Goodbye Miss Daisy

Losing a pet is a sad occasion.

Daisy came to us because she would not stay in our son’s yard in Weatherford.  We were in the country with room for her to roam.  She remained an escape artist.

She had to adjust to our other dogs.  Our oldest dog was an old English sheepdog named Lucy.  She was definitely the ruler of the pack.  Abby was a young Shar-Pei.  She was used to all of Lucy’s attention and had no intention of sharing it with Daisy.  Daisy was jealous of her, and they did not get along.  After a few minor skirmishes, they decided to make peace and eventually began to play together.  The other dog was a Weimaraner named Sparkle.  She got along with all of them, but she preferred to be wherever there were people.

Daisy was part Catahoula.  She became a very good watch dog.  She knew what was going on around the entire place.  She met everyone who came onto the property.  She often sent people scrambling back to their cars.  She would bare her teeth, and they expected her to growl.  She was not showing anger.  That was her smile.  Family and friends soon learned that was her way of greeting them.

Her bad habit was digging under the front fence.  We live on a private road, and she did not roam far.  She could dig holes faster than Ken could fill them up.  Then he started putting large rocks into the holes.  She could move a rock almost as large as she was.  He talked about putting a concrete curb under the fence, but it never happened.  A couple of years ago the gate opener broke.  Rather than get out of a vehicle to open and close the gate, we often just left it open.  We discovered that if the gate was open, Daisy stayed inside.  She seemed to have no interest in getting out if she did not have to work at it.  The gate opener was fixed, but Daisy was aging and having health issues. She did not have the energy for very much digging.

As her energy diminished, she wanted to lay outside on warm nights.  Within the last week, our barn cat began to sleep outside with her.  Early on Thursday morning, a light rain moved over.  Daisy apparently made no effort to seek shelter.  The barn cat stayed with her.

Daisy was buried today beside her friends, Lucy, Abby, and Sparkle.  We will miss her.