This is Kiefer’s Happy Tail submitted by children’s book author Trisha Malfitana.

Kiefer’s Happy Tail

It all started out in 2010, when New England Border Collie took in four beautiful red and white border Collies. Soon after coming into rescue Ivy gave birth to 8 puppies. I already had 5 dogs at the time, but I have a weak spot for puppies. I was able to visit and help socialize the puppies when they were very young. They all had different markings and personalities, but Kiefer, (then known as Berry) just called to me. He was a little white puff of fuzz, with a little red kissy spot on his head and amazing blue eyes. I was smitten. Soon after I learned that Kiefer was deaf. That didn’t matter to me; I just knew I needed him.

As I talked to my family about Kiefer and the obstacles of having a deaf dog the first thing we needed to do was fence in our back yard. I went through my old jewelry and pawned everything that was broken. I was able to raise a good amount of money to put toward the fence. I joined a yahoo group for deaf dog owners, bought an American Sign Language Dictionary and started to look up words that I knew I would want to teach Kiefer.

 

At 10 weeks old Kiefer joined my family. The very easy going pup turned out to be a real character. He was head strong, and a real barker. He loved running around outside and just barking, barking, barking. We signed up for puppy class so we could work on good manners and to keep him socialized with other dogs. When we were in class a lot of people were wondering why anyone would want a deaf dog. One person even called him stupid. I had my first encounter with the ignorance of people when it comes to deaf dogs.

I decided to write a children’s book about Kiefer. I wanted the world to see that he is still a dog. The only difference is his ears don’t work. He does everything that other dogs do. I wanted this to inspire kids to not look at their classmates who were different as different, but see them as kids just like them. I decided to not tell anyone that Kiefer was deaf in the beginning of the book. I wanted people to try and guess what made him different. On each page I included an American Sign Language sign. This way people could learn and interact while reading the book.

The book has gone beyond my wildest dreams. Kiefer and I have been visiting schools and reading our book. The book is being shared with others and we recently were invited to visit a school for deaf children. We had an article in the Providence Journal in Rhode Island, and we appeared on the show Fox and Friends. I hope this will just be the beginning of Kiefer and me sharing the wonderful world of deaf dogs with the world.

 

Kiefer and I are excited to reach out to people and teach them that being different is cool! Trisha

If you would like to keep up with Kiefer, you can visit Trisha and Kiefer’s blog called Phoenix and Kiefer by clicking here. 

Below are links to some of the media interviews about Kiefer and Trisha’s book.

http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2012/03/deaf-dog-demons.html

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1523681790001/deaf-dog-inspires-kids-with-disabilities/

 

Trisha,

Thanks so much for submitting Kiefer’s story to Deaf Dogs Rock. We think you are both amazing and according to my deaf dog Nitro, and I, you and Kiefer totally Rock!

~ Christina and Nitro