One Man's Trash Was My Treasure

This is a layout that features my sweet Daisy. Although she is no longer with me, she is always in my heart.

Daisy was another victim of the horrid puppy-mill world. She was used over and over again to produce liter after liter of babies, then when she was all used up, and had just had her last liter of puppies, her owner dumped her out on the street like trash. She arrived at our place of business, and my husband got her to come to him, and he started feeding her. After a few days, he called me and said he was afraid she was going to die, would I be willing to take her at the house and see what I could do and if she made it, find her a home. I, of course, said yes. He brought her home and she was a mess. She was extremely undernourished, flea ridden with patches of fur missing and teats that had just started to dry up and were covered in mammory tumors. I took a few days to get her settled and comfortable with me handling her, and then took her to the vet. She did not seem to have ever been vetted, due to her condition, she was guessed to be about 7 to 8 years old, although her poor body was more like that of a much older dog. It was also discovered that she had heart worms. We worked on getting her weight up and then had her fixed and all the mammory tumors removed and went through the process of de-heartworming her. Daisy healed, went from 82 pounds to 120, grew a gorgeous, shiny red coat, and in the process stole my heart. The decision was made for me to keep her, and we quickly became best friends. She loved going for long hikes with me and our Jack Russel-Jack. She really loved the lakes and just had the most amazing disposition. She trained really easily for an older dog and lived to please. Six months later, I thought she had allergies, so I took her to the vet and dropped her off. I got a call that afternoon- and I lost my heart. Daisy had lymphoma that had spread through her whole body. Within days, she became so ill she couldn't get up, and I had to make the choice to put her to sleep. I was devestated-still am-even though it has been 3 years, I am still sitting here typing this with tears pouring down my face, as if it were yesterday.

It was so hard, but I swear, even knowing the outcome, I would do it all over again. She brought something special to my life, and I like to think that God gave her to me so that she could die happy and with someone who loved her, not on the street and lonely. She didn't deserve that.

I started the layout with some Glitz pp that I distressed and inked. I then took a 2nd piece of K & Company pp, cut it to a square, inked and distressed it. The next layer is a Glitz layering paper piece, on top of that is a distressed and inked circle that I added some beads to, and the last pp layer I cut to a rectangle and punched. I placed two pics of Daisy amd added some rubons, chipboard and doggie bone bling.

I took a Prima Felt Ribbon and built my flower layers, adding a hand made tag with part of my title on it, and popped on some bling.

I took a metal piece I had in my stash, painted it with Perfect Pearls Green Pantina and some Tattered Angels Glitter Glam. Cut a butterfly from some cardstock, and Utee'd it to get the glossy look, and attatched it to the metal piece, then used some sticker letters to create another piece of the title.

For the last part of the title, I rubbed a Prima felt rubon onto pp, cut it out, used a label maker for the words, and added some brads. I took a daisy paperclip, my son found on the playground and gave to me when he was in kindergarden, and painted it with Perfect Pearls and Glitter Glam, and slid it onto the paper layer. In the corner I used another Prima felt rubon and layered some Prima hydrangea blooms onto it and for the finishing touch, I used Daisy's tag from her collar that I had kept and tied a rafia bow through the hole and added it into the corner piece.

Thanks for letting me share a little piece of my heart with you. ~ Renea