All That Is Left Behind

I took my dog in my arms, and I made my way to the boy. I was no older than four of five, and there was absolute distress written all over his face.

I made sure to have a good grip on my dog as he could get exited easily, and I knew a lot of people, including children, are easily intimidated by dogs, especially the overly expressive ones.

“Hey there,” I said.

The boy didn’t even look at me.

“Are you lost?” I asked him.

He didn’t turn around, but I knew he heard and understood me as he pointedly put his back to mine. There were silent tears in his eyes, but contrary to most children I’ve encountered, he wasn’t expressing his sadness very openly, which I found quite strange.

“You see,” I began. “My dog is named Miki, and he kept asking me to come around here. I really don’t know why. Do you? Maybe there’s a tennis ball hidden here somewhere. Would you help me look?”

He finally turned around, but his eyes were automatically drawn to Miki.

Miki gave him a doggy grin and waved his tail so hard, his little booty went side to side in my arms.

The boy had brown hair and gorgeous large brown eyes. He was wearing good clean clothes too that fit him perfectly. And he looked at the dog, hypnotized.

“Do you want to pet him?” I asked.

He said nothing, but I knew he heard me. He didn’t look at me, still glued to Miki.

“Here, let me show you how.” Then I spent the next minute showing the boy how to pet a dog.

“Do you want to try?” I asked him.

It was brief, and he returned his gaze automatically to Miki. It gave me the strange vibe you get with autistic children. He had

he would not get too close to the kid and spook him,

the exercise a few times, and he did

he talked, and given how he ignored me when I started with this line of questioning, I decided not to push

method was pretty rudimentary, but at least it was one.

as minutes went by and he interacted more and more

“What is your name?” I asked

he looked briefly at

I’m Mila. I live with Miki not far from

me sound more trustworthy, but I wasn’t sure

and next to my drawing pad,

what was going on, and suddenly ignore the kid and turned to me.

a treat out slowly, making

his excitement and sat, shaking his weight from his left paw to

I had to say it twice until,

child looked at this scene in

want to try it?” I

nodded.

I managed to make the kid say something. Silently, but

tell him to sit though,” I said as Miki was now back on his paws going in circles and then sitting, but going back up and

It took a lot of coaxing out of me to finally make the kid talk. I guessed that if he was more

It took a few minutes for him to get the gist of what had to be done, but he worked it out faster than I expected. So

treats in a row to Miki.

I would normally not encourage so much feeding, but it was working really well, and I had heard the boy say at least four words now, and

treats were all gone, he

“Do you know what Miki loves?” I asked him.