#88. Nobody Should Spend Christmas Alone.

Check out this beautiful gal.

Meet Mojo. She's 15.

We agreed to dog sit Mojo while our friend Gus spent Christmas with his family in Hawaii. Josh and I have watched Mojo a few times & Gus will watch Patsy from time to time.

It's an excellent arrangement.

Josh picked up Mojo the Friday before Christmas. Something was a bit... off.The left half of her body drooped slightly. Her balance wasn't stellar. In fact, if given a field sobriety test, I'm certain Mojo would fail. Gus had mentioned she had some some sort of equilibrium issue... I just think it was a little worse than we'd expected.

Our week of dog sitting was mostly uneventful.

Patsy and Mojo ignore each other, and aside from hand feeding her & having to carry her down the stairs to let her outside, she's an easy dog to care for.A few days into the dog-sitting we brought her to my family's Christmas. After the initial shock at her lack of balance (which was received with lots of Oh, poor baby!s), everyone fell in love with her.I don't think she's ever eaten so much ham and turkey and cheese in her life.With Mojo's health issues, Gus could have easily said, "I'll leave her with the vet" or "I'll board her so you guys don't have to deal with xyz." I'm so glad he asked us to watch her-- the thought of that ol' lady spending what could be her last Christmas in a concrete kennel just feels wrong... even if dogs don't really celebrate Christmas.While I was scared shitless that she'd get sick or fall and not be able to get back up or "leak" on our floor (she did... it wasn't too bad) or we'd come home one day to a calamity (like we did after Thanksgiving), I was thrilled that Josh and I could love her up while Gus was out of town.Nobody should spend Christmas alone, especially old ladies.

Worth every ounce of my anxiety.

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Update: in case you are wondering, as of December 16, 2014, Mojo is still alive-n-kickin. Sure, she still leaks and has three teeth, but she's still as sweet as can be. 

PS Other posts for animal lovers? You got it. Danielle quit all the bad stuff in her life and started an amazing therapy dog organization. My doggie even once got to be a for real therapy dog. And if you want your brain to explode with cute overload, my husband and I once brought a puppy from Mexico through US Customs. Yes, this is legal.