Today, my beautiful little beagle turns eleven.

Daisy patiently waiting to eat her birthday cake

Daisy eating her cake!

I adopted her when she was about a year old, so she has been my companion for over a decade. She is a wonderful dog who occasionally tears my heart out – over the holidays she ate a large amount of chocolate, followed by an entire bag of dog treats and began seizing. I rushed her to the vet and thankfully my beloved pooch is okay but it was a stressful day to say the least. This is the second time she’s tempted death by chocolate – seven years ago she ate a pound of dark chocolate. Yes, an entire pound. Sheesh. But she is okay now, happy and healthy, and fully recovered. She’s beaten cancer and death by chocolate and I love her to pieces. In honor of her eleventh birthday, I wrote her this poem.

Daisy – an ode to my dog on her 11th birthday

She knows

       the sound of a peanut butter jar

       twisting open.

She knows

        the commands 

       sit, stay, speak, shake, roll over.

She knows

       the smell of steak cooking,

       the scent of bunnies in the grass.

She is

       a gentle soul,

       a constant companion,

       a chaser of squirrels.

She knows

       the way to the park,

       the local trails,

      the inside of my heart.