Sometimes in order for someone to feel joy someone else must feel disappointment. In this case the disappointment was worth it.

We went to Tammy's sister's house for Christmas Eve. When we got there her Sis was holding a new chihuahua. She was the cutest thing; she didn't shiver beyond a barely perceptible movement, she was comfortable in a crowd of strangers, was passed from hand to hand and was generous in her licks; she behaved herself perfectly around the three-year-old.

They had already named her Daisy. About four days before a friend of theirs had found her wandering a road outside Graham, filthy and without a collar. They kept her a few days but already had dogs and asked Sis and her husband if they could take her. They have an aging pomeranian and plenty of room for another little dog. They gave her a bath and fell in love with her.

Knowing that chihuahuas are rarely strays they wanted to make an honest effort to find her owners. They were going to put an ad on Craigslist but we were all wary of how to word it; if they merely said a lost chihuahua was found they'd be guaranteed to get calls from people claiming they lost their pup. It was suggested they demand an exact description which had me thinking I'd be at a loss how to describe my own baby girl (uh...she looks like a yorkie...her hair's messy...she has eight nipples...etc.)

They looked on Craigslist to see if there were any local ads of missing chihuahuas and the very top thing that popped up was a missing pooch named Daisy Mae! Everyone else was certain that wasn't her. They said the coloring was off, the ears were shaded different. I was waiting for someone to claim her bandana was photoshopped.

Before they went further they got the idea of taking her to a vet and seeing if she was microchipped. An emergency vet was still open so they took her there. Not only did she have a chip but she, who had independently been named Daisy, was the very same Daisy Mae in the ad! She and her owner was from out of state visiting relatives for the holiday. I didn't catch the story about how she had gotten away, but she was now going home on Christmas Eve. They said when the owner got to the vets office she jumped right into their arms.

Sis and her husband got back home and told us what happened. We were all disappointed that we wouldn't have Daisy with us but I would happily accept that in return for the awesome feeling of joy and relief her owner must have felt. Since she had been missing a week in a foreign state her owner must have been giving up around that time.