Our Sweet Girl, Daisy Mae

by Laura Sira
(Midland, MI)

Daisy Mae Sira, 12, of Midland, Michigan, died peacefully in her sleep with her family members holding her, caressing her face, patting her fur, and crying softly as they each said their final goodbyes.

She was a purebred, AKC registered Golden Retriever. (Please laugh with us at this statement, because at the time we thought that breed and lineage were important.)

We researched all sorts of breeds, and ultimately came to the conclusion that we wanted an "Air Bud" type of family dog that was a member of the family and had an affection for vanilla snack pudding cups.

We found a local breeder, and went to visit their "unexpected" litter of December puppies.

I can't remember how many puppies that were there, but they were all very active, scurrying around on the makeshift wooden shed floor. There were several families in the small room with us, choosing their new puppy too. It was quite an overwhelming event. Think of Black Friday, and each family trying to get "the best" puppy.

Craig had his eyes on the one that was dominantly wrestling with an equally playful litter mate, and I was in awe of all of the cuteness, but not really zoning in on any particular one.

Daisy actually chose us. She meekly and timidly walked over to our son John and began licking him. That's when we knew she was the one.

We brought her home.

She was our girl, a female to make our family with four sons complete.

Daisy loved being outdoors, frolicking in the snow, running free on our property, swimming in our pond, and taking long walks with us. She liked to run alongside us as we bicycled or jogged down the road near our home. She also loved sledding with the boys, running alongside and nipping at their gloves as they went down the hill.

She LOVED going bye-bye, whether it was a quick trip into town, an hour drive to visit the grandparents, or a six hour excursion to see the Chicago family. Daisy would become quite uneasy when we were loading the van, worried that we somehow would forget to bring her.

We took her when we could, and when we couldn't, she loved her visits at the Howl~A~Day resort, or spending time with a sweet set of sisters who live down the street.

Unlike Air Bud, Daisy did not like vanilla snack pudding. She liked bananas, peanut butter, cheese, eggs, popcorn, cheerios, pizza, and any food item that fell onto the floor. She especially enjoyed licking our trash can. A big regret is that we never gave her ice cream until the eve of her passing. She loved her first (and last) taste of vanilla ice cream.

Daisy loved chasing things that we threw for her to catch, and she would swim and retrieve items from the pond too.

Other talents she had were barking at us when we came home (but no noise for strangers or delivery people), long drawn out belches, farts so bad we had to clear the room, a couple of play dates with skunks, and a summertime pond stench similar to a wastewater treatment plant.

We loved her. She loved us. We are grateful for the twelve years we had with her. We will miss her.