The Dog Situation

I promised in my last post to go into more detail about the dog thing and then never did. I guess I felt it needed it's own entry. So I've mentioned before that my father's mother is ill. She is in her nineties and has dementia. She was declared incompetent and after a year of avoiding it, was put into a home. She was unable to live on her own and was a growing danger to herself. She is where she needs to be and her world has gotten better. There was another piece in the puzzle though. She has had a rescued dog since not long after my grandpa died in 2004. The dog is older but able and fit and was basically living alone for the last months. Then she was living alone, well not exactly, Big T was bringing her home often and Jacko was there a few nights a week. So it was manageable. But it was not agreeable for all involved. They needed to start to make more permanent plans. One suggestion was that I take the dog. My mother was not subtle in her push for me to do it. Apparently she didn't want my Dad to take it as they already have two dogs. And when you go around the horn with his siblings, everyone has an excuse. So options are limited. I said I could try it out but needed the option to give her back if it doesn't work for me. I am, after all, a very busy man. So I loaded her up, with food, water, toys, etc for the long journey south. She was very uncomfortable. I was told she rode in vehicles often and was good with it. This was erroneous. She often did travel, but for only 2-3 miles at a time. So about twenty minutes into the trip she started to freak out. I ended up going about 35 minutes before turning back to drop her off. My mother was not impressed but hid it well. I came back alone. Nothing new. Then I find out the next day that the T wants to bring her. I guess he was willing to push her little heart a little further. I picked her up in Guelph and headed for home. So suddenly I have a dependent. The bad part is that my grandma doesn't and can't know, she is still living under the impression that she'll get out of the home with good behaviour. She doesn't understand that dementia doesn't subside or disappear. So please, all my readers, keep quiet on this front. I expect that the dog will have adjustment issues to city life and I'll be sending her back soon anyways. But for the time being it's really going to force me to stick to a structure. And we know that I love structure. Hopefully we adjust to each other quickly and can have a fun time. I guess time will tell.