A DOG FOR AARON: Bond came to school!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Bond came to school!

Yesterday Bond came down to Stanwood to do a home and school visit. Denise came to the house (I was at school) to check out Bond’s new home. Bond checked out my bedroom, the backyard, around the house, and Pippin (our family dog). Bond took a tour of the backyard and my bedroom before he was able to say hi to Pippin. Once he did say hi to Pippin, it was brief, and then he walked around the living room checking things out (this is exactly what Denise wanted to see!!!)

After the home visit Bond, Mom, and Denise came to school to show my class my new helper. Bond was quite the celebrity from the moment he walked into the building. He visited at the front office for a bit, took a walk down to the ASSIST (special ed.) classroom to meet one of my teachers, and then went down to my general ed. 2nd grade classroom. Bond sat next to me while Denise answered the other kids’ questions. At one point I got up and ran to a different part of the classroom, and Bond got up and followed me. The other students had some great questions, and it turned out to be a successful visit.

So what is our status at this point? Well, Mom is going to schedule a time for me to go up to Brigadoon for another visit, and then Denise is going to start scheduling trainings and more home visits. Probably by May, Bond will come and stay with us for a few nights at a time and work his way into our family life. We are all very excited to start this phase! Here are some pictures of yesterday’s school visit:

Bond was a hit in the hallway!

Me, Bond, and Mrs. Kay

Waiting for the other students to arrive.

Just hanging out
(that is a picture of me and Bond on one of our visits to Brigadoon that I'm looking at)

I'm as happy as can be

Doggie kisses

YUCK!

The other students are arriving

Denise is talking about what Bond will do for me...

and answering lots of questions from curious 2nd graders!

Talking about different types of service dogs

Mrs. Kay hanging out with me

My peer mentors

One of my friends

My class!

1 comment:

Giraffe's Song said...: That is amazing! Bond is so beautiful, and the pics of your classroom and friends make me smile :); March 5, 2009 at 4:38 PM

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My Story

Hi. I'm Aaron. I'm 8 years-old and I have autism. I can't talk yet, but I'm close. I do have a little problem (okay a big problem) with running away. I'm stealthy, fast, sneaky and silent.

Because I have such a problem with escaping, I need help from a service dog to help prevent me from running away. A dog that would block me when I was trying to run. This would help me and my parents a lot. See, it's hard to go to the park or beach because they spend the whole time chasing me (I have a brother and sister too). It's hard to go to friend and family get-togethers because they spend the entire time chasing me and can't visit with other people.

Check out my Diary of an Autistic Escape Artist for some of my escape stories. This would be an actual service dog so it could go to the store, school, and vacations with me. It would be my companion, and would help keep me safe.

The only roadblock is that a service dog is expensive. My parents have decided to go with an organization called Brigadoon Youth and Service Dogs. The fee for a service dog from Brigadoon is $5,000. That's where this blog comes into play. Getting a service dog is a long process. It will probably be 2009 before a dog could come home with me permanently.