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 to open a channel

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

and he did

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

rudimentary, but

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

your name?” I

he looked briefly at me.

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

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

next to my drawing pad, I found

going on, and suddenly

treat out slowly,

contain his excitement and sat, shaking his weight from

made him lie down. I had to say it twice

The child looked at this scene

want to try it?” I asked.

nodded.

make the kid say something. Silently, but

paws going in circles and then sitting, but going back up and putting his paws on my legs to tell me he was

kid talk. I guessed that if he was more interested in the dog

to get the gist of what had to be done, but he worked it out faster

treats in

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 than they had been

were all gone, he looked at me

know what Miki loves?” I asked him.