Greenwood's Wildflower
better known as Daisy Mae
Daisy has no pedigree. This is a Rescue story.
When I first met Daisy in June 2005, she was barking her skinny little head off at me. This tiny little thing in the kennel run was covered in fleas, with a ripped ear, and bad teeth, but she still had plenty of ATTITUDE with a capital A.
I had come to HER house seeking out additional Whippets after the local animal shelter hinted that there could be more dogs in bad shape on this particular street. We had just gotten four Whippets from the shelter that came from this house. When I arrived at the house, however, no one answered the door, save for Daisy, a Doberman and another Whippet who came out into the kennel run to see who was trespassing on their property.
I told this barking sliver of a Whippet that I would be back. And sure enough, after two weeks of negotiations, the owner gave her and the others up to Whippet Rescue.
It's not been an easy road for Daisy, nor the rest of the group we lovingly call the "Maryland 6." Besides the flea-bite dermatitis, there were the worms and the bad teeth and various untreated medical conditions. There was leash-training for the first time in their lives. There were long-overdue vaccines and first car rides. But lots of love along the way.
A month after I decided that Daisy was staying for good, she suffered an embolism to the spine that left her paralyzed. The fact that she's able to walk today, let alone run and play with my other Whippets and give me heck if her dinner is late, is a miracle in and of itself.
That week that she was paralyzed was heartbreaking. To watch her want to walk and run so badly and not be able to do it, seeing her try to drag herself using her two front legs, well, it was devastating.
But Daisy - little as she is - is such an amazing fighter. A week to the day of the stroke, on my birthday, as I was trying to express her bladder in the yard, she said, "Nosiree Bob," and took off on very wobbly legs to go pee on her own. She has been improving day by day ever since.
She is, I think, a 22-pound force of nature. In spite of everything she's been through, she's the happiest dog I know, and I'm proud to call her my own.
Brigitte Greenberg
Whippet Rescue - Maryland Representative
To find out how to adopt your own Rescue Whippet,
please visit www.whippet-rescue.com
or visit my Rescue page here.