DAISY 2/27/04
#010
Pictures
Daisy's Foster Journey - Adopted 3/19/04
Post Adoption Pictures
Pertinent Information
3 yr. old Brindle Female
35 lb. Shelter Surrender
Natural and Docked Tail
Soon to be spayed and UTD
Being Fostered near Albany, NY
Adoption Donation $ $250
3/10/05 - Hey! A whole year
already! I knew as soon as our Daisy girl got in the car in VT that she
was going to stay with us forever after her long trip from Puerto Rico
and her battle with heartworm. She's change so much in that time but has
also kept all those traits we saw in her when she came to us. She has
stopped beating up her brother everytime he sticks his head in the
garbage (although. . .that did seem to cure him of that habit, mostly)
and she no longer spend all her time outside looking for a way out of
the yard. She's completely housebroken and has got to be the best foster
sister ever. She's never met a dog or a person she didn't like and they
all seem to like her,
even the fosters that we thing are aggressive settle down in her
company. Then she teases them until they learn how to play with her.
She's not unwilling to straighten them out if they need straightening
though. I guess all that time on the streets taught her good dog skills.
She goes everywhere with us that she and her brother can and meets all
sorts of people without batting an eye. Only once have we had a problem
and that's when someone who was a stranger to her, not to us, let
themselves into our house. She wanted nothing to do with it and wouldn't
let them past the entry way until I told her it was all right. She's
still a little girl, only 30 pounds or so but she's just perfect and
doesn't need anymore weight. I'm thinking about agility for her this
summer because she's such a smarty pants, I think it would be good for
her.
One more quick 'Lassie' story :-) my in-laws met my kids at our house
after school one day when Mike & I couldn't be there when the bus
arrived. We had moved Satchels crate and they couldn't figure out where
he was. Daisy sat in front of my mother in law - everytime MaryAnn moved
Daisy did until Mary Ann followed her, right to where Satchel was! My
in-laws were shocked that she would do that. I wasn't though she is a
boxer after all! Hee hee!
1/25/05 - I think this is actually
supposed to be our 6 month update - but it's been almost a year so I'll
have to do another in a month or so. That's ok. Daisy is great! She's
fantastic with everyone
and everything. We continue to work on the difference between dog toys
and kid toys but she finds
temptation very hard to resist. On the plus side the kids and adults in
the house have done very
well with their "if you leave it on the floor the dog will chew it
training". She's also very very
smart and we intend to get her into some kind of agility or obedience
training to channel those
brains.
7/14/04 - Daisy is still doing very very well with us - she's
certainly a piece of work. She's learned to
(mostly) walk nicely on the leash, she sits, she downs, she's even
almost mastered the roll over -
something Satch just doesn't 'get'. We haven't enrolled Daisy in a
formal obedience course yet
because I want her to feel very secure with us, she was very timid and
skittish when she arrived and
is doing much better. We had a strange incident last weekend, a friend
arrived to pick up his
sons from a play date and came into the house yelling 'hellooooo' -
Daisy has never had a problem
with people coming to the house before but she panicked when he walked
in. I was shocked - she was
snarling and all the hair on her back stood up - all I can put together
is that his coloring is dark
(he's very much Italian) and maybe she had man issues when she lived in
Puerto Rico so that set
her off. She is shy with all men until she gets to know him but her
reaction was over the top. She
settled pretty well when I told her to but was anxious until he left -
weird. Next time he comes
to the house we'll make sure it's a controlled environment. She's
welcomed her first foster
sister Rosy with open arms though we supervise play time carefully
because she's too rough for the
puppy sometimes. I don't know what else to say about her - she's a great
dog and we love her to
death!
6/11/04 - I give up, I have to write the dates for these updates
on my calendar!! I thought I did one for
May and here it is June! Miss Daisy is doing very well here still, she's
very shy with strangers
but her confidence and trust in us is growing by leaps and bounds. I
look forward to having her in
obedience in the fall because I think she's going to be a very quick
learner. She and Satchel
have been tussling a bit - it appears she does NOT like it when he eats
out of the garbage can. Of
course it's ok if she does, but we're getting a new can with a tight
fitting lid because poor Satch
got beaten up by his "little" sister (he's 40 lbs heavier than she is!)
