What can I say--I feel you pain. My MIL has been with us for a little over a year now. I have recently quit my job of 9 years to stay home with her. She is 85 and her mobility is not good, confused on a daily basis, short term memory is bad and right now trying to keep her dressed seems to be the new thing with her. All in all she is a joy--pleasant and loveable but a real handfull sometimes. She stayed alone while my DH and I worked for nearly a year. I lived in fear that she would fall or get hurt while we were gone. We came home and found the house full of smoke and we knew we were really pushing our luck with this. She (for some reason) filled a skillet full of oil, placed it on the stove, turned it on and walked into the other room and forgot it. She didn't even see the smoke. She apparently fell asleep cause she said a loud noise woke her up--smoke alarms. And she still didn't notice the smoke. We came in just in the nick of time. I didn't go back to work. The first week I was home with her I was amazed at how good she was at "hiding" her confusion. Somedays she shines like a little star but others not so good and we are having a lot more not so good right now. I'm really suprised she didn't get hurt--we were so lucky. I REALLY miss going to dinner and running to the store or just going somewhere. It seems like my life revolves around how she is today. I miss doing things with just my husband or daughter. We sort of do shifts--one of us stays with her so the other can get out for a while. Like you we couldn't get any straight answers about the legalitys of leaving her home alone--and still can't . I guess we just have to go with our judgment with this. I keep telling myself how wonderful she's been to me through the years and how I"ll be in that shape one day. It's not easy.

There is still hope! I've been in touch with the rescue group that has her and have filled out an application with them. I'm not "local" to them, but they'll consider us with a strong vet reference. The foster mom said that she never broke out with parvo symptoms, so they plan to watch her for about another week just to make sure she is through the woods. Keep your fingers crossed!

So so cute! Brit is a look alike to our first dog "Bandit" we had for 16 years. A great dog. I miss him. They are going to be great buddies. I like the name!

Sabrina is here! She is very anxious and is pacing a lot. She will settle down and rest, near me, but she is scared and hand-shy. She has gone out twice since Leza left her here. The second time, I had to go out and herd her back into the house, with the help of both other dogs and DH. She had been out for 20 minutes or so, and would not come back into the house. We called and went out to her, but she kept backing away if we came within 10 ft. DH remarked that it was funny to watch us herding the herding-dog back in the house. Yep - she is an Australian Shepherd mix. She looks like an Aussie in the body and when I looked them up onine, I saw that they do come in her color. See the link below. I learned more about the "shelter" that she came from. It turns out that the lady with the concentration camp tattoo was the lady who died last summer. She helped out the owner with the dogs. The owner had 150 dogs at one time, but now they have her down to 7 dogs. Two of them are Sabrina's littermates. The rescue people have been giving the lady food for the dogs for three years now. She really neglected some of the health problems - like tumors and cherry eye and ear infections. Sabrina is finishing up her treatment for a yeast infection in her ears. She just got spayed two weeks ago. Toby is a bit interested in Sabrina, but Casey is obsessed. He loves her fluffy fur. He wants to hump her every chance he gets. We have been saying "Unh Unh Unh!" to the poor boy all night. Leza said that one of her dogs tried humping Sabrina a lot the first few days, but she growled at him and he quit. We expect it to take a week or so to let Sabrina settle in. Tomorrow I wil try to take some photos. Thanks for all the support! Here is a link that might be useful: Black Aussie with copper points.