Our beginning: one deaf dog changed everything.
In October 2012, I came home from work one day, and my wife showed me a picture that would change our lives forever.
We had been looking for a dog, and there on the screen was Benny—a four-month-old puppy. The moment I saw him, I said, “That’s my dog.”
“There’s one thing,” she told me. “He’s deaf.”
My answer was simple: “We’ll figure it out. That’s my dog.”
I had no idea how much those words would come to mean, or how much that one dog would teach me.
Learning a different language.
Benny taught me how to communicate with him. Through training, patience, and learning together, we developed an amazing relationship and a bond that could not be broken. He was truly my soul dog.
He taught me how to love in a way I hadn’t known was possible. And he returned that love in the purest, most unconditional way I could ever imagine.
Because of Benny, we continued to adopt and help other deaf dogs in need. He had opened our hearts to dogs we might otherwise never have known, and each one deepened what he had started.
Turning love into a promise.
When Benny passed away, I knew I needed to do more for the deaf dog community. I needed to make a difference for dogs who were still waiting for someone to take a chance on them.
I spent a year working at a rescue facility, learning firsthand what rescue work involved. I learned things I valued and wanted to carry forward, and things I would choose to do differently. That experience helped me understand what I wanted to build.
Eventually, I knew it was time to start our own rescue—something special in honor of Benny.
BennyPaws Deaf Dogs and Friends Rescue grew from that love and that promise. Through this rescue, Benny’s memory lives on in the dogs we help, the families who welcome them home, and the relationships they build together.
Benny’s story keeps going.
My hope is that every adopter gets to discover something of what Benny gave me: the joy of learning to understand one another, the trust that grows with patience, and a love that changes your life.
All of this began because, back in October 2012, I saw one deaf puppy and said, “That’s my dog.”
And because we decided, together, that we would figure it out.