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.

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 in looking in a dog’s eyes, so I used this to try to open a channel of communication.

on him to make sure he would not get too close to the kid and spook

a few times, and he

and given how he ignored me when I started with this line of questioning, I decided not to push on too quickly as I feared he’d stopped communicating altogether.

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

he interacted more and more with

your name?” I asked him.

disappeared as he looked briefly

with Miki not far from here. Miki loves

it could make me sound more trustworthy, but I wasn’t sure if this technique

I dug into my bag, and next to my drawing pad, I found

realised right away what was going on, and suddenly ignore the kid and

treat out slowly, making him sit.

Miki could hardly contain his excitement and sat, shaking his

had to say it twice until, his desire for the biscuit overcame his excitement and then I gave it to him.

The child looked at this scene in pure fascination.

want to try it?” I asked.

He nodded.

I did an internal ‘yoop’ as I managed to make the kid

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

talk. I guessed that if he was more interested in the dog than me that he might be more willing to

the gist of what had to be done, but he

treats in a row to Miki.

was working really well, and I had heard the boy say at least four words now, and they were not as hard

treats were all gone, he

know what Miki