Mama reluctantly gets a phone machine and Vint and Naomi hid a stray dog in the garage and succeed in convincing Mama that she's getting senile when she claims she keeps hearing a dog barking.
The Harper family has gotten an answering machine. Meanwhile, Mama is unaware that the rest of the family is hiding a dog -- which Naomi has named "Old Lady" -- in the garage, and are trying to find a home for it. When messages turn up on the answering machine offering a new home for "your Old Lady", Mama thinks the rest of the family is trying to get rid of her.—afsnowbird