A Boy Named Ryan...and His Dog Named Bear. Part I

Ryan and Bear on a sunny day.

Ryan, was always on the verge of a blow up tantrum or meltdown since he had been 17 months old. Whether it was over excitement, over stimulation, anger, confusion, frustration, anxiety, or sadness. He always overreacted, and went over the edge. He had a very difficult time moderating his emotions and behavior, and the only level of reaction he seemed to know was extreme, and loud! There was no gradual rise in reaction from annoyed  to enraged. It was always 2.5 seconds and the rage was on!

We  moved to Texas so Ryan could see his Dad more often, so he started spending every other weekend with him. It was great that he was spending time with his Dad, but Ryan was regressing a little, and having a really hard time transitioning when he came back home. It took days for him to settle back into our household routine, with lots of crying, and temper tantrums. So, I took my oldest son (Daniel) aside, and explained how much better Ryan would do, emotionally, if he had a dog.  I had researched autism assistence dogs, and thier main effect is to calm these kids down. It took Dan about half a minute for him to say, "Start looking for a dog." I was excited, because I  knew deep down that it was one more thing  we could do for Ryan,  to help him get off  his daily emotional rollercoaster ride!

I made a list of traits Ryan's dog would need to have. It had to be an adult, because I needed a mature dog that could settle in quickly, and figure out it's role with Ryan. It needed to be intellegent, to be able to make decisions on it's own, large enough to withstand Ryan's strength, and have a strong herding instinct to follow Ryan everywhere. I researched different breeds, and decided Ryan needed a  herding dog, and the Australian Shepherd fit all the traits I was looking for. They are known in the dog world as "genius" dogs, natural born problem solvers, empathetic, responsible, hard working, and extremely loyal to home and family. They are also very tough, with a lot of endurance. Yep. High energy boy, strong athletic dog, I'd made my decision. The hunt was on!

It was easy to decide to adopt a dog from a shelter, but finding an Australian Shepherd turned out to be difficult. Everytime I got close to finding one, they would either get adopted, or in the case of one dog I had my heart set on, he needed sugery. Then one day, I came across a posting on petango.com that said Urgent in big letters, and explained the dog listed was in danger of euthenization within a matter of days. He was a black and white Australian Shepherd, stunningly handsome, and only one and a half years old. After reading his description, and then studying his pictures, I could see in his eyes that he looked lost, and he had this far away look, like he was waiting for someone. His name was Bear, and I got a feeling of absolute surety that this dog I was looking at, was the dog for my boy. He was waiting and watching for Ryan!

I quickly fired off an e-mail to the Waco Humane Society Animal Shelter, informing them of my interest in Bear, and to please wait until I could get there (in two days) before euthenizing him. I didn't receive an email back  The next day I called the Waco shelter, and left a voicemail begging for them to hold off putting him down, I was coming the next day to see Bear. I didn't get a call back. The next morning I looked up Bear's link and it mentioned either thursday or friday as his euthenization date. It was Thursday morning and I broke out in a cold sweat! I asked if I could borrow the car, and Dan's fiance not only said yes, she said she would go with me to get Bear. In 20 minutes we were on the road to Waco with mapquest directions, and prayers to God that we would please get there on time!

My friends, I'm going to leave this story as a cliff hanger. Part II of this story will be posted tommorrow afternoon. Until then I bid you peace always...
(hugs)
Beth