Deaf Dogs Cotton and Ella’s Happy Tail told by Philip and Shanti Kriens

Cotton and Ella are both deaf and they are a big part of  our family.

Cotton is deaf and he was a returnee to the Oregon Humane Society 3 times and was initially born to be a bait dog. Through these 3 first homes no one realized the difficulty in living with a deaf dog. so he kept being taken back. The 3rd person who took him was a volunteer at the shelter, and that person locked Cotton in a shed for 3 weeks or more with nothing but concrete underneath him. The animal cruelty officer who heard him barking in the shed rescued him and then we went through a 3 week screening to bring him home. That person is in court now for animal neglect. We rescued Cotton in 2010 right after my husband came home from Iraq and Cotton is now a service dog for him. He has served in the military for over a decade and has major PTSD issues. Cotton always brings a smile to our faces. Cotton still has some long lasting effects from the abuse like joint problems and wirey fur and scars from bed sores from sleeping on concrete and those wounds went to the bone…. He is now fat and happy though and sitting right beside me while I type this. He is a little nosie but I enjoy it.

Ella is also deaf and she is like Cotton who was born this way.  Someone gave Ella and she ended living in the Siskou Shelter for the first 2 years of her life before being transferred to the Oregon Humane Society for more exposure to potential adopters. The staff at the Oregon Humane Society gave us a call and asked us if we wanted to have a matching set of deaf dogs so how could we resist?

Ella isn’t the brightest apple on the tree, but its all good because shes safe from knowing the pain Cotton had to endure.

 

Now Ella has been with us for almost a year and the two deaf best buddies are now inseparable.

 

Our deaf dogs are our family and they totally ROCK!

 

Philip and Shanti Kriens

 

 

P.S. Cotton has blue eyes and Ella brown eyes