A Girl's Best Friend

I wrote a blog in July about having to put my dog Rascal to sleep. I am happy to say that an angel was brought into my life to help me cope with the loss.

My boyfriend's (Timothy) family's beautiful German Shepherd had 6 puppies on March 22, 2010. I wasn't there when they were born, but I did get to interact with them quite a bit. There was one particular puppy that I favored out of all of them. She was always the one that would run over to me and crawl into my lap. She was also one of the biggest pups in the litter. The ends of her toes on her hind legs looked as though they were dipped in white paint. She was very unique.

I named her Daisy strictly by accident, but the name stuck. She was sleeping on the bed next to me at Timothy's house and I looked over at her and called her my "lazy daisy". I tried bringing her home once to see what my family would think of her. She stayed one night and was sent back (Rascal was still alive at the time). I was disappointed, but I know that my family didn't want to have to deal with two dogs.

The day that Rascal was put down Timothy came to comfort me and brought Daisy with him. It definitely helped having her there. She was left at my house over night with me. Mom kept asking when she was going to be returned to Timothy's house, and told her at the end of the week. I had an entire week to try and get my family to fall in love with her, which wasn't too hard.

We went on a camping trip in the middle of July, so Daisy had to go back to Timothy's house. At the end of our vacation, dad detoured to Timothy's place to pick up Daisy for me. My parents talked about it and decided that is was too quiet at home without a dog in our lives. They gave me their final word, Daisy was officially mine.

She fit in with the family real well. My cat Smokey doesn't like her too well, and I'm sure the feeling is mutual. Daisy is a very smart dog, she learns very quickly. She has no problem with sit, stay, lay down, shake, and fetch. My favorite is we tell her to lie down and stay. When she's down, we say her name, form our hand like a gun and say "Bang Bang!" She flops over on her side and rolls onto her back legs sticking up in the air. Very smart dog.

She has acquired a few names from the family. I named her Daisy. My parents call her Daisy Duke. I extended her name by calling her Daisy May. So putting it all together you get one heck of a name: Daisy May Duke.

She does have a problem with chewing stuff up. If the garage is left open, she will go to my bookshelf of books I sell on Amazon.com, pulls out a book, and shreds it. Can't say how many books have been destroyed in total. She also shreds our recycle and my brother's expensive dirt bike filters and gaskets when they get left outside unattended.

Despite all the money she has cost us all, she is a reliable dog. She enjoys rides in my dad's Chevy Bel Air convertible. If I am home alone, she protects me and keeps me company. She has also become some sort of a mascot for our Venture Crew, appearing in many of our posters and event advertisements. When I need some pepping up I'll run around the backyard with her and my spirit is lifted in no time.

They say that a dog is a man's best friend, well she is my best friend too.