FOWC with Fandango — Volume
In a household where Garry recently underwent surgery for his hearing, we also now have two deaf Scotties. Bonnie is almost entirely deaf and Gibbs can hear, but you have to talk louder. Yelling works, too.
Now that Garry can hear, he was complaining the TV was too loud while I could barely hear it. I suggested, finally, that maybe he could turn down his hearing aids from “as loud as possible” to “loud enough.”
I don’t think he had ever turned down his hearing aids in his entire life. That this was something he could do which would make all the “too loud” stuff more comfortable. It was an idea that hadn’t occurred to him because as the years went on, the issue was always “how loud can I make it?”
Now, since (assuming he is wearing his aids), we both hear at about the same level — more or less — his batteries last longer and you can’t hear our television in the next county.
No one makes hearing aids for dogs. Or eyeglasses. Because not only is Bonnie deaf, she also doesn’t see much anymore and she is just a wee bit confused. She loses track of where she is and forgets to come inside once outside. She will stand for hours in the doggie door with her butt outside and her head and front legs in the hallway.
You can’t call her in because she can’t hear, so Garry spends a lot of time going downstairs and moving her around. She weighs about as much as two cinder blocks, so hauling her is not for the faint of heart.
Bonnie still has good days. When she doesn’t have good days anymore, I am sure we’ll know it. Meanwhile, having two out of three dogs who can’t hear you calling them is surprisingly inconvenient. They also bark more because they can’t hear when they talk softly.
Our old dog seems to hear fine, but she has cataracts and she often gets confused when on walks about where she is and what she’s supposed to do.
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Aging in dogs is very similar to people. But they do it so much faster.
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And they’re often much more stoic than people are when it comes to dealing with the maladies of old age.
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Wow, I never thought of that aspect of loss for pups. As humans most things are fixable but…it must take great patience and persistance both! for each of them
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It’s the worst part of owning pets, that you outlive them. Over a lifetime, you outlive many dogs and cats and other creatures and every time, it hurts just like the first time.
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It does, it truly does.
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There comes a point when you know they actually can’t hear you rather than that they are wilfully ignoring you.
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It took a while since Bonnie has always been a very wilful ignorer. But now, to get her up from sleeping, I have to touch her. I don’t think she can hear at all. Gibbs hears better than she does, if you talk loud enough. And if he’s asleep, you have to shake him awake. Duke never sleeps. He always has one eye open.
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I see a growing market for hearing aids and glasses for dogs…..
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Then all we’d have to do is train them not to eat them as soon as they could get them off their heads!
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now there’s the challenge…
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When Lily was at that point we moved here. She got out of the van at a rest stop when I thought I’d closed the sliding side door but hadn’t. It was a rental that I hadn’t completely figured out. Some people caught her (thank god), but the loveliest and most impressive thing was that (though I had her leashed at that point) Dusty stayed close enough to her that she could feel him beside her. I witnessed that often in the remaining months of her life. Dusty was her Seeing Eye Hearing Dog. He loved her so much.
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Bishop was Bonnie’s loyal slave, but he died. Gibbs tries, but Bonnie isn’t close to him the way she was to Bishop. Bishop adored her and she him. He would do ANYTHING for her. I wish he were with us now.
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❤
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That furry wanker, Duke, is over the top in his perceived role as herder dog for the two Scotties in addition to Mom and Dad. He’s a crazy, whirling dervish whenever I try to deal with Bonnie and Gibbs — going out and coming in. Factor in he shreiking barkathon and I often think I’m gonna lose my mind. A bit ironic for this lifetime hearing challenged guy who finally can hear. Be careful of what you wish for.
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