Photo by Mary Ellen "Angel Scribe"
Linda proudly shows off her “Goofy” guide dog, Jake, and Sophie, “The shoe chewer!”

“I knew that I was losing my hearing,” said Linda, “when I had to ask people to repeat themselves. The surgery to stop the hearing loss left me with a lifetime of vertigo.

I like to work, so I made lemons out of lemonade with the disability by teaching others and earning a living from it!”

Linda works for Vocation Rehabilitation as a Hearing Loss Support Specialist mentoring people with hearing loss helping them adjust to hearing aids and demonstrates how to use the equipment.  www.hearinglossupport.com

Because deaf people are often reclusive, Linda started a beginners American Sign Language (ASL) class open to both hearing and hearing disabled. Her goal was to help everyone socialize and end the "stigma" of hearing aids. Her classes changed lives and they all became friends!

To keep their classes interesting, they created a choir.

That Christmas, while Alan sang and played guitar, the ten member group signed Silent Night for an independent living group’s party.  The choir was hesitant to purr-form in public so when the “entire audience” responded by crying, the group assumed that they were terrible and had failed in their mission. 

Just the opposite! The audience’s hearts were moved to tears of joy!  The choir sub subsequently ended up performing all over Eugene and appeared on TV and in the newspaper.  “For people who rarely had anyone to talk to,” said Linda, “they were tickled to became famous.”

Linda’s hearing assistant dog, Jake, is a seven-year-old Standard Poodle.

“I dreamed of Jake before we met,” said Linda. “In the dream his name was Jingles and he loved to dance.  When Jake arrived from Tennessee, at seven months of age, we named him Jakey Jingles.  And, he loves to dance! He also enjoys dressing up and showing off; especially during Bohemia Mining Days when he wears his costume in the parade. And like most poodles, he is a natural born clown.” 

Jake senses when Linda has vertigo and alerts her with nose nudges and becoming attentive.
As her vertigo progresses, she lays on her bed and this devoted dog lies on her legs so she does not feel alone. “The worst thing is experiencing this alone,” said Linda. “With Jake, I am not along, and he heals my anxiety.”

Jake has an assisted dog harness and when Linda puts it on him he switches from his goofy character to totally focusing on guiding her. The harness allows him to legally accompany her into stores.

“When I become wobbly,” said Linda, “Jake leans against me and waits, as steady as a rock, so that I can put my hand on him.  No one should ever touch a dog wearing a guide dog jacket or harness because the dogs revert from serious working dogs to goofy fun dogs.”

Jake takes his life’s work of caring for others seriously. 

Early one morning, while everyone was sleeping, Linda’s neighbors’ baby ducks waddled out of their fenced area and headed to the stream. Jake sensed that they were in danger.

He exited through the dog door, came back in, and plopped something LIVE, wet, and unhurt on Linda and Alan’s bed. He then nose nudged the couple awake.

Jake had done his job and was asking them to do theirs.  Like Lassie, Jake showed Allen where the rest of the endangered babies were and together they rescued the entire fluffy flock!

Sophie, a two-year-old Blue Lacy, is Jake’s rescued dog sibling that their daughter, Sarah, saw on the internet!  Amazingly Sophie was pulled out of a Texan dog death chamber when they phoned to adopt her! 

Sophie had some learning to do. She chewed 17 shoes and Allan’s favorite chair!  Pieces of the chair littered the entire living room!

“You should have seen Jake’s face!” explained Linda. “When these incidents ‘kept’ happening, Jake let us know HE was innocent.  Thankfully, Sophie’s behavior stopped once she settled into our lives and was no longer afraid.”

Jake loves two things: balls and soft toys.  He is a champion ball catcher, but his soft toys only  last five minutes. He chews them up - everything except their little faces.  Several times the family has entered a room to discover odd little faces looking up at them!

“Time for Signs” Class
Beginners are welcome.
Linda at lindiaz10@gmail.com  or leave message 541 767 3707

During Linda’s class I have made friends, learned, and laughed. It is an educational and social group welcoming both hearing and hearing loss “paw”-ticipants.

Jake, like every dog on the planet, loves being petted. But as a service dog, “... he turns into a goofy dog,” says Linda, “and stops paying attention. This is dangerous because I can lose my balance and fall.

If you see any guide dog, your interaction with the dog may be dangerous to its person. It is important to let the dogs do their jobs. Talk to the handler, but not the dog unless the handler says, “OK.”

Learn ASL on the internet. CD's are available at Harris Catalog or Ebay.

Share your talented pet tips and tales.
angelscribe@msn.com

Mary Ellen's Silver Persians swam their way into readers and viewer's hearts! They have appeared in International magazines and newspapers around the world. (France, England, Canada, China, Germany, USA, etc.)

Also, several National and International TV shows featured the swimming felines teaching pet-water-safety. And their furry faces appeared on a line of shirts.