Re: OT: Whisper Cat & Collars/ more about pets, chips, animal talents

[Guest guest]

The last pet which our family got from an animal shelter many years

ago turned out to be an amazing dog. We had lost our 2nd doberman

(they are not viscious, just have to be babied), so got a "red" or brown

doberman from the shelter near where we then lived, in Fremont, Cali

fornia, where the School for the Deaf and the Blind had just moved from

Berkeley. We began to notice some considerable talents in this dog.

Finally it dawned on me and the kids. My husband said to me, "Why,

when I snap my fingers does he just sit down and won't come to me?"

Then it hit me; snapping fingers can mean in American Sign Language

to "sit" or to "stay" or to "stop," "do not move." So, I tested the dog,

put some food in its dish in the kitchen, and put my joined finger tips

(of one hand) to my mouth (the Sign for food), and immediately the

dog ran to his dish. Then we began to put things together.

This dog had been troublesome in that every time someone rang

the doorbell, or the phone rang, or someone walked up the front

sidewalk, the dog would jostle our left elbow--and both my husband

and I were left-handed! Also, the dog was not worried about our kids

in our swimming pool (back in the days, as my kids still say, "when you

were rich!"), but he did not hesitate to hawl visiting children, even in the

presence of their parents right out of that pool. We began to get the

picture. Our Myron was a helper dog trained to assist a deaf person,

and had many, many skills.

I had first learned sign because I have an older brother (one of three),

and that particular brother was born with absolutely no hearing and

learned sign language which he taught to me, as I taught him writing

and spelling and reading. So, we got my brother over to the house

and he put the dog through every possible command from locating

each of the kids, to checking on one family member in the bathtub,

to checking out the pool. Definitely a helper dog, and very talented.

He, too, came neatly neutered, vaccinated, with medical instructions

as to his care and needs. We took him to the veterinarian who cared

for our pets, and he located the actual chip in the dog's withers. He

had one of the first chips ever installed in a helper dog.

Let us hope that Whisper will keep safe,

Thank you for telling us about Whisper, Dana,

n, the total pet and animal lover--serious