In March of 2020, Carolyn Christ saw an ad in the newspaper that caught her eye: A local shelter was looking for volunteers to foster dogs. The need was urgent because their upcoming adoption events had to be cancelled because of the COVID-19 shutdown.
Interested, she and her husband, John, visited the shelter the very next day.
The first dog they met was Zephyr — a red heeler with blue eyes. “At first, I didn’t feel like he was connecting with us,” Christ told The Dodo. So, the couple looked at a few other dogs.
While John was considering Zephyr, Carolyn wasn’t sure. And, almost as if on cue, Zephyr climbed into her lap, playfully threw his head back and looked at her while he was upside down.
“I just needed some sort of sign that we were the right fit for him,” she said.
The shelter, which is located on Long Island, New York, rescued Zephyr from Texas when he was just two days away from being put down. Before that, the pup, who was about a year old, lived on the streets.
The Christs went into the shelter’s office to complete the paperwork for fostering Zephyr. That’s when Christ saw a note about the pup that she wasn’t supposed to see.
“It said ‘Returned’ and it had an explanation point and it was circled,” Christ said. The reason? He was a “bad listener.”
Two days into fostering Zephyr, the Christs realized why he wasn’t responding to commands or even his name. He wasn't defiant or distracted — he couldn't hear them.
“We knew right away that he was hearing impaired,” Christ said. “But we didn’t know to what extent.” They took Zephyr to the vet for a hearing evaluation. During the testing, the pup couldn’t pick up on any pitches. The vet determined that Zephyr is completely deaf.
“I just broke down because now it all made sense,” Christ said. “It was like all the pieces to the puzzle slid together in that moment.”
She was deeply disappointed in the family who returned Zephyr. “They didn’t really take the time to get to know who he was to even know he had an impairment,” Christ said. “It made me want to protect him even more."
That day, she called up the shelter and said she wasn’t interested in fostering Zephyr. She and her husband wanted the pup to have a permanent spot in their family. They adopted him.
The couple — who are both special education teachers — were determined to give Zephyr the support he deserved. They put together a list of phrases and commands useful in the pup’s everyday life.
Then, they researched how to communicate each of these words in American Sign Language (ASL). Every 10 days or so, they’d introduce a new word to Zephyr. The pup caught on quickly and now knows about 30 signs, with some of his favorites being “dad,” “walk” and “drive.”
They also use lights to help Zephyr navigate. Zephyr knows that if the backyard lights flicker twice, his mom and dad want him to come inside. Likewise, if he’s downstairs and they need him to come upstairs, they’ll flicker the staircase light and, like clockwork, he'll come running up.
“He’s truly the best listening dog that I have ever had,” Christ said. “And he is the only deaf dog that I have ever had.”
Christ believes that there’s a misconception that deaf dogs are more difficult to train. Based on her experience with Zephyr, that couldn’t be further from the truth. She explained: “He’s constantly checking in. He’s always looking at us to get a direction or a command. His eyes are constantly locked on our hands or our facial expressions to know what to do and what we’re trying to tell him.”
The intuitive pup reads body language, facial expressions and even lips. “It’s this different connection that we have with him because of his impairment that I feel like makes him even that much more in tune with us,” she said.
Zephyr finds comfort in routine. He brings Christ her shoes and his harness when it’s time to go on walks. Similarly, he hides her shoes when she’s heading out to go to work because he doesn’t want her to leave. Each day, he perches on the windowsill and watches the world go by from his cushioned seat.
She feels fortunate to be able to give him the safety and love he didn’t receive for the first year of his life. “It’s the most heartwarming thing to watch and be a part of,” she said. Zephyr’s disability, Christ said, doesn’t hinder his ability to reciprocate that love. “We have this bond with him that’s so strong that I didn’t even know was possible with an animal,” she said.
While some may be intimidated to adopt a deaf dog, Christ believes the journey has been worthwhile.
“People give up on these dogs,” she said. “They’re scared of them. They don’t want them. But they’re nothing to be afraid of. They’re going to give you so much love and open up a new world for you.”
