Vale Miss Daisy

“What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, For all that we love deeply becomes a part of us.”

Helen Keller

Our little Miss Daisy, also known affectionately as Daze, Daisy Doo Dah or just Dude, is no longer with us physically but her spirit and love has certainly become a part of us and will live on with us. Her earthly presence came to an end on Tuesday, 9th of November 2021. It is like a light has gone off in my life. The light of her joy, her indomitable spirit that shone through right to the end. She has been struggling with a heart condition for the last four years and her breathing has got more and more difficult for her. It was almost like she was puffing after a long run at times. The medications and herbs we have had her on since her first diagnosis have obviously helped and her simple determination to enjoy life took her a long way past the initial prognosis which I wrote about in 441 Days. Miss Daisy pushed this average way up by squeezing another 1,527 days out of her time here. However her belly had been continuously swelling for the last few weeks. Her toilet habits were normal but she was getting more and more listless which given her usual spirit was concerning. We took her to the vet and the last pic below shows her almost defiantly sitting up in the car despite the pressure and discomfort her obviously swollen belly was causing her. The vet determined that it could be kidney failure or some form of cancer but she would be unlikely to survive any invasive surgery. Farewell Miss Daisy was the kindest way to bring her suffering to a close.

We had farewelled our little Miss Rosie in June and Miss Daisy was lost without her for the intervening months. I slept on the couch with her for these months to give her as much comfort as I could. Miss Daisy has been the spiritual mother of the family since her arrival with us back in 2007. She constantly checked up on her sister Rosie and myself and Molly. Our cat Millie was another proposition and I was never sure whether Daisy saw the chasing around by Millie as a game that Millie was playing or not. The nips and claws from Millie were certainly something she avoided at all costs. Rosie would not tolerate Millie’s games and would snarl at her but I don’t think Miss Daisy even knew how to snarl. We never heard her snarl once in her life and Millie provided ample provocation. Barking at strangers outside was OK though and the little mother used to be constantly on guard to protect her family from behind the window of my study. Outside was a different story and timidity was her catch cry on walks.

Miss Daisy’s arrival in to our family was a little circuitous. When our little Dolly passed on we purchased a poodle/westie cross puppy, Ruby, through a breeder website but sadly Ruby did not survive the trip from Lameroo in SA and died during her first night with us. The breeder offered us a refund or the pick of another puppy. Molly settled on this beautiful little poodle/cavalier cross, a cavoodle who we named Rosie. However a little later Molly became nervous that Rosie might also not survive the trip so she decided we should have another from the litter as a travel buddy. There was only one other female left in the litter and she became our Daisy. I am embarrassed to admit that I thought Miss Daisy looked a little odd in her web pic, see below, and nowhere as cute as Rosie. How mistaken was I. As it turned out we didn’t need to worry about the risk of air travel because when the time came to collect them we had moved to Maldon and we decided to drive across to pick them up from Lameroo. Daisy was just meant to be with us.

Our daughter pointed out when we shared the breeder web links with her that wasn’t it amazing that the two pups were born on the same day that Dolly passed! Neither Molly nor I had noticed that. Just as curious as that was when we let Daisy go for her first run at home she ran in a big anti-clockwise circle as Dolly used to do when we came back from her walk. Daisy also had the same type of beautiful flared tail that Dolly did. Daisy would normally shy away from any new dogs she met but when Daisy first met cousin Bella, who had been friends with Dolly, it was with an air of familiarity as if to say “Hello don’t you remember me?”. Sadly cousin Bella passed over just last week as well. All of the family doggie crew have now departed. The end of an era in our lives.

The wuppies as we affectionately called the little cavoodle sisters seemed to enjoy the peace and calm of meditation from their earliest days. I wrote about this aspect of our life together in a post called Daisy’s Kiss and also Sweet Confusion. Daisy occasionally would even climb into my lap and sit while I meditated if it was a little colder. I loved how they would simply react to the first bell of my meditation timer and come and join me. See also my post Vale Miss Rosie and how I had to wait to start meditation until she had arrived. I have included some pictures below of us meditating.

Daisy’s spirit showed through though in mischief like scoffing up Millie’s food at any opportunity. Her morning delight was getting the dried up leftover scraps from Millie’s bowl at breakfast time. The little dance she did when breakfast was announced was a joy to watch. In days long gone, this same dance was executed when an outside walk was obvious from the appearance of the walking harness. The last short walk we had together was a very slow process and the relief shown when we arrived back home convinced me that the walking days were done.

Rubbish bins were at risk of raiding by Miss Daisy particularly if they contained used cotton tips, a special delicacy for her. Let me hasten to add that these bin raids didn’t happen very often and it has been some time since the last. Miss Daisy was a very well behaved dog who graduated Puppy School unlike her sister Miss Rosie who never made it to Puppy School. However Miss Rosie’s continual search for comfort precluded her from even bothering to initiate mischief but would happily join in on a rubbish bin raid.

There were just so many things that I now miss about her presence:

• her nose touching the back of my calf as I walk around the house
• her effervescent wagging when ever she saw Molly or I
• her insistence on climbing on my lap the first time I sat down in the lounge chair every day. It was almost like she had to re-establish her position.
• the way she put her back leg up on my leg when sitting on my lap
• her beautiful long eyelashes when you caught a glimpse of them under the fur
• her response to a call of “cleanup crew” when a tidbit of food fell to the floor
• her “mandatory” patrol around the boundary of our yard on her last outside visit at night
• the forceful sit down in refusal of an offer to go outside
• her face invariably at a window when we came home
• her shadowing of me as I moved around the house, particularly since Rosie left us.

We will probably not get another dog as our advanced age means that we may have to pass on before it would. I also no longer have the energy to be able to provide the sort of exercise a growing pup would require. It makes the loss of our dear Miss Daisy even more poignant. If Miss Daisy were to be the last dog we would share our life with then we could have not asked nor wished for a more loving, sweet natured, intelligent, adorable dog than her.

May you be at peace now Miss Daisy, and thank you.

References:

• 441 Days – Daisy’s prognosis
• Vale Miss Rosie – Rosie’s eulogy
• Just an old cap – the old doggie crew
• Daisy’s kiss – meditation with the wuppies
• Sweet Confusion – response to meditation bell
• Walking Again – the wuppies on a walk
• Healing Mantra For Daisy

Miss Daisy at her spirited best:

Miss Daisy highlights: