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.

finally dared look at me. It was brief, and he returned his gaze automatically to Miki. It gave me the strange vibe you get with autistic children. He had problems looking in my eyes, but clearly none

took him a few minutes, and we finally both sat on the grass, I sat Miki in between us, keeping my hand on him to make sure he would not get too close to the kid and spook him, whom eventually caved and gave the first pet. It was

a few times, and he did

he ignored me when I started with this line of

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

and as minutes went by and he interacted more and more with the dog, his

“What is your name?” I asked him.

disappeared as he looked

want to. I’m Mila. I live with Miki not far from here. Miki loves parks very much, so we came here for a bit of fun.”

that if I shared information first it could make me sound more trustworthy, but

and next to my

was going on, and suddenly ignore the

I took a treat out slowly, making him sit.

hardly contain his excitement and sat, shaking his weight from his left paw

the treat above his head and made him lie down. I had to say it twice until, his desire for the biscuit overcame his excitement and then I gave it to him.

looked at this scene in pure fascination.

to try it?”

He nodded.

managed to make the kid say something. Silently,

in circles and then sitting, but going back up and

to finally make the kid talk. I guessed that if he was more interested in the

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

He ended up feeding five treats in a row

really well, and I had heard the boy say at least four words now, and they were

Once the treats were all gone, he looked at

you know what Miki loves?” I asked him.