Pokey Fan Club

Today Pokey had some visitors from his fan club! Susan (the one who named him "Pokey", pictured at left), Nikki, Tim, and Pru came to meet the newest OESR foster for the first time. I think he charmed them completely.

Wet Puppy

Pokey is extremely curious and follows me everywhere. This morning, he climbed into the shower while the water was on and got a bit damp. He wasn't frightened or upset, just mildly surprised. He decided to wait for me where it was drier and curled up under the toilet to drop off for a nap.

On the positive side, the lightbulb (albeit a very small, low-wattage one) has finally gone off and Pokey is looking up at my hands and face to read my signs and body language. I may be able to do this after all!!

Where's Waldo...errr... Pokey?

One of the challenges of owning a deaf dog is locating them when they're sleeping. They can't hear you calling, after all. This morning, Pokey blended in with my sheets and I overlooked him several times before he twitched and I caught sight of him!

"Panthieth? Thorry, no, I haven't theen your panthieth."

I am SUCH a cutie.

Pokey is definitely making himself at home. He's ridiculously cute. I'm beginning to appreciate Carter's foster mother more and more. When I adopted him, she'd been working on signs for several months and he came with some basic knowledge. Pokey has none. I'm beginning to despair that I will be able replicate the process... The first step is to get Pokey to understand that he has to look at me so that we can communicate. At the moment, I can't get him to look up past my ankles and I find myself flat on my belly, giving him signs at floor level. I should probably sweep...

Welcome home, Pokey!

Susan (OESR) had decided to name the puppy "Pokey". Apparently she has a history of *ahem* interesting names. I mean, hello, English Setters generally aren't ever described as "pokey".  Although I was pretty vocal about not liking it, Pokey stuck. I figured, as he was deaf, he wouldn't care and his adopters could rename his as they pleased! Pokey quickly made himself at home, exploring the backyard and meeting his new foster brothers and sisters. We have four adult dogs as permanent residents - Dixie, a 12 yo female Golden Retriever and our canine matriarch, Scotch, a 7 yo female herding mix, Apollo, a timid yet bossy 6 yo male Golden Retriever, and Carter, the light of my life, a 5 yo deaf male English Setter. A couple cats round out the household. Pokey quickly made the acquaintance of our large Maine Coone, Ghiradelli. 'Delli took the puppy's attention in stride, given as he was twice his size and weight. He sent Pokey tumbling head over heels with a sedate smack when the puppy got a little pushy. The female dogs were curious and stand-offish, Apollo was growly and clearly unhappy, and Carter, true to form, showed off his pearly whites... alllll the way back to his molars...

Hello, tiny puppy!

OESR made transport arrangements, lining up drivers from Kentucky to Cincinnati, OH, in order to get this little pup into our hot little hands. I already had plans to go to IKEA in Cinci on Sunday so it worked out perfectly. After packing my handy little Element full of bookshelves, we headed over to the McDonald's parking lot to meet up with the other transport driver, Rainey, and the puppy. Rainey arrived, we exchanged greetings, and she told me the puppy was sleeping in the car. We walked over and I kept waiting for a little bouncing spotted bundle to come shooting out the door. Instead, Rainey reached in, turned around, and handed me the smallest little white bundle of fur I've ever encountered. His eyes still had a sheen of newborn blue and you could barely see some light spots sprinkled on his ears. I was dumbstruck.

This wasn't what I had expected! I've raised six puppies of my own and fostered five more. But all were at least 12 weeks old! This little boy was... a baby. He weighed less than 10 pounds and could easily have fit in my glovebox. So tiny! I double checked the vet records and realized that he wouldn't even be 8 weeks until the following day. I had made the assumption that he would actually be older by the time he reached me. But Susan had moved fast to save this little fellow.

I climbed into the back of the Element while Heather drove, the puppy woke up and I realized that, 8 weeks or no, this little fellow was ready to GO! He systematically shredded the McDonalds bag and enjoyed a couple fries. He lept and tumbled over the seats, biting fingers, seatbelts, and door frames with wild abandon. After about 40 minutes of whirlwind puppy energy, he clawed his way up onto the seat next to me, plopped his stuffed animal (a little white whale) into the cupholder, and promptly passed out. Ohhhh, this was going to be fun!

Can you help...?

I received a message from fellow setter lover and Ohio English Setter Rescue creator, Susan England, saying that they'd been contacted about an 8 week old deaf setter pup in Kentucky. Susan was concerned about pulling a deaf dog since none of her foster families were familiar with their training. I started composing an email, thinking of all the little things I've learned since adopting my own deaf setter and, after four lengthy paragraphs, gave up the ghost and told Susan I'd foster him. It was a tough sell to my roommate, Heather, until I showed her the photo that Susan sent me...