reading Wolfy's post yesterday, I was struck by how different my reaction
was to realizing that Amelia was deaf.  I had some initial reaction of
"oh dear, she's not the absolutely most perfectest ferret ever that I
thought she was" but then I realized that for Amelia, nothing had
changed--she was still exactly the same ferret she always was, which made
her perfect again :)  After all, _she_ didn't know that there was a world
of sound out there, and so she didn't know that she was missing anything.
Her life was the same rich tapestry of scents, sights and feelings that
it always was.  Of course, I had to learn to compensate for some things
on her behalf, but seeing her amongst hearing ferrets, I really couldn't
see any negative impact on her life as a pampered pet.  Of course I am
concerned about deafness in ferrets; it's something that shouldn't be
bred into them, even if that means we lose the pretty fancy patterns.
But if you do have a deaf ferret, remember that you have exactly the
same ferret you did before you knew s/he was deaf, that the difference
is in your mind and not in the ferret's mind.
 
As for a deaf ferret never hearing the sound of your voice--well, that's
true, but they can feel the sound of your voice if you hold them against
your upper chest and neck while you talk to them :)
 
Regina
 
Regina Harrison  [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
http://www.channel1.com/users/regina/
blog: http://www.channel1.com/users/regina/zblog.html
 
Is that my business?  Well, what is my business?  Do I know?  Did I ever
know?  Let s not go into that.  You re not human tonight, Marlowe.  Maybe
I never was or ever will be... Maybe we all get like this in the cold
half-lit world where always the wrong thing happens and never the right.
--Raymond Chandler, The Little Sister
[Posted in FML issue 4056]