Here’s Duchess, the little blind-and-deaf girl who arrived three weeks ago. Because she’s ancient, we’ve started calling her Granny, and it fits her personality. She’s just the sweetest thing, and every time we pick her up, she licks us on the face. But honestly, we didn’t really know how she would adapt to this environment, going from living isolated in a garage for most of her life to a high-energy household full of dogs and constant activity. That can be a difficult adjustment for any old dog, but when you consider she is totally blind and deaf, and never lived with other dogs, we had to wonder what it would be like for her.
In a phrase: piece of cake.
Actually, I should say: piece of bread, because that is her favorite thing in the world. We’ve discovered that she goes crazy whenever she smells bread in the kitchen, and let me tell you, she knows when there’s bread out. She can smell it from anywhere. She becomes restless and paces back and forth on the kitchen floor, her head up, nose twitching and her eyes shining, searching for the bread! So whether it’s toast for our breakfast or bread for sandwiches at lunch, Granny always has to get her slice first or there won’t be peace in the kitchen. A piece of bread for peace in the kitchen, you might say.
Nothing has fazed her so far, and she has managed to become a "regular" in the household pack. We watch her mill around with the other dogs — aside from the the Dachshunds she’s the smallest one in the house — and she holds her own. We worried that she might be a little snappish, just because she’s old and tiny and wouldn’t want to get stepped on … especially when she can’t see or hear anyone coming … but she’s never been that way with the other dogs. (Attention, Dachshunds: Please model this behavior!)
So having just told you about Granny’s obsession with bread, I felt a little sheepish after putting her on the couch for the photo shoot today about noon. Usually when I put her on the couch or a bed, she’ll settle down and nap, but she kept trying to get off the couch, first going one way and then the other, looking for a way down. She was in constant motion, restless, and increasingly frustrated by being up there. I said to Alayne, "Jeez, she seems pretty worked up for some reason."
And then — hello, Steve! — I realized why: Alayne was, yes, in the kitchen making sandwiches, and Granny could smell that bread! So she must have felt like I was tormenting her by making her sit on that confounded couch for some silly photos while her slice of bread was waiting in the kitchen!
This was the final photo in the series, with Granny’s "okay, I’ve really had enough of this, mister!" look:
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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