Foxy

The boys were, at one point, afraid of animals. All animals, except possibly small fish in bowls. Their mom got a kitten and that helped - along with some therapy on the topic. Thinks got a little better. But dogs were still an issue. At one point, David wouldn't even walk to the local park, for fear that there might be a dog somewhere in the area; even a dog barking behind a locked gate made him almost hysterical.

Well, my daughter got a dog. A chocolate lab puppy. This seemed like an opportunity to work on this issue. Of course, we waited a bit, until the dog was familiar with her surroundings and had started learning some basic commands. My daughter is an excellent, stern-but-fair, alpha-dog, owner. (Actually she's amazing.)

So the fateful day came when we went to her house with the boys for the first time since the dog. She lives in a condo with an enclosed patio area, so the property is not big. The boys were jumpy. The dog was too. It was very funny - Mikey would run from the dog, and she'd assume he was playing. We kept a very close eye on them all. David tended to run UP away from the dog. Eventually, David was willing to pet her, and Mikey loved her.

The dog is a chocolate lab, named (this is a groaner), "Foxy Brown." Labs grow fast to be fairly big, in case you didn't know ... We determined to make sure the boys saw her at least once a month, so her growth would be familiar to them. A few weeks ago, for the first time, she came to our house to visit. We have a large (by California urban standards) fenced back yard. Suffice it to say that everyone had a blast, and Mikey wore Foxy out!!!

Two weeks ago, Mikey said, "May I have Foxy, please?" Unfortunately, our daughter was working on a fund-raiser for the local no-kill shelter where she volunteers, so the request could not be accommodated. But yesterday, Foxy came over again. It was really funny - after having asked for her, at first, Mikey stayed in the house and did other things. "Mikey, don't you want to play with Foxy?" (no real response).

After about an hour, he decided to come out and play. He is doing very well with her. He now will hand her food without pulling his hand back at the last second and throwing it at her.

So there he was - running around with the dog. He stopped. He got down on his knees, his face next to hers. Slurp, slurp, slurpy kisses, all over his face ... Mikey got up and started running, "Yuck! I've been kissed by a dog! I have dog germs!"

Although he doesn't make sentences like that all the time, he can repeat them when he's heard them. And at least it was situationally appropriate to quote Lucy. We think he wanted Foxy to "kiss" him just so he could say those lines. He repeated this several times during the afternoon.

Another issue for Mikey is verb tense, and time in general. However, last week we went to the local Aquarium. On the way home, he said, "We went to the Aquarium" [emphasis mine] all on his own. It was very exciting to hear him do this - it's something that needs to be reinforced.

David did not play with Foxy. He loves his cats but just isn't into dogs. We did make sure he came down, greeted and petted Foxy.

David is just starting 7th grade this year. He has been home-schooled, through a District program, since 6th grade. He completed both 6th and 7th grade "regular" math using the ALEKS (http://www.aleks.com) program and is now (at the beginning of 7th grade) working through pre-algebra. It's starting to get hard, as it is moving into more complex and abstract concepts - tough for many kids, but especially for literal-minded autistics. We did get through some lessons this week, but he avoided the harder (for him) ones. I said, "OK, David, but next week we do at least one hard one."

"O - Kay" he responded, sounding rather like Eyore.