and needed stitches for
it. Other than being overly possessive of the garbage everyone gets
along here. She gets so excited
when we're getting ready for a walk - as soon as she thinks we might be
she sits, wherever she is,
for her collar and if you ignore her she scootches after you on her butt
waiting for you to notice
her. She crates beautifully and is completely housebroken at this point,
we only crate her
because she tends to chew things she's not supposed to have. That mostly
consists of any stuffed animal
of the kids, anything plastic, and shoes (actually, cheap shoes - not
leather, vinyl or whatever
that stuff is.) Once, or maybe I should say if, she gets over that she
will be allowed run of the
house all the time. She's a big love bug too - cuddles right up to you
for a neck scratching or
to give you kisses and LOOOOVES to get in bed with whoever (me, the
kids, my husband) and cuddle up
on the pillows right up against you. It's a good thing she's so small! -
Soooo. . . we're a little late with our update - but just a little. We
love this Daisy girl! What a character! She has so much personality I
can't even tell you. Daisy is completely housebroken now although we
don't leave her out of her crate at night or when we're out because she
gets into stuff she shouldn't. She is also the consummate escape artist
- we have found all sorts of holes in our fence we didn't even know
existed. Fortunately she doesn't go far and eventually comes back on her
own (she does not come when called) - we are working on her recall as
her first and most important obedience trick! She gets along with all
the other dogs here and has shown great doggy social skills when she
meets others while she's out. She's a little timid meeting new people
but, happily, that's improving too and I think she's going to be
fantastic once she's built up her confidence.
3/19/04 - Daisy has been adopted.
3/8/04 - Daisy is pending adoption to her foster family.
3/4/04 - Miss Daisy came through her spay on Monday like a
trooper - I picked her up on Tuesday and she was so happy to get out of
there! Now we have to keep her quiet for a few days, which is a trick,
so we're playing musical crates to give everyone some time out without
pairing up any dogs that play to hard with Daisy.
We're also keeping Daisy on a leash so she's near us when she's out of
her crate. That's mostly
because she's been sneaking off around corners to pee in the house. She
won't go on the floor if
you can see her but will sneak away to do her business. So the solution
is, until we can trust her, just to not let her sneak away! Plus lots
and lots of praise and treats when she goes outside - which means the
humans in the house are spending some time in the yard waiting for Daisy
to go potty. At least it's warming up here!
And speaking of the yard - our Daisy is an escape artist. She found a
spot in the fence she could
squeeze through - fortunately all she did was hang out by the cars so
she could go for a ride.
(We're not used to little bitty boxer girls here!) Now that that's been
fixed we can see that Daisy is
testing the whole length of the fence to see if there's someplace else
she can get out. This girl
is going to require a very secure yard if she's going to be allowed
loose. She has every intention of letting herself out if she can figure
out how and that could be dangerous because she doesn't appear to be
very savvy around the road.
Daisy is a sweet girl though - she just loooves to cuddle and is
figuring out how to get herself up on the beds and furniture so she can
crawl into your lap. She was in heaven last night snuggled up next to my
4 year old as she was going to sleep. Unfortunately Daisy couldn't
snooze there all night because of her housebreaking issues but she would
have liked to!
Daisy's also a little unsure about stairs - especially open ones - she
wants nothing to do with going up or down them. She does better on the
enclosed stairs and has had no problems with the few steps into and out
of the house. I think she just hasn't been exposed to anything like this
before. Wonder what's running through her head when she sees the inside
of the pet store?
2/27/04 - I've been a bad foster mommy - Daisy has been with us
almost 2 weeks and I'm just now introducing her to the group. Daisy came
to us through Puppy Angels in New Hampshire, they rescued her from a
shelter that they work with in Puerto Rico. Daisy's story is sad. (like
most of the strays that come to us from shelters) She was found running
the streets in Puerto Rico with a rope still tied around her neck. She
was picked up by a volunteer with a rescue group and brought into the
shelter there, no one claimed her so, after she received all her
vaccinations, Puppy Angels flew her to the US with two other boxers and
she came to stay with us. Daisy is a sweet sweet girl who needs some
understanding to help her blossom.
She is very timid with peoples that she doesn't know but warms up after
a while. She loves people - and will cuddle up on a chair or in bed with
you and tuck her nose under your chin. We're working on her
housebreaking issues - she clearly has had no training before now and
the cold weather isn't helping but she does seem to be getting the idea
and I have all sorts of faith that when spring comes she'll be happy to
ask to go out.
She and our other foster, Harvey, play constantly. Daisy can be a little
snarky if she has something she doesn't want to share but the boys all
back off and we've only had minor scuffles that are getting less and
less serious sounding as everyone works out how they feel about each
other. I'm not sure how Daisy would do with another female dog -
especially if the other dog was anything but pretty submissive. Miss
Daisy has not met any cats yet but we're going to try some introductions
this weekend and see how she does.
She's going for her preliminary blood work this afternoon and will be
spayed as soon as the vet gives her the thumbs up. This is this little
girls first chance at a life where she doesn't have to scrounge for
everything and we're so happy to be able to help her get there!
First Snow of 2005