Is there any way to daisy chain a 2009 24" iMac to a 2013 macbook pro with dvi cable? I have seen the apple support guidance located at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3924, but find it hard to believe there is not some kind of work around.  Any ideas?
You can attach your 24" iMac to your MacBook Pro using a MiniDisplay cable. Your MBP has Thunderbolt and the iMac has MiniDisplay. Follow the instructions on the site you linked to and enjoy.

*Daisy chaining is when you have a line of devices that use the same connection (Thunderbolt or FireWire) and you can attach several devices (external hard drives for example) and the devices are attached to each other with one of the being attached to the computer.