Harmony
Pat and Harmony
When my son Shawn was about two and a half years old he was diagnosed autistic. Prior to the diagnosis Shawn was very playful and funny, laughing and asking questions like, what's that. Minutes after receiving a vaccination at an a appointment with his doctor he developed a high fever and within a week he was lost. No more laughing or questions, just silence. Shawn was in speech about a year and nothing changed. One day our old shepard Buddy started pushing Shawn with his nose and Shawn to my surprise turned and jumped on Buddy like he was trying to ride a horse. At 120 pounds Buddy was a horse to Shawn. Buddy laid down on the floor and the games began. Shawn and Buddy were inseperatable until a newly assigned police office to our neighborhood saw Buddy come down off our front porch and Buddy was shot and hit more than 20 times. The police department found another dog, a Collie/ Shepard mix to replace Buddy, Shawn named her Harmony after listening a Clint Black song "Harmony". Harmony quickly filled the empty space Buddy's loss left behind for the whole family. To my surprise Shawn started talking more as he became more acquainted with Harmony. Shawn is now in sixth grade and is taking Spanish for the second year and is a straight A student. Shawn never went to any other services once Harmony came into our lives. Because Harmony was getting to be another Buddy weighing in at about 100 ponds we decided not to take the risk of her being shot in town, so we got a yellow boarder Lab we loving call Sandy. Sandy had no problem take over, but Harmony truly made all the difference for Shawn.