This story was submitted by Cathy Joyce and we could not love her story any more! So many people give up a newly adopted deaf dogs after 24 or 48 hours without even giving the deaf dog a chance but not Cathy. She gave her deaf dog a year to adjust and learn to be a great dog. Here is her story.

 

Deaf Dogs Are So Worth The Work by Cathy Joyce 

This is my deaf girl, BonBon Jovi and her sister Farrah Pawcett. I adopted BonBon in February of 2019, knowing full well that she was deaf and about 90% feral (wild).
She was 1 of 262 Chinese Crested pups in a hoarding case in Texas.  Luckily, a rescue saved her and transferred her to Virginia. When my adoption application was approved, I flew to Virginia from Boston, MA and back with a frightened dog in a bag. When we got back home to Cape Cod in an ice storm and walked in the house she scampered out of her bag and she hid under a table. She stayed there for days before she got brave enough to come out.

She eventually decided that Farrah my other dog, the bald one  was Her dog. Wherever Farrah went BonBon wasn’t far behind her.
It took me 4 months before BonBon allowed me to pet her because she was always so terrified.
She didn’t trust me or anyone else for that matter. Getting BonBon to trust me took several months of patience and love. I knew she needed patience so I gave her time and space. She soon began following Farrah everywhere and she also noticed that Farrah loved getting attention from the humans so when BonBon was about 7 months old she started sitting next to Farrah and just watching me give Farrah attention and treats. I guess if finally dawned on BonBon that I wasn’t a bad human and if she cam close I would also give her treats.  BB decided she wanted treats but in order for her to get a treat she had to allow me to pet her gently.

BonBon didn’t understand the concept of climbing up or down stairs. It took her about a year to figure out how to do the stairs and once she figured them out she became a zoomie master! Farrah always slept upstairs with me but once BonBon could get up the stairs she decided to join us. We were finally a family.

Fast forward to sixteen months after BonBon’s adoption and she has shown she is very tuned into me. I’m a non insulin dependent diabetic. When my sugars go to low or get too high, BonBon goes nuts by digging at me, pushing me, whatever she can do to get my attention and warn me. It just happens to turn out that BonBon is very  sensitive to human body chemistry. Her sense of smell is so powerful she can recognize the slightest changes in my blood sugar. When my mom was passing, BonBon got up on her bed and she stayed on her bed for five hours (even letting family members pet her, all strangers to her) until my mom took her last breath. When mom was gone, BonBon got off the bed and left the room.
Two and a half years later this sweet girl has blossomed into a wonderful loving dog. She seeks attention from everyone (with the exception of small children) and she is just a joy to be around.  BonBon has even started to enjoy an occasional car ride in her little car seat.  She loves grocery shopping with her mama and  she will do anything, as long as Farrah is by her side.

I can’t believe how far she’s come and can’t wait to see what other surprises she has in store for me.