Daisy was their first dog. They believed it was important to adopt, so the Klapholz-Brown family had visited several shelters before meeting 2-year-old Daisy at the Palo Alto Animal Shelter. She’d been found as a stray and was still lactating, which meant she’d recently given birth to puppies. Her coat was dry like straw, but she was very sweet, and the family bonded with her quickly.

“When we brought her home, she was so shy, she was afraid of her own reflection,” Sue Klapholz remembers. “She also had terrible separation anxiety and panic attacks when crated, plus she ate everything in sight. There were many ER visits with X-rays to see what objects were in her stomach.”With love and care from the Klapholz-Browns, Daisy transformed into a beautiful, silky-coated, happy dog, who was a valued member of the family, even accompanying them on trips down the California coast.

She was 11 when they discovered a cancerous mass on her thigh. Surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy treatments followed. “Daisy was such a good sport,” Sue says. “We’d go every day for radiation, and she’d just trot in to the vet’s office.” Sadly, the cancer was aggressive.

Following a wonderful family trip to Carmel, where they wheeled her around in a red wagon, it became clear that Daisy was suffering. Losing Daisy was a terrible blow to the family, especially to her three human siblings. “Daisy was our first dog love,” Sue says. “She was a true part of our family.”

By then, Sue had become involved with Palo Alto Humane. She first learned of the organization at the Palo Alto Humane shop/office, which was next door to Daisy’s physical-therapy center. The shop started selling Sue’s jewelry and nature cards, with a percentage of the proceeds going to Palo Alto Humane programs. Sue, who was vice president of nutrition, health, and food safety for Impossible Foods Inc., joined the Palo Alto Humane board in 2018, becoming president a year later.

When Daisy died, Sue found some solace in the fact they’d done everything they possibly could to treat her. She thought about how expensive the treatments had been. “It cost us a year of college tuition to treat Daisy’s cancer,” she says. And then she thought about all the people who would not have been able to afford such care for their own beloved pets.

It wasn’t a big leap for Sue, already a Palo Alto Humane supporter and an animal-welfare advocate, to start the Daisy Fund with a $10,000 donation to Palo Alto Humane, which would go toward helping local residents with veterinary expenses. During a subsequent meeting in 2017 to discuss how the donation would be managed, the idea for a Daisy’s Day event to develop a sustainable revenue stream for the fund was born.“It was an exhausting amount of work, but it was a big success and a really fun event,” Sue says. “Plus, it allowed us to raise tens of thousands of dollars for Palo Alto Humane’s pet-health programs.”

The annual event known as Daisy’s Day has evolved into our Daisy’s Dream campaign. “Daisy’s Dream is very important to me,” Sue says. “We’ve helped so many animals in honor of Daisy, who taught my family and me how wonderful dogs are. Her memory is doing a lot of good for people and their pets.”