Daisy

We bought Daisy about a year after we got married. She was so tiny. She weighed 6 ounces and couldn't walk very well. She would take a few steps and stumble. The vet told us she was probably much younger than we were told. One ear also didn't stand up but once she grew up it straightened out fine.

Unfortunately, we don't have any baby pictures of Daisy. We bought her shortly after we bought our new house and I guess we had other things on our mind.

Daisy is a pure bred Chihuahua. She weighs a whopping 20+ pounds. We were so embarassed to take her to the vet. The last time they weighed her, the vet kept repeating to the assistant that was weighing her, "Please tell me you're leaning on the scale, you have to be leaning on it." We've tried to put her on a diet but it didn't seem to help. She eats about the same as Elmo and Daphney, I guess she just has a slow metabolism.

Some people have said the picture I used above is a bit "revealing" but that's how she usually sit on the sofa. Almost always with her tongue sticking out.

She also sits crooked like this. We think it may be because of her rather pudgy tummy.

Daisy is a bit of an odd dog. Sometimes I think she's part cat. She almost never comes when you call her name. She can hear just fine. Sometimes she'll even shoot you a look like, "I hear you I just choose not to do anything about it." She also likes to give herself a bath by licking her paw and rubbing it on her face.

She's a bit of a loner. If you watch the Dog Cam you'll see that 80% of the time she's by herself and Elmo and Daphney are together. I'm not sure if it's her personality or because Elmo was almost 2 years old when we bought her and he was too old to bond closely with her. She does play with Elmo sometimes. She doesn't like to get toys directly but she'll steal and fight for any toy that Elmo is currently playing with.

She does two tricks that aren't really tricks and one that she does when she feels like it. When I'm blow drying my hair she always runs over and flops on her back so I can blow the hot air on her tummy. The other "trick" is similar to the first. When you walk up to her she'll flop on her back so you can rub her tummy. The real trick she only does every once in a while. I'll point my finger at her like a gun and say "BANG", then if she feels like it she'll roll over on her back like she's dead.

She has shown us some interest in swimming. We'll work on that this summer.

In 2002, Daisy was diagnosed with Cushing's disease. It accounts a little bit for her large size but the vet still put her on a diet. We're controlling her Cushing's with medication. She's responding very well.

In 2005 we took Daisy in for a check-up. She was acting differently. It turns out that she somehow was completely cured of her Cushing's. Both the tests and the sonogram confirmed it!

On Tuesday, October 18, 2005, Daisy started throwing up. She couldn't hold anything, including water, down. We took her to the vet. Their preliminary diagnosis was Pancreatitis. They wanted to keep her on only an IV so she needed 24-hour care. Bill got up early and took off work early work every day to transport Daisy back and forth from the vet's office to the night hospital. By Thursday, her levels were getting worse so our vet took Daisy to the animal specialist hospital. They did sonograms and tests. They also thought it was Pancreatitis. She stayed there for about a week. She got better and worse, depending on the day. While we were there visiting Daisy, they showed us an ultrasound. Since she was getting worse again, they didn't think it was Pancreatitis. Now they thought she had a blockage in her intestines. It was visible on the ultrasound. She needed surgery to fix it. We agreed.

The surgery didn't go well. They saw that she had extensive liver damage. We asked about any treatment but they said it was long and painful and it might not even work with the extensiveness of the damage. We opted not to have them wake her.

We will miss her with all our hearts.