Hi. My name is Cosmo, or at least that is what my adoptive parents called me. I was called many other names by different animal shelters and foster families, but I never knew it, because I’m deaf.

I don’t remember where I was born nor who my parents or their caretakers were. They must of been very unhappy and most likely not treated well. As a young, confused pup, I was left to roam around by myself in a place called Hartford. I didn’t like Hartford. It was scary and cold and I was always hungry. I couldn’t hear the yelling and honking constantly directed at me, but I knew people didn’t like me and I certainly didn’t like them. I was confused and full of distrust and anger. People sucked.

One day, when I had become overly frustrated with eating dumpster scraps and shivering all the time, along came someone called the Angel. Like everyone and everything else, I immediately did not like the Angel. She scared me and made me growl and snap to protect everything that I did not have. The Angel called someone and, in a short time, some other people came with special tools and skills to help the Angel. I hated them immediately, but I was too tired to keep the bastards from taking me away.

Shortly afterwards, I woke up in a weird place. I was warm and I had a blanket wrapped around me. There was a bowl of water and food right in front of me.  Someone had put fake animals and other toys around me. They pissed me off, but I liked the food and water. I was still scared, but at least there were no nasty yet unheard sounds directed at me. The Angel and what I thought was her sister came into my new room which promptly agitated me. They made funny faces and tried putting yummy smelling things in front of me. They were not to be trusted, so I pretended I did not want them near me. After a short while they left. Similar encounters became more and more regular with the Angel and others.  She pretended to be so happy to see me. She seemed to be especially pleased when my food bowl was low and the tasty treats she had left were gone. I slowly came to tolerate the Angel and allowed her to let me out to prance. I liked to prance.

Despite being confused all the time, I was teaching myself body language, gestures and ESP. This came in handy when I was introduced to other dogs living in the same house. They were all out to get me and my tasty treats and toys the Angel had given me. I hated them and let them know it with these screechy barks. I figured out they didn’t like me either, so we had a mutual understanding.  They kept trotting me out to meet the enemy, but with my new found sensory skills and feeling of strength, I repelled the jerks every time with my screeching and prancing.

Around this time, it was discovered I was born with “nooro- lodge-ick” problems. This was why I walked and behaved differently than other dogs, More reason to not trust them I thought. With this discovery, new found strength and some BS called obedience training, the Angel felt it time to let someone else try to “help” me change my ways. After moving around to different foster homes and given different names, I wound up back with the Angel. They could not find a family I liked nor that liked me and that was fine with me even though I was starting to warm up to people. Other dogs still annoyed me.

One day the Angel introduced me to a new couple. I pranced and danced around as had become my act when I met people I thought were ok. They seemed like pretty cool people, so to their delight, I pranced some more. Then, they brought in some fluffy dude named Tom. He was scared of me, so I snapped at him. I got bored after a while and let him be. Tom left and then Harvey and Molly made their introductions. They didn’t like me either, but screw them, I was here first.

I was sent away with this cast of characters, confused but knowing it was going to suck. My lip reading told me they were calling me Cosmopolitan or Cosmo for short. The male soon would say I was his “Gizmo,” whatever the hell that is. Dork. The three canine compadres weren’t comfortable with me but tried hard to make nice. I allowed that to go so far, but continued to show who was the new alpha badass. The other dogs got to run around the yard and I had to be chained to a spikey thing in the ground. I don’t know why this torqued me off, but it did. I did like to prance around on my turf and play with toys thrown to me. But If any of the other three jerkholes tried to enter my circle, I’d go Cujo on them. In particular, I got a kick out of snapping at Harvey while chasing him into the house. I scared the crap out of him and I liked that. Not sure why I liked to tease the others, but someway it made me feel superior. The nice couple tried to tell me I was being selfish by continuing to put me in the same place as the other three dopes. I know that I didn’t think too good all the time, but I couldn’t help it and it didn’t really bother me anyway.

I actually began to like this place and even tolerated the other dogs – on my terms of course. The female caretaker was so nice to me and I allowed her to be that way with me for the first time in my life. I slept on the couch with the male at night when he watched Baseball. Baseball bored the crap out of me, but my keeper’s lap was not too bad a place to be bored. which was pretty good. I had nightmares and sometimes woke up thinking I was still in Hartford, causing me to snap at whatever was close. In most cases, this was the male’s leg. I almost felt bad, because he also was nice to me. They brought in some new people with skills to help with my behavior. They were idiots, so I ignored them and they eventually went away.

My high point peaked with some level of tolerance for the other dogs and doing my best to like the couple. I just couldn’t seem to take it to the next level. That was a way too trusting and scary a place. I am who I am and that ain’t gonna change.

I continued to be confounded by and distrusting of the others and I still had nightmares, but it was better than anything else I had known despite having those recurring crappy nightmares. The Angel came by one day to see me and she cried for no reason. She wasn’t so bad after all.

I am now in a place with lots of other dogs, people and animals. I have learned that all of them did not always think so good. I also found out that they all loved those that loved and cared for them even though they couldn’t always show it. I like it here.

~ Cosmo took his final nap in my lap on June 26, 2013 ~