daisies of the galaxy

daisy wasn't the most socially adjusted dog. she was notorious for bringing you a tennis ball or a stick and setting it down next to you and barking until you finally picked it up again and threw it. this process would go on forever. she would never, ever tire playing fetch. never. it was amazing. what she was though was a good dog. she was good for her owners. she was proud to stay and guard the house, proud to lay by the fence and wait until someone would come home and maybe they would play fetch with her again.

i wasn't close with daisy. but the reason i'm writing about her is because i watched her die yesterday. she had a brain tumor and we'd known about it for several months. by the way, daisy was my wife's mother's dog. anyway, she would wobble and fall over when she tried to get up and walk. but she had good days and apparenty these last few days were good for daisy. she had a friend, a younger dog that the neighbor's brought with them while vacationing from houston. they were playing together and chasing each other and daisy chased the young dog into a pond and got her foot stuck. she didn't have enough strength to get her foot out of the mud. the stress of the water and almost drowning, sent daisy into a seizure.

a young girl, probably 17 or 18 jumped into this nasty pond and rescued daisy. we got there when she'd been out of the water for about 20 minutes. her breathing was labored and she was unable to stand up, but other than that, she seemed alright.

but about an hour later, she wasn't alright. something had collapsed inside her head. her tumor had ruptured and she was suffocating with blood in her lungs. she was drooling blood and she was unable to control her bowels. we found a 24-hour vet who would see her. so we loaded her up on a flat bed truck and my wife's mom rode with her all the way to the vet like that. when we lifted her up and put her on the truck, she started bleeding everywhere and let out this howl of pain and it became very clear to me that it was daisy's last day on earth. i had never seen anything die in front of my own eyes. people, animals, they were either close to dying or already dead. i had never witnessed the event of dying. and although i wasn't there when they put daisy to sleep, i petted her for the last time and her eyes were rolled back into her head. she was gone.

it's tough when animals die. like i said, daisy could be extremely annoying when you were hanging out in the back having beer and just wanted to relax. she would bark and bark and bark until you played fetch with her. but she wasn't full of malice. she was sweet and she wanted your attention. and who can fault her for that. she rests easier today and i'm happy for her.