Could be A.I. Hard to tell.
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New baby kitty! Yeah!
It’s Germ when he was a baby
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The big guy from many posts back?
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No… that’s Duke or Mordecai. Germ is at juvenile size now. Pure rascal.
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Another old flick popped up on my FB feed. I’m sure people here can empathize with the odd feeling that someone’s missing in their homes.
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It took me a long time to get used to walking into the house with no greeting.
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I definitely can. It’s why I moved so quickly to bring another dog in. I couldn’t think why it made sense that my house be so sad and empty when so many dogs are alone in cages, scared, and waiting to be loved.
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Theres the good boy. He’s very solid looking. 
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Guess which good, solid boy gives every indication of near-total hearing loss?
There’s still some distractibility and anxiety there, too, so that could be some of it, but as I told my husband, who believes it’s selective hearing and not deafness, a dog who looks like Louie should know the sound of my jeep coming up the driveway, be keenly aware that the back door has opened and slammed shut, and hear me walk up behind him. But it’s easy to sneak up on Louie, and my husband and I can hold conversation for a very long beat without Louie realizing he’s home if he and I are on the couch.
Which makes two deaf-ish dogs in a row. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I think I’m more glad than sad, because they both found a soft landing here, but with Louie the Love Tank especially, language would sure be nice.
He’s lucky he’s so cute and sweet and well-meaning. Of course I’m lucky he is, too. 
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That seems odd, because sense of smell is such a strong factor with dogs too.
Maybe he also has some kind of response affect? 
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Kennels can be hell on pooches. I visited one to board our old Pup and it was like dog jail. Cinder block outer walls, fence partitions between cells, and all of the dogs just barking full blast, along with high volume squirrel cage type fans to move air and urine smell loudly whining even louder than the dogs.
I could see something like that shutting down such a strongly sensory driven animal as dogs are with long term exposure. I couldn’t get out of that place fast enough, and would never leave a dog there.
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His smell is good, relative to hearing and sight, but if it’s true that he’s 9, well…maybe not as good as it once was. He doesn’t bark, and I assume that comes from the shelter - like, it never got him anywhere, so why bother. His hearing could definitely be related to the unending cacophony of the shelter, as well. I agree with you about wanting OUT of those places, and don’t see how people like that work.
Louie is a sensitive soul, and it definitely left a mark on him. Or else it’s his ADHD, lol.
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Ash, who passed earlier this year, went deaf. That was almost a blessing because he was SO scared of storms. Poor guy was terrified. Once he went deaf, he was fine. Lightening didn’t even bother him.
One of my other dogs is deaf. I REALLY thought he was just going stupid and forgot his name at first. I really wish he could hear me tell him what a good boy he is.
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Haha, Louie had a blast at a Revolutionary War reenactment a couple of weeks ago. One cannon blast was loud enough to make him tilt his head quizzically, but other than that he didn’t care. He can hear me clap my hands in the house when there are no distractions, but if he’s sleeping or turned away there’s no guarantee that he’ll hear it right away.
But again, how much if that is lack of attentiveness after two years in the shelter rather than actual hearing.
The only real trouble it causes me, aside from not being able to tell Louie things, is that we take our dogs to the woods a lot, and it’s scary to me that they could get confused and lost. Louie seems to just back track when he notices us gone, which is awesome, and I think I’m starting to trust him. Buttons rarely got more than two feet away from me, but not being able to see her on the rare occasions she followed a scent stopped my heart.
Man, these dogs! I remember feeling like I might die of love when my kids were little, but they were so solid and secure and thriving, it was mostly easy to not worry. Elderly rescues, though - they just wiggle in, all fragile and little and helpless with adoration, even when they’re big, thick blockheads. Oy.
And now I have to deal with Lucy’s puppy eyes on top of it? (lol)
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