Video Transcript L2 Handling Test

On a tan, speckled tile floor, Barnum, looking especially black and furry in the dim light, lies patiently. There is a white, fluffy bathmat behind him, and a white chest freezer behind that. An oxygen tank sits under a window to the outdoors. Sharon lowers herself to the ground, next to Barnum.

Sharon strokes Gadget with both hands on the top of the head, smiling. He raises his head to look at her. She fondles each of his long, floppy, black ears, one at a time. Lifting each one and turning it inside out to pull loose hair and wax from inside. She makes little humming sounds, like, “Mm-hmm, mm-hmm” to him as she proceeds.

She lifts his lips on both sides, looking at his teeth, then rubs his nose.

He shakes his head twice, getting his ears back the way he wants, presumably.

After finishing both his ears, she picks up first his front,  right leg, touching it and putting her fingers between each toe on the paw. Then she does the same with the front, left paw.

She moves on to his back paws, but the front part of his body blocks most of what she’s doing. She lifts one paw into the air. (It can be seen above his head.) He looks at what she’s doing, but doesn’t interfere. Sharon gets a look of intense concentration and then pulls something off his paw and drops it on the floor. She pets Barnum on the head reassuring him. After she has presumably handled his other hind paw, she runs her hands over his rump, and he rolls onto his side, looking relaxed, only keeping his head up to watch what she’s doing. She is handling his tail, which is docked and therefore not visible from the camera angle. She smiles at his face and rubs his belly.

She periodically smiles and makes “happy sounds” at him.  She rubs his chest, between his paws. She finishes by cleaning some eye goop from the bridge of his nose, grabbing a piece of toilet paper from a roll hanging on the wall next to her, and using the toilet paper to wipe below his eyes again. Still lying on his side, he raises a paw in the air, batting at her hand.

With an accent that sounds similar to CP or post-stroke, she says, “Alright! Good boy! Release!” and makes the ASL sign for finish to him. She rubs his nose again, smiling, and he lifts his paw to her again.

She slides to the camera and shuts it off.