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.

automatically to Miki. It gave me the strange vibe you get with autistic children. He had

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,

repeated the exercise a few times, and

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

Granted this communication method was pretty rudimentary, but at

He was not crying either, and as minutes went by and he interacted more and more with the

your name?”

His smiled disappeared as he

don’t want to. I’m Mila. I live with Miki not far from here. Miki loves parks very much,

sound more trustworthy, but I wasn’t sure if this technique worked with children.

my bag, and next to my drawing pad, I found a

on, and suddenly ignore

a treat out slowly,

his weight from his left paw to his right.

it twice until, his

at this scene in pure

to try it?”

nodded.

I did an internal ‘yoop’ as I managed to make the kid say something. Silently, but still, it’s an achievement.

“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

if he was more interested in the dog than me that he might be more willing to

few minutes for him to get the gist of what had to be done, but he worked it

He ended up feeding five treats in a

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 out of him

gone,

what Miki loves?”