Deaf dog, Angel, becomes part of the family
Angel and Nala hang out at PJ’s Backlot Feed and Emporium while Paula Winters and her husband, Thom, run the business.
“We got her as a puppy, and she was a very bad little girl at first. The people we got her from would not even let her out of the car because they were afraid she’d get loose and run off. But we fell in love with her completely and brought her back home.
“About a week later, I realized something wasn’t quite right with her. She was like a child that no matter what you told her, she was kind of ignoring you. She never would respond to anything we asked her to do until she saw us. So one day I got out my boat horn, and everybody in this place came alive but her. That’s when I knew she was deaf.
Paula Winters with Angel.
“My granddaughter knows some sign language, so she taught me a few signs. We also looked on the internet and came up with our own little vocabulary, you might say, and started teaching her. Through structure and repetition, she picked it up pretty easily. But because she’s deaf and also has limited sight, she’s probably always going to be treat oriented.
“She is part of our family. She goes just about everywhere we go and does everything we do. She is up here every single day, six days a week. I don’t think this dog would know how to stay home by herself.
“Sometimes she can be a pain in the rear, but I have to remember that she is deaf. It hasn’t impacted her life one percent. I mean, she knows no different. But if we hadn’t taken her, she probably would have been turned in and put down. She’s one of the lucky ones.”
— Paula Winters
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