Party in My Crib: Our Phat Daizee

We celebrated Daizee's second birthday with us. Her birthday is actually September 9, but we partied on Sunday instead. Ken, Kasey, and their dog Zep came to join in the festivities. I purchased a cake from Three Dog Bakery for our guest of honor and her friends as well as Frosty Paws. They were all a hit! Daizee received a new pink collar with cupcakes on it that she now sports every day. She is one hot chick!

It is hard to believe that two years have gone by so quickly since she came into our lives. It was just the other day I was seven months pregnant and we were on our way to Nisan Pavilion to see Rascal Flats. Our encounter with Daizee was pure fate. Tommy and I were traveling on Route 522 and I was talking on my phone...which was the only reason why I was not already asleep in the passenger seat. While talking to my friend Whitney, I noticed her standing next to this tall evergreen tree next to an industrial building and junk yard. As many of you know, I stop for stray dogs frequently. They always run away, but at least I can say I tried. Daizee was not like other dogs...she came right up to me and sat down. She immediately rolled on her back for a tummy rub. I knew that we had to rescue her. She was covered with fleas and you could see her ribs....hard to believe that she was ever that skinny! When Tommy saw me carrying her to the car, I think his stomach dropped. We put her in the back of our Pilot with Tivo and turned around and came back to Richmond. We contacted the first dog rescue that we were volunteering for in Richmond and they were not able to foster or board her. We told them that we would foster her and we never heard back from them again. Which is another sign that fate was at work...the rescue organization that we first volunteered for never reached out to us again. Their loss was our gain! When we got home, I gave her a flea bath right away. You could actually see what looked like black specks of pepper jumping on her back and stomach. Two weeks past and she was already growing on us. We took her to a local vet to get her shots and to find out that she had tape worms. Soon after remedying the tape worms, she began to gain weight and hasn't stopped since! The third sign of fate that she was meant to be with our family was a couple at the vet clinic just put down their dog and heard about our Daizee. They came over to check her out and loved her. They were just beginning the grieving process from the loss of their other dog and realized that they were not ready for a new addition quite yet. In the meantime, Tommy and I worked with Daizee on learning how to go up and down steps (which I think is a sign that she had never been indoors before), feeding her from her bowl to make sure food aggression never developed, and associating her with as many people and dogs as possible to ensure she would be a social dog.

Tommy was the first one to cave in with keeping Daizee as our permanent second dog. He would hold out his hand with treats in it and tell her, "Daizee, if you want to be a Taylor, you'll eat this treat" or would tell her, "Daizee, if you wag your tail, you're telling us that you want to stay with us." By the third week, we knew she was going to be part of our family and scheduled an appointment for her to get spayed. For those who know us well, we never do anything easy....three days before her appointment, I had Addisan six and half weeks early. By the time I got home from the hospital, the next day Daizee got fixed. When she returned from the vet's clinic, she was throwing up from the meds that she was given. I knew Tommy loved her because he did not complain once cleaning up the mess while caring for me after my c-section. Speaking of messes, she only peed in the house twice and pooped once (and the poop was my fault because I was trying to encourage her to go down the steps on her own when I should have just carried her downstairs because she obviously had to go really badly). When Addisan returned home from NICU, I was a little nervous with how the dogs were going to react. Having this stereotype of pits, I was worried. Daizee rose to the occasion. She was as gentle as could be along with Tivo. I never had, and still don't, have a worry with her around kids. The only thing we had to reprimand her on was jumping up on the bassinet every time Addisan would cry. She would put her paws on the edge and peak her head in to check on her each time she cried and would then cry with her! Daizee is an amazing dog. Even though she barks frequently when people and dogs stroll by the house, she does it with the best intentions. She wants to go out and play with them. I have learned a lot from Daizee. It reinforced to me that you cannot judge others by their "type" and that you cannot fault someone for their history. All you can do is love someone regardless and help them know that they are valued in your life. The return is priceless!