Daisy

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
The third time's a charm.

Both of these old cliches come to mind as I wonder how to tell you about Daisy.

Daisy is dog #3 in my attempt to have a dog after Gus. First there was Maggie - a nice all-around dog's dog who would have been great if it weren't for the fact that she ended up hating small, loud people. That situation just wasn't going to work at our house. Then there was Uma - a beautiful, gentle dog who loved everyone, including children. She just had a problem with listening, barking and sticking around. I still love Uma, but with her in our house life was just too stressful.

As we decided what to do with Uma, Scott said that if we gave her back to my niece, that would be it: No more dogs for awhile. Well, by the time Uma had been gone 24 hours we all pretty much knew that wasn't the way it was going to be. For whatever reason, I just really needed someone else to love. And when given the choice between a cat, chickens, another baby, or a dog, Scott gave up and agreed to another dog.

On Monday Jack and I drove to the Human Society in Virginia, MN planning to meet one of the black lab mixes featured on their website. Gus was a black lab mix, you see. But when we got to Virginia, both of those dogs were gone. Heartbroken, I started to head out to the car with Jack. That's when one of the women who works there started asking me questions and said "Did you see Daisy?"

Well, I had seen Daisy, but I hadn't given her a second glance. I mean she was white, not black like Gus. And she was tiny - only 27 pounds. Gus weighed 115 pounds, for crying out loud.

But what the heck, we had driven an hour to get there, we might as well pet the dog. As you can guess, that was pretty much it for our dog quest.

Daisy is a sweet little girl, very much like Gus in personality despite her small size. She is affectionate, stays close without running off, and is very obedient. When you look at her, she thumps her little tail on the ground enthusiastically. So far we haven't heard her bark, which is a great bonus. Instead, she just makes these cute little squeaking sounds. Scott has compared her to a seal pup and I don't think he's far off.

Daisy is the oldest dog we've ever adopted - she's already seven years old. An online search told me that corgis are healthy and live well into their teens, but who knows? She's bringing plenty of happiness to our home for the time being and that's all I care about.

Which reminds me of one more cliche:

Once a sucker, always a sucker.