I was going to title this post "Goodbye, Indee", but I didn't want it to seem as though Indee had passed away. No, Indee is still alive but definitely showing signs of her old age. This past April, Indee turned 15. On top of her physical degeneration--frailness, old lady wart above her eye, scraggly coat, bad breath, apparent arthritis, deafness in both ears--her mental state has been steadily slipping, as well.
Her senile moments include plodding into the middle of a room and staring off into space, wandering off when I leave the front door open (not running away, just ambling about in a confused state), making accidents in the house (at least her "Indee pellets", as we call them, are dry and easy to clean up), and the other day, wandering into the space behind an open door in a bedroom, getting stuck, and loudly whimpering until I found her to set her "free"... twice. She even tried crawling into Caedmon's bassinet that we had set on the ground, thinking it was a dog bed, to which I thoroughly freaked out.
During my mom's last visit, she suggested that Indee come back to live with them in Fremont, now that my parents are back from China. Though I felt bad at first for "sending her away", Indee's really just going home. Yesterday, we said goodbye to Indee, as Sam and Steven drove her back to my parents'. I still expect to see Indee (or smell her) when I walk into our bedroom, napping away... but I feel better knowing that she's home with my mom, and she's being well loved and receiving the proper care that an old pup like her needs.