Deaf Dogs Hear With Their Hearts

It's been a long time since I wrote about Jessie. I guess it was because I was trying to tell you about Jessie's life detail by detail and that didn't really work. I think it's because the sum total of Jessie's life was so much greater than the parts so rather than talk to you about day to day details, I want to tell you about that amazing, unique, enchanted soul called Jessie Arnold Ziffle who was the better half of me for 9 3/4 years. From the beginning Jessie had a presence about her. Other people were drawn to her but I was always her special human. Jessie loved everyone and like many dogs she would jump up on adults and wiggle her nub to show her pleasure. The amazing thing though was that she always knew the difference between babies, children and adults. Never once did she jump on a child and when a toddler was learning to walk she would stay a safe distance behind and just follow and watch. She was even more careful with infants. My granddaughter was on her belly on the floor on a blanket before she could even walk and Jessie crouched down and crawled up to see her, face to face, ever so gently, ever so carefully.