This is something we pet lovers have to consider as our fur babies get old and pass on and we wonder if we will be healthy enough or live long enough to start over with a new dog or cat. My own precious dog is 14, almost blind and losing hearing.
My vote is "Yes," we shouldn't spend our final years without the comfort and companionship of a dog or cat. I just looked it up and the dire statistic is that 90% of unclaimed dogs in pounds are euthanized. So if we get a dog from the pound and then find, a few years later, that we have to go into assisted living we have, at least, given the dog a reprieve from death row. I wouldn't hesitate to get one.
My father got a young Corgi from the pound when he was 80. He had dementia starting up during those years and the two of them lived a disorganized life of sharing bowls of ice cream in bed while watching old westerns on TV. When My father died six years later, neither my brothers nor I were able to take the dog and it went back to the pound, destiny unknown, but she had that six years, so I try not to feel too bad about it.
