With all my experience with humans who are deaf and having dogs all my life, my first experience with deafness in dogs did not happen until 1989. A stray of mixed breed, who had eluded animal control officers for nearly a month, showed up in my neighbor’s yard. He was sleeping under a bush. I tried whistling at him and talking to him with no response. When I clapped my hands, his head bounced up but obviously he didn’t know where the sound came from.

It took a week of feeding at a distance to lure him into his new forever home. I tried for several weeks to find his owners. During that time there were several trips to the vet for an injured leg after he jumped the fence, for an infection and for neutering. Each time the vet would ask me his name and I would tell them he was not my dog so I didn’t know. Finally, I asked what they were putting on his records. They were calling him “Foster dog” and hence his name.

He was already a senior when he came to me, which was probably the reason for his hearing loss. He was an incredibly sweet dog that asked for nothing but food. He would not come in the house so I had a dog house built for him. It was double-walled, insulated and above the ground. He continued to jump the fence at night until I put a dog collar with a tag on him. At that time he seemed to know he was finally at home. I had him for 3 short years before his age necessitated his trip to the Rainbow Bridge.