Enzo’s Happy Tail written by Bethani Angell
We rescued Enzo from death row in Georgia eight years ago when he was just two years old. He was transported up to us in Boston. MA in pretty rough shape. Enzo came to us as a deaf, sick, scared and clearly abused young dog. Poor Enzo had pretty much every worm known to dog and a severe case of heart-worm that had spread to his other organs. Although there was little hope of clearing it up completely, we along with our vet didn’t give up. Our amazing vet Dr Farrington treated him and althought the heartworm treatment was not easy on his little body after his final treatment, the heart-worm was miraculously gone. Enzo is now known at the vet hospital as “the miracle patient.”
Enzo is such a wonderful, trusting dog. When we first got him home it was absolutley heartbreaking that he would cower because he was so scared whenever we lifted our hands or moved our legs. Being our very first deaf dog, we worked with him and took him to training class where we all learned hand signals. Enzo proved to be a wonderful little boy in all of his classes. His happiness was obvious to family and friends because he immediately adored everyone he met, especially our nieces and nephews. When one of our family members would sleep over at our place, Enzo was always the first to volunteer to become their bedtime sleeping partner. We are so lucky with love and patience our sweet Enzo came out of his shell and even though he was the dog someone tried to throw away he blossomed.
We went to a dog park near our local shelter Enzo would try to play with the dogs on the other side of the fence. The shelter staff would take the shelter dogs out to play on the other side of the chain link fence each day. If we were at the park at the same time, the minute Enzo would spot them, he would run over to the fence to encourage each shelter dog to run along the other side of the fence and join in the fun. This became a routine for Enzo and I. We enjoyed working with the shelter staff to take advantage of Enzo’s good nature to assess each dog’s playability. Because Enzo is deaf, he didn’t hear the growls of some of the shelter dogs. All he saw was an opportunity to play with another dog and he always encouraged them to run.
Enzo was also the feature of my niece’s class project about rescue and how deaf dogs communicate. We had booklets printed with Enzo’s story, Enzo and I showed the class his hand signals and he was the perfect gentleman. On our way out of the school a teacher stopped us and said she heard there was a special needs dog visiting and could her special needs student meet him.
The little boy spotted Enzo and smiled, he walked up to Enzo and Enzo sat down face to face with the boy and let him take his time petting his head. The boy never stopped smiling. The teacher told me she has been with this student for 3 years and had never seen him smile. She took a picture to show his parents as they would be amazed and she felt they found the cure to bring the boy out of his shell, a dog.
We moved on to NYC where Enzo loved living in high rise building so he could watch the activity below and go for his daily pack walks with his other pals. He even taught his puppy pal Frasier how to walk on a leash.
We are very proud of Enzo and all he has given back. I have endless pictures of him and of him dressed in his Halloween costumes, which he is very fond of, we call him the camera hog. Every year family and friends can’t wait to see Enzo’s costume!
It is amazing this guy who was to be destroyed at 2 years old has made such an impression on so many lives during his 8 years with us. How sad it would have been to never know the love and snuggling he has to offer. We even had an illustration done of him because pictures weren’t enough!
DEAF DOGS DO ROCK!
