Silent Puppy Love

Each Thursday morning, the TV 5 Morning News features an dog from North Florida Animal Rescue of Maine.

A month ago, we met Emerson, an adorable puppy that needed special attention because he was deaf.

Many of our viewers wanted to know if Emerson ever found a home.

Joy Hollowell reports on the fairy tail finish to this story.

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"Emerson had a pretty rough start to life," said Whitney during her TV 5 Morning Show appearance in early March. An adorable, black puppy with floppy ears sat on her lap, staring intently into the camera. He and his siblings had been rescued by https://www.facebook.com/nfrmaine/ from a shelter in the southern United States.

"Emerson was having seizures, we weren't sure why," explained Whitney. "He was hospitalized and developed Parvo. And they do believe he is deaf and maybe visually impaired."

No surprise, 12-week old Emerson pulled at the heartstrings of our TV 5 viewers especially when he didn't get adopted right away.

Whether you believe in miracles or even destiny- one thing is for sure, Emerson finally found his soulmate in Nick Abbott.

"I was born deaf," explains the Gardiner man.

Nick saw a post about Emerson on a Facebook news feed.

"I said- Oh, he's deaf too," explains Abbott. "Maybe I can go check him out to see what he's all about."

Just days later, the two met.

"He came straight to me at the door and sat right away at my feet and stayed there," says Abbott with a smile. "So you can tell he kind of picked me. And I knew right then and there that we would get along and understand each other pretty good."

Nick is using visual commands to train Emerson. he already knows sit, which is the letter s in sign language. And while our camera was rolling, emerson mastered another one.

"Lie down," Abbott says to Emerson, sweep his hand across in a straight line.

Emerson dutifully lies down.

"Well, that's a first," Nick chuckles, looking at our camera.

Em, as Nick calls him for short, does respond to certain tones and pitches. But being deaf doesn't seem to bother either of these boys.

"The bond that we have is awesome," Nicks says, breaking into a huge grin. "We understand each other very well. I'd like to think it was meant to be. He's special"

https://www.facebook.com/nfrmaine/