Marlie’s Happy Tail was submitted by Kelley Poole. Thanks Kelley for sharing Marlie’s Happy Tail with Deaf Dogs Rock. According to my deaf dogs Nitro and Bud, Marlie totally ROCKS!
My fiancée Justin and I have a 100% deaf American bulldog named Marlie who is truly the love of our lives. Marlie’s Happy Tail begins the first day when we went to the house that had her for sale. As soon as she spotted us, she escaped out from under the fence they were keeping her in and she made a bee-line straight for me. If we walked away and called her, she came running after us. Originally we didn’t pick her, she picked us! We happily loaded her into our truck and headed for her first outing, a birthday party for our friends’ 1 year old son.
Marlie was so well-behaved and sweet that everyone who met her, instantly adored her. We even have a photo of her wearing a birthday hat! After the birthday party we headed home. Both of us were amazed at how soundly she slept the two hours on our long drive back home. None of the noises seemed to wake her, not us talking, the radio, passing traffic, not even the car doors slamming. We both figured she must be really tired from all the party excitement! It only took us until the end of the day for us to agree without a doubt that she was deaf and it was then that we decided to take her back to the person that sold her to us. The reason we were going to take her back wasn’t because we didn’t want a “special needs” dog, but that we were afraid that perhaps raising a deaf dog was going to be something we wouldn’t be able to do correctly. We asked ourselves what if she ran away or got hit by a car? There was just too much uncertainty.
The very next morning my fiancée picked her up from our bed where she had snuggled with me that whole first night and he told me to say good-bye. He then set out on the dreaded trip to return her. I have never cried so hard in all my life. I was a miserable wreck even though I had only known Marlie for a few hours. About an hour later, he walked back in the front door where I was pathetically enough still sobbing. I was totally confused because he hadn’t been gone long enough to make the round-trip drive. I stopped crying long enough to look up and see he had tears in his eyes also, and before I could open my mouth to ask a question I saw her tiny body trotting gingerly in the door behind him. “I couldn’t do it,” he said. Ever since that fateful day we have been one happy family for the last 4 1/2 years.
Marlie is so smart and she knows hand signals for come, sit, stay, up, and lay down. She does tricks such as high fives and she can even play dead when I “shoot” her with my fingers made to look like a gun. She is truly the most popular dog in our neighborhood. It seems like no matter where we go people are always drawn to her. They constantly come up and ask us if they can pet or play with her. My sweet deaf dog Marlie has the kindest heart, most beautiful soul, and I can’t believe how close we came to losing out on the joy of being her parents.
