The Love Of A Deaf Dog

Sheeba was a beautiful pekingese that was a wonderful gift from God. She was a very loving dog. She loved to cuddle with us and play with her stuffed animals. We had a toy box for her and she would go pick out which toy she wanted to play with. She never put them away but, oh well, what is mommy for? LOL

Don't mind the mess. This was her favorite place to hide away.

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Our Little Sheeba

Sheeba was born in a kennel on June 5, 1999. We had seen Sheeba when our friends brought her home from the kennel and said we wanted one of her puppies when her and the male breed. One day in November of that year, we had a knock on the door and Sheeba was shoved into my arms. Randy told me that we had wanted her and she was ours. We also received her paperwork to register her.

This is the first picture that I can find of her. Remember that we didn't get her until she was already 6 months old.

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Before she was given to us, Randy and Brenda had named her Sheeba. When we registered her, we renamed her Southmayd's Sheeba. I figured I would keep the basic name. This was before we knew she was deaf. I thought she would be used to the name and would respond to it better than if we changed it. Besides, she was rather queenly and deserved a nice name like that.

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What We Loved About Her

Sheeba became deaf after she was born. We worked with her and taught her sign language of a sort. She learned this very easily. The first sign she learned was to come. The hand signal was arching your fingers and wiggling them like you had her face in your hands and petting her face. The hardest part about doing the sign language with her was getting her attention, which was usually banging on the hard floor so that she would look up at us.

I would love to cuddle with her on the couch or recliner and share loving with her. She loved to rub faces or just snuggle as close as she could get. For a kiss, she would push her muzzle up to your lips and give a kiss. No tongue or anything....just a press of the muzzle to lips.

She used to love to go outside and run down to the local pond on our property in Oklahoma and come back a complete mess. We would have to get all the knots out of her fur and give her a nice scrub-down. I think she found every bur on the property and would mop them up for us. LOL We would try to keep her clean shaven all but her head and her tail. So these were what we would be combing out. We had a fence around the area that we wanted her to stay in but she learned that if she would smash her face into the fence enough, the hole would get bigger and she would jump through it. Took us a long time to find out what she was doing because she would look around before she would do it to make sure we weren't watching. We never did keep her from roaming our 15 acres and probably the neighbor's properties, too.

She used to have a squirrel outside that used to play with her. The squirrel would chatter at her and take off running. If Sheeba didn't run after her, the squirrel would stop and chatter at her until she got her attention and the chase was on.

She had been taught not to go chasing other animals (cats). One time we went to the vet's office and they had an office cat. The cat came out among our 4 dogs and got up on an ottoman. Sheeba sat there waiting and wishing that the cat would take off running so that she could chase it. She didn't want to hurt the cat, she wanted the cat to play with her. This was how gentle mannered she was.

This picture was taken Christmas 2005.

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Sheeba would have loved this little toy. She loved to play with stuffed animals. Sheeba was the kind of dog that loved playing with all kinds of toys. If you tried to take one away, she knew. She would look through her toybox to find the exact toy she wanted to play with.

June 5, 1999 to September 29, 2009

Walter had to go away for surgery to remove kidney cancer. While we were gone, my MIL took care of the dogs and the house. We came home from the hospital late at night September 29, 2009. Sheeba was lying on some bags that were in the storage room facing the door she knew we would come through when we came home. I noticed her lying there and didn't want to wake her up. Walter being Walter, he nudged her with the toe of his boots. She did not move. He had me come over and she had passed away in her sleep waiting for us to come home.

We took her body and buried it on my MIL's property. She is sorely missed. She had the cutest bark since she couldn't hear. I wouldn't be hearing her bark or see her eagerly awaiting us when we came home. She was so loving.

This was a picture of her in her favorite position.

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She is sorely missed by all of the family.

Photo Source - Copyright to GrandmaMarilyn - ALL photos on this lens are personal photos - DO NOT COPY or USE THEM