The source of some trouble

This is Gus, my mother's Norwich Terrier.  He is 12 years old.  Don't let this innocent face fool you.  He's a pain in the neck.

  He has a habit of walking in front of Mother, causing her to trip.  He likes to pee on everything, including the upstairs carpet.  He loves to race out of the yard into traffic when someone opens the gate and will not come when called.  He jumps down from the bed in the middle of the night and asks to be let out.  Or he wanders around the house and that freaks my mother out.  And, he will scooch behind the couch so she can't haul him out and return him to bed.  So now he gets put directly into his crate at bedtime.  Sorry, not sorry, Gus.

This dog is ridiculously pampered.  He eats pricey dog food and still gets table scraps.  He gets regular grooming and expert medical care (something none of our pets ever got as I was growing up)  He has a special stool to help him up on the couch.  He has a spot on her bed.  He has a treats jar that is never empty.  He is, as my mother will say, her "only friend in a cruel world", which is not exactly correct, but he is her constant underfoot companion.

His recent behavior caused her to fall and injure herself, so now she gets to pamper him one-armed while living alone and fending for herself, too.  

This does not make me happy, Gus.

I worry about her being lonely and I also worry about her losing her treasured pet.  I visited her yesterday (hence, no post) to help her do some tasks around the house she cannot do for another 6 weeks, and she told me she had been so lonely, so it seems that even Gus cannot fill the void.

Trouble as he stays, trouble when he goes.

Gina