Very touching conversation here and I simply wanted to butt in to send my best to your pooch and your family, HRMG. Having just come back from the store where I got Kiko (and Fred) some celebratory millet, you know how much I adore animals. Neither get this treat very often as it is akin to giving twinkies to birds, but it is her birthday. Adoption day, really. I pulled out her papers and found that I got her 11 years ago to the day, thus the celebration. I mentioned it before but I actuallly adopted Kiko to be a companion to the parakeet I rescued from a dumpster (yeah, thrown away in the cage) years before. Sadly, that parakeet died two days before Kiko arrived. Odd how all of this turns out. I've said it before but while Calvin gets most of the spotlight, Kiko has always ruled the house having bonded to me almost the moment she arrived.
All the best from my feathered and furry family to yours.