Daisy Dives In

There are dogs we just take a liking to. We've never met them; we only know them through the notes their foster families send. There's something about the dogs we fall for that communicates itself through images and stories, and it's as if there's a vibration we pick up. Daisy is one of those dogs for us. Here's a photo of Daisy cooling her tummy on the pebbly beach of the shallow pond her foster mom put in for her dogs on the property she owns.

And here are two notes from her foster mom we pasted together from July and August. Frenchies don't swim well, as a rule, which is why Daisy is watched so carefully when she is around the water.

"Well, she's certainly becoming quite the social butterfly. She makes up to strangers, male or female, within seconds and wants her belly rubbed. She gets in their laps and is just soooo sweet. Its hard to believe she was ever aggressive with anyone. She's putting her front feet in the pond so I have to watch her like a hawk. I don't know if she can swim or not and I'm afraid to take the chance. I can definitely say she is going to be an asset to anyone that adopts her. All she needed was patience and understanding."

"Well, she fell in the pond going after that ball yesterday! She was out before anybody could get to her, and she hasn't gone near it since. Whew!
My 13 yr. old granddaughter is able to carry her around, and there have been no, none, nada, episodes of any kind of aggression; she is a sweet little dog. I think her biggest issue is going to be the leaking, poor little thing."
(Daisy takes medicine to control a problem with incontinence.)

We like a girl who's not afraid to try things! She is a high-flyer, and she wasn't going to let any little ol' water feature deter her from fetching her ball! But she's also her own dog. She tried the water. It wasn't her cuppa tea. She doesn't have to demonstrate her independence from her foster family's rules by flaunting them over and over again. This dog is not, after all, demented! She's just got some spunk, some vim, some zippity doo dah that's gotta come out from time to time, in between the belly rubs on demand and the getting toted about like a happy, furry, lazy ol' sack of potatoes in the arms of her personal slave.
Gentle readers, this dog is not restive or aggressive. She is merely assertive. And, as those of us who attended assertiveness training seminars in a long-ago time remember, assertiveness is a desirable trait. It indicates self-respect and leaves a space for the listener to be respected, as well.
Yup. Daisy is the kind of, well, the kind of bitch we aspire to be! She's a model for us all, in that she knows what she wants and she doesn't mind getting her wee feet wet to do it. We shall ponder her example this evening as we enjoy a cooling dip in our happy place among the lilypads and the reeds and rushes in our own darling pond, listening to the familiar twilight sounds of critters preparing for another night in the land of
The Frog Princess