...Shasta is blind and deaf; at least for Sheba's sake.

Tuesday evening the cold front came through and started snowing and
the temp started dropping. By Wednesday morning I decided 15 degrees
was a good excuse to cook beans all day. So I got the crockpot out and
rummaged in the freezer for the meaty hambone. I dumped in a bag of
butter beans and chopped onion and some salt. It cooked all day and
smelled the house up. Supper was delicious.

The cooled hambone I waved in front of Shasta's nose so she would
follow me to the enclosed porch. It has carpet on the cement floor,
and is a lot warmer than the outside. So I left Shasta happily working
on the bone.

After awhile I needed to go out to the porch for something and noticed
shasta had broken the knuckle bone in to two pieces at the joint. She
was lying down with one of the bones between her paws, gnawing away at
it. About a foot in front of her was the other bone. Just beyond
it...was Sheba. Normally, shasta is very jealous of her bones. But she
couldn't see sheba near it and her nose was full of ham fumes. I think
Sheba was counting on that.

Sheba wasn't just sitting there. Her ears and whiskers were both
pointed forward and her eyes were focused on the bone. And her body
was oooozzing in suuuper slooow motion toward that bone! She finally
reached it and clamped her teeth on the small end and started
oooozzing in reverse as just as slow. Once she got her body under the
little couch, she suddenly flipped the bone under the couch.
Thereafter, the only sounds in the room were slurps and slobbers from
two different directions! And Shasta never knew a thing about losing
her other bone.

--
CATherine