By Lillian O’Rorkeltucker@sammamishreview.com

With a thrust of her black shiny nose, Taryn rolls a six on a large, soft die and wins the game of 21 she’s been playing against the residents of Providence Marianwood.

Taryn is a miniature Australian shepherd. She visits Marianwood once every week or two to show off her many tricks and play games with her two-legged friends there. Her repertoire extends beyond rolling dice. She can bowl, pull a wagon, crawl G.I. Jane-style under a bench, turn a light switch on and off, and skateboard. One thing she can’t do is hear.

Taryn was born deaf. She’s a double-merle mini Aussie, which means the

genes that are responsible for her snowy white coat are also likely to blame for her deafness. Annie Hudson, a dietician at Marianwood, admits she was apprehensive at first about adopting a dog that could not hear.

At the time, Taryn was 7 years old. After being given up by her owner, she was in the care of the Mini Aussie Rescue and Support organization. The group, in Kent, eased Hudson’s wor-

ries, she said, by putting her in touch with other people who had deaf dogs.

“Most of them said, ‘I would adopt another deaf dog without reservations,’ and now that I have one, I totally agree,” Hudson said. “Things sometimes take a little bit longer, be-cause you don’t have the other added sense of voice and hearing, but once she catches on to things, she takes it and runs.”

The mini Aussie breed is

popular for agility courses, but when Hudson went looking for a dog trainer, all she had in mind was helping her new, timid friend be more confi-dent and happy. That’s when she and Taryn met Sammamish trainer Joey Iversen, whose 15 years in the business have included working with several deaf dogs.

COMMUNITYSection

B WednesdayMarch 6, 2013

THE ISSAQUAH PRESSTHE ISSAQUAH PRESSTHE ISSAQUAH PRESS

Issaquah Landscaping won a Silver Medal as garden co-creator and design-er for its display garden entry, “Disco Fever!”

The garden was one of 23 display gardens spotlighted at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show, which complet-ed its five-day Feb. 24 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.

Showgoers who visited the Issaquah Landscaping garden saw disco balls in a formal stone pond, innovative use of multilevel lighting, pillarlike Italian Cypress trees, and a mix of evergreen and blooming plants in a festive patio setting.

Marenakos Rock Center, also of Is-saquah, designed the show’s Wine Gar-den, where showgoers enjoyed a glass of wine and relaxed. Marenakos also pro-vided rock for the garden creators with delivery of more than 1 million pounds of rock to this year’s show.

There’s still time to help the Downtown Issaquah Association bring hang-ing flower baskets back to downtown.

Due to budget con-straints, the city hasn’t been able to fund the bas-kets along Front Street.

The DIA is working with a local nursery and maintenance company to bring the baskets back in time for Mother’s Day. The group hopes to raise $10,000 to fund 40 bas-kets.

Donations can be made in one of three levels:4$1,000 will get you a

24-by-16-inch banner plac-

ard with your logo on it to hang on Front Street.4$250 covers the cost

of one basket and mainte-nance for five months. Your name will be recognized in a thank you press release and on the DIA website.4For $50, the DIA

will send your mother a Mother’s Day card saying a contribution was made in her honor for a flower bas-ket in downtown Issaquah.

The deadline for this year’s baskets is March 8.

Contributions made after that date will go into a gen-eral beautification fund. Donate at www.downtown-issaquah.com.

By Sarah Radmer

Last year, the Issaquah Women’s Club raised more than $12,000 during its spring luncheon. It donated the money to scholarships and charities throughout the community.

“We were thrilled,” fundraising coordinator Deborah Bader said.

On April 20 at the Hilton Garden Inn, the club will host the luncheon again for the second year in a row.

The event, which runs from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., combines a luncheon, and live and silent auc-tions. A total of 180 tickets are available for $35 each. Bader hopes to draw peo-ple from outside the club to support the community.

The luncheon will serve a “chop chop” salad, fresh rolls, desserts and drinks, catered by the hotel.

The auctions will feature more than 100 items, in-cluding donations from lo-cal businesses and themed gift baskets compiled by club members, accord-ing to Valerie Armitage, a member of the fundraising team.

Issaquah City Council-man Fred Butler will emcee the auction again, Bader said.

“He’s funny and engag-ing and energetic,” Bader said. “We’re all convinced he makes a big difference in getting more money.”

Many merchants from Issaquah and beyond donate each year, Armitage said. Some notable donors include the Woodland Park Zoo, the Museum of Flight, Boehm’s Candy and Costco.

Armitage often drives around to pick up dona-tions, but many repeat donors send theirs in the mail. Bader recently received a donation from Triple XXX Rootbeer Drive-in in Issaquah. Along with his donation, owner José Enciso included a note that said, “Thank you for asking us to donate.”

“That is the spirit of the kind of support and coop-

eration that the merchants and the people of this com-munity have had over the years,” Bader said.

That kind of note is customary in all of Enciso’s donations to local charities. He said he is thankful to be chosen to help, especially in a community that he said has done so much for him.

“The community … helped us in the beginning and put us where we are now,” he said. “It’s a great feeling for people to feel that they can come to us to help out.”

All proceeds from the auction and any leftover ticket income will go into the club’s pool of dona-tions. At the end of the year, board members will make charity recommen-dations and the group will vote to decide where the funds go.

The proceeds from last year’s event went to a va-riety of charitable causes, including the group’s “Fol-low Your Dream” schol-arship for girls in their senior year of high school, a scholarship for domestic-violence victims going back to school, scholarships for low-income children to attend summer camps, and various charities.

“If we didn’t do these events, we wouldn’t be able to meet our goals and support our community,” Bader said.

Armitage, who joined the

Women’s Club hosts luncheon, auction

to aid local charitiesIF YOU GO

Issaquah Women’s Club spring luncheon411:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. April 204Hilton Garden Inn,1800 N.W. Gilman Blvd.4Purchase tickets by contacting Patti Anderson at 391-2309 or patti.anderson56@gmail.com.

FILE

Issaquah Women’s Club members make bids on raffle baskets during a previous year’s fundraising event.

See LUNCHEON, Page B3

Landscaper wins silver at garden show

CONTRIBUTED

Issaquah Landscaping’s display garden ‘Disco Fever’ won a silver medal at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show at the Washington State Convention Center.

Help bring flower baskets back to downtown

BY LILLIAN O’RORKE

Joey Iversen, a Sammamish animal trainer, receives a high-five from Taryn, a deaf miniature Australian shepherd dog, during a program of tricks and petting therapy Feb. 28 for residents at Providence Marianwood nursing home.

TRICKS AND TREATS

BY GREG FARRAR

Taryn, who is deaf, takes tissues out of a box on a command given by trainer Joey Iversen using a pen flashlight.

Taryn the dog bowls for joy

at Marianwood

PHOTOS BY GREG FARRAR

Taryn pulls a toy wagon (left) across the community room floor during a recent program. Annie Hudson (right), a dietician at Providence Marianwood, holds out Taryn, her miniature Australian shepherd, to be petted by one of the residents during a visit.

See TRICKS, Page B3

B1