URGENT! Fallout 2: Laddie disappeared, but still counts as a follower, can't recruit any companion

[CursedUndead]

I'm feeling Im going to be done with this game soon. For all the time I've been playing it was a total nightmare for me because of tons of game-breaking bugs. First stuck on a ring with Lenny in NCR after save-loading (was so frustrated I scrapped my progress and restarted the game: the last save in another slot was too long ago anyway), now this. After Lenny incident I installed killap's UP and RP and restarted. After a lot of tweaking with save game editor and saveloading when I got to a new bug this happened. So I travelled to Modoc with Sulik, Vic and Cassidy in my team (my CH is 6, obviously). I completed every quest there except for the watches one, the ghost farm one and Johnny's missing (wanted to do them both at the same time as always). So I come to Balthas and accept his quest. He says that Laddie will accompany me now. However, the damn dog seemed to be in a bad mood: this time it just stayed near Balthas and didn't want to pay attention to me. I didn't really pay attention to t either and went straight for the well. When I got inside, there was no Laddie. Just the three of my companions. When I got back to the surface Laddy was still nowhere to be seen. But I still didn't pay attention to this. Unless I found Johnny that is. He obviously didn't reunite with the dog. Keep in mind that previously, before blowing up the toilet to find golden watch I told all of my followers to wait for me near so they won't get hurt. Then I finished all of these quests and came back to recruit my companions again. However, I could recruit only two of them, nevermind that my CH is still six. I even waited a few days to be sure that it's not an effect of drugs/alcohol. Still, the third one resisted to join me. After some thought I came to a conclusion: the game did count Laddie as my companion, so when I dropped my followers it took place of one of them (or reserved 2 CH for itself). But the dog itself just disappeared. It simply does not exist for some strange reason, so I can't get it back to Jonny. And with it disappeared my 2 CH, meaning I wouldn't be able to recruit one companion for the rest of the game, which is crucial for me. As you can see, this is a really serious problem. I really love this wonderful game and do not want to leave it behind only because of bugs and frustration. Please, help me out. Is there some way to free that npc space? Maybe somehow change my companions number or dismiss Laddie through F2se? Keep in mind that I am playing the restoration version on Windows 7 with full size install (again, obviously). My hopes are on you.
P.S.: if someone would ask: my last save in another slot was before Modoc and Vault city, so I really don't want to start from there again. Guess it's a bad habit to use quicksave too often in this game.