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.

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

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 short and just one finger on the forehead for maybe two seconds, then he pressed his hands together on his chest and kept looking at the dog.

repeated the exercise a few times, and he

wanted to question him more about his parents or why he was alone, but I wasn’t even sure he talked, and given how he ignored me when I started with this line of questioning, I decided not to push

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

was not crying either, and as minutes went by and he interacted more and more with the dog, his expression slowly melted into one

name?”

he looked briefly at me.

live with Miki not far from here. Miki loves parks very much, so we came here for

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

to my drawing pad, I found a little bag.

and suddenly ignore the kid and turned to me.

I took a treat out slowly, making him sit.

his weight from his left

him lie down. I had to say it twice until, his desire for

child looked at this scene in pure fascination.

try it?” I

nodded.

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

“You have to 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 putting his paws on my legs to tell

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

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

He ended up feeding five treats in a row

so much feeding, but it was working really well, and I had heard the boy say at least four words now, and they were not as hard to get

were all gone,

what Miki loves?” I asked him.