Poodle remembered as a real retriever

Standard poodle Daisy Mae developed a fond love for the lacrosse balls hiding in the bushes. Over the course of her lifetime, she collected 39 lacrosse balls. After she died, her owner Charles Zale decided to return the balls to Xavieran High School.

According to Zale, Coach Tomas Gonzalez was very pleased to get the balls back and said that losing balls was becoming a major problem. “Playing where we play, we’re accustomed to losing balls. We certainly appreciated getting them back,” Gonzalez said.

Daisy Mae lived with her owner in a building that faced the three baseball fields where Xaverian High School’s lacrosse team practices take place.

Every morning and afternoon, Zale would take the 12-year-old dog out for a walk around the ballfields. The dog foraged for the lacrosse balls that the team members would lose when they practiced. “Daisy developed a love for the hard rubber lacrosse balls,” Zale said.

Indeed, Daisy Mae would search the bushes in hopes of finding one. And, when she was lucky with her search, she would carry it home.

After Daisy Mae died in November, 2013, Zale was left with a pile of lacrosse balls. “It was either throw them away or give them back to the lacrosse team. So I gave them back,” said Zale.

When the lacrosse team started practicing, Zale took the sack of lacrosse balls to Gonzalez and “asked him if he was interested in Daisy Mae’s treasure.” Indeed he was.

“It brought tears to my eyes just listening to him, talking about how special the relationship he had with the dog [was], the amount of fun that they had collecting the lacrosse balls,” said Gonzalez. “He showed us a picture of her with the balls in front of her. If a dog could smile, she certainly smiled in that picture.”

While Zale was walking off the field, Gonzalez’s son who plays on the team told his father, “Don’t take all of the balls, that’s what he can remember the dog with.” His son took one of the balls from the bag and ran to Zale and told him to please keep the ball to remember Daisy Mae.