We've adopted!

We've added a member to our family! You're probably thinking "what are those two old codgers doing adopting at their ages?" But, it's not exactly what you might think at first glance. Most of you know my Mom, Mary. Prissy is her pekingese that she has had now for all except about 6 weeks of Prissy's first days. Prissy is now 17 years old (and that's a lot of years in dog years), pretty much blind and deaf, but still perks along with Mom on her daily walks around her apartment building. In fact, whether Mom could keep Prissy with her when she moved to her current residence 5 years ago was a critical deciding point. About 10 days ago, Mom called and said, "I've got a PROBLEM." Prissy's diet had been changed by the Vet a few days prior to the call, and it seems it didn't agree with her GI system. To keep it brief and not too graphic, Mom had been cleaning up after Prissy all day as she "leaked" from both ends. Of course, she was dehydrated by this time and so, I suggested she might want to get her to the Vet. Mom was exhausted after all the cleaning, etc, so Joe and I went to pick up Prissy that night. When we took Prissy to the Vet the next morning (which was last Friday) he decided to give her some IV fluids and keep her there over the weekend. After the weekend of tender, loving care, and a little help from some drugs, Prissy came home (meaning our home) on Monday and has made steady improvement since that time. Mom says she just can't handle Prissy any longer and has "let go." I think that since Prissy has been gone, Mom has realized that it is easier without her. So, you guessed it! We now have another dog. She really isn't much trouble. Joe has always loved her (as have I). Except for the long hair that gets on everything, we enjoy having her here. She only weighs 8 pounds (so doesn't eat much), and at 17 sleeps a lot of the time. However, since she has lost most of her sight, the first thing we had to do was put the baby gate back up at the top of stairs yesterday. Yesterday, when Prissy saw the light of the stairs she thought it was a hall, and before I realized what was happening there was a little ball of long, brown fur rolling all the way down our stairs to the basement. I was very thankful she didn't get hurt. She also periodically runs into things she can't see well, but doesn't seem to have difficulty finding the food bowl. She likes to travel, so we will take her with us to visit Joe's sister this weekend.