Marshall Writers’ Guild member As a result of my being hearing impaired, my children learned quite early they would accomplish nothing if they stayed in bed and cried they were sick. They got up and came to me. When they were teenagers, we acquired a female dog who shortly presented us with a litter of puppies. We kept one of the puppies, He soon learned I could not hear; therefore, he barked when someone came to the door or at any unusual sound. He bonded just with me. After my children were no longer living at home and my hearing had gotten worse, I depended on him more and more. He lived to be quite old, because he had the best of care. When he suffered a “stroke,” he was put to sleep. I was lost. The year was 1991.