergy problem and didn't even know to sit when I said it, tried to push his butt down or use a treat for the behavior. Daisy wants to be with people, she's housebroken, she's fixed, she fit right into my family when we took her in to foster her and she jumps right up on a sofa.

I'm not sure what's been more moving and heart-wrenching - to watch dogs like Jack & Finn get used to love, comfort and happiness or a dog like Daisy who came into my house with almost a visual sigh of relief that she was back somewhere comfortable & safe.