Daisy, The Little Sister

by Marlene
(Louisville, KY)

We adopted an Australian Cattle Dog (Rufa) last March from a friend at work. He was always a good boy until the last few months and showed signs of extreme seperation anxiety to the tune of almost $500 in damage to our apartment. After talking with our vet, it was either drugs or another dog, we decided on another dog. Daisy was a kinda accidently adoption. A co-worker of my fiancee was telling him about her mom and how she had a 4 month old Australian Shepherd that sits in a crate all day because she works too much and doesn't have time for a dog. We were told she is potty trained, crate trained and knows basic commands. My fiancee suggested that we adopt her. The first night with both Aussie's was not good. Our Rufa was still in the middle of an anxiety fit and Daisy was extremely under weight. He bit her on her neck, I didn't think the relationship would work. The next morning, I made both of them lie next to me... about 15 min later, they were the best of friends.

After taking Daisy to the vet, we found out she was about 8lbs under weight, her puppy teeth are so brittle I have to soak her hard food just so she doesn't break any teeth. Any loud noise and she lays down and shakes. On top of that, not crate trained (unless the previous owner thought it was acceptable to hear a dog cry nonstop), potty trained (only in the crate), and other training? Hmm... I've taught her to sit, stay, lay and shake in two weeks. I don't believe she even knew her name when we got her. I had to keep her. She needed a good home and all of Rufa's Anxiety disappeared the first full night she was here. So, I gained a little girl by accident!

I'm just glad that I saved a neglected/abused dog, even though she's chewing my shoe right now...