ARRIVAL

One day while my wife was out on one of her morning power walks, a stray dog followed her home. This was a none too rare experience for our neighborhood. We did not recognize the dog, and spent some time trying to find her owners. Then next day, my wife took the dog out when the neighborhood kids were playing and soon found out where she lived.

Her name was Geegee and she lived in a house from which her owners were moving to a place that didn't allow dogs. We offered to help find her a home but soon became enamored with her gentle ways and decided that if she was tolerant of our cats we would keep her. When we introduced her into our household she immediately sought out our dominant male cat and walked right up to him. They touched noses. He meowed, and that was that.

We had learned from adopting numerous stray cats that the best thing you can do to move the transition along is to give them a new name. Most of the time you don't know their name because they are strays, but even if you do, giving them a new name helps them transition from their past and look toward the future.

We took to her well and she became an extremely integrated member of the family.

IN RESIDENCE

Daisy was a great companion. True to her Bearded Collie breeding she would always be most comfortable lying down at a position in the house that was exactly midway between were my wife and I were working. She was very gentle and excelled at rounding up stray dogs and bringing them to us if encountered on our walks.

One day a friend of ours told us about their new Spaniel puppy and how afraid of everyone it was. They were having a hard time integrating it with the rest of their household, and I suggested we bring Daisy over and see what happens. When we got there the puppy ran and hid from all the ruckus but eventually poked her head out to see was going on. Daisy immediately saw her and took a step in her direction. The puppy ran and Daisy froze and immediately lay down.

Soon the puppy was curious again and came out of her hiding place, and Daisy crawled a few inches toward the puppy who scampered back in her hiding place. Over the next hour Daisy inched forward and as the puppy got braver, she didn't run but still kept her distance. Finally they touched and Daisy licked her and they began to play. By the end of the night Daisy had that puppy in complete control and the spaniel was acting a whole lot less fearful.

Our friends later admitted that was a turning point for their dog.

But that's not to say that Daisy didn't have her personal fears. The most comical incident happened in my Toyota Camry wagon on our way back from the grocery store. We had purchased various fruits and vegetables and had them in cloth sacks in the back. In the wagon you can fold down the back seats to expose a back deck, The usual configuration with which Daisy rode was her sitting in the wide seat with the other down giving the deck an el shape.

We were moving not too fast down the main drag in our town when one of the bags tipped over and some of the veggies decided to spill out. A particularly rogue melon, all by itself in its own plastic bag, decided to roll around a bit. At every deceleration it got closer to Daisy who was looking more nervous by the minute.

Then a driver pulled in front of me and I had to push on the breaks a bit hard and in an instant I had a 70 pound Bearded Collie in my lap with a rather pompous looking melon occupying her previous seat. I think it was the rustling of the plastic, as the melon rolled, that particularly upset her. We managed to pull off to the side of the street, but weren't able to get Daisy back in her seat until the melon was banished to a foot well.

DEPARTURE

We had Daisy a long 10 years and enjoyed every minute of it. She eventually developed congestive heart failure. Her final days were quietly experienced on the patio as a lot of exertion gave her dificulty in breathing. When her time came we saw to it that she was able to leave peacefully at the emergency clinic. She continues to be dearly missed.