Liam And Chester

On Liam’s 6th birthday we decided, for some reason, that it would be a good idea to get him a dog. We got the idea while we were camping at the coast with a group of friends. Many of the other campers brought their dogs. There were about six dogs and Liam really took an interest in them. He seemed to really want to hang out with them and he would just sort of follow them around…at first. The dogs also seemed to take a shine to Liam and you could almost hear them saying after much discussion “Okay, I guess you’re cool. You can hang with us.” The next thing I remember is this pack of six dogs running down the beach after seagulls with a shirtless grinning Liam right in the middle of them. I immediately had visions of Mowgli or some National Inquirer boy raised by wolves, but Angie and I looked at each other thinking the same thing. Later we discovered that we weren’t thinking the same thing at all because I was thinking, “We should get him a dog”. She was thinking, “I hope he doesn’t hurt those dogs”.

On the way back from camping we talked about how Liam really liked those dogs and maybe it would help him to have a dog. Liam was so over dependant on us to entertain him all the time, it felt like a good idea for him to have a companion that could give him attention when we couldn’t. Maybe he would go out in the back yard without needing to have us out there with him all the time if he had a dog to hang out with. Angie reminded me of when we had a dog before we had kids and how it was a hassle with the mess and the shedding and the mess and the barking and the mess. I remembered all those things but completely chose to ignore them because I have this condition where, once I get an idea stuck in my head, I tend to pursue it beyond all reason.

Angie did agree to look into it and we started researching dogs and autism and found out that there are therapeutic dogs for autistic children and that it is very common for autistic kids to bond with dogs and that it can really help them negotiate the social human world. We also found out that these special highly trained dogs cost around $13,500 and that does not include food or a squeaky toy. We also learned that these dogs are really more geared toward kids who are more shut off from the world than Liam was, and the commitment to this dog is that he goes everywhere with the kid; to school, the grocery store, church, the bingo parlor, Chucky Cheese, etc. and is viewed the same as a seeing eye dog and has to be accepted at all those places and that if we don’t have the dog with Liam at all times then we are bad people for not allowing the dog to fulfill its purpose in life. While we really did admire this kind of commitment from a dog, we just could not reciprocate.

I think Angie thought that was the end of it, but not for me (remember my condition?). I still thought that Liam should have a dog but he didn’t need an expensive super dog. He just needed a good all American mutt to pal around with. Angie acquiesced with two conditions: a reasonable sized dog, and a non-shedding breed. Well I could see I had my work cut out for me to find the perfect breed. I Googled “non-shedding reasonable sized dog” and there it was: the Labradoodle. I am going to say that word only once because it is a stupid name for a breed and totally belies the coolness of the dog. What it is is a half Labrador Retriever and half Poodle. It’s hard to conceive of what this dog looks like until you actually see one. It’s a big shaggy mutt looking dog that is not supposed to shed because it is half Poodle and best of all, it doesn’t look at all like a Poodle. This breed can range in size from forty pounds to about seventy-five pounds. When Angie said “reasonable size” I thought she meant that she didn’t want some little yappy ankle-biting dog. I found out later that’s not what she meant at all. The size range was agreeable because Angie was thinking in the forty pound range and I was thinking in the seventy-five pound range; minor details though because we agreed on the breed.

Liam’s birthday was a few weeks away and we had been searching for a good and reasonably priced Labra…half Lab half Poodle. We discovered that most of them were not reasonably priced and that they were in great demand. So, we realized that what we were really looking for was a trendy designer dog. This was a little disconcerting but it didn’t matter at this point because we, and when I say we, I mean I had already made my mind up. I finally found one that was reasonably priced and looked pretty cool from his picture.

We took Liam and Claire to go look at this puppy without giving away that we were thinking about getting a dog. We made up some story that our “friends” dog had puppies and we just want to go say “hi” to them. This dog was eleven weeks old and already forty pounds; about the same size as Liam. He had a cream colored coat and the start of a full beard hanging off his jowls. He walked right up to Liam and began licking his face (probably because Liam had food on his face. Liam always has food on his face). Liam just started laughing and thoroughly enjoying the tongue bath the dog was giving him. We stayed for about twenty minutes. The kids played with the puppy while Angie and I quietly discussed what to do.
“He’s pretty big for a puppy.” She said
“Yeah but look. He and Liam love each other.” I said.
“But he’s already forty pounds.”
“Well Liam will grow too. Besides, look at them.”
Angie reluctantly agreed that this was the dog for Liam. The owner agreed to hold the dog for us until Liam’s birthday when we would present it to him.

On Liam’s birthday all his friends were there. Liam’s friends at the time were all grownups and they were all the therapists who worked with him. These were the people with which he had true bonds and who completely accepted Liam without judgment and many of whom are still close to Liam today. He was ecstatic to have them all there and understood that this was his special day. I had the dog hidden in the basement while the party was going on up stairs. The plan was for me to bring up the dog at just the right moment and present it to him. But the dog let out one big bark and Liam immediately lit up and let out a great big “Whooooooooohoooo!” and started jumping up and down. He could not contain himself. I brought the dog up and Liam just got louder and more boisterous. He would run up to the dog and put his hands on his back and run away and come back and do it again. I thought the dog was going to freak out but the dog was loving it. He was as excited as Liam and was not at all shied by all the commotion. This lasted about fifteen minutes until Liam was able to contain himself enough to let the dog begin licking gluten free cake off his face.

We named the dog Chester after my late grandfather. Chester fit right in with the kids, especially Liam. I say that because Chester and Liam turned out to be almost exactly alike. They are both constantly getting into things, they are both constantly dirty, they both love to play with and in water, they are both hyperactive, they both chew on almost anything, and they are both constantly under foot. In addition to those traits, Chester is not a non-shedder. In fact he sheds like a son of a bitch…literally. It turns out that the non-shedding trait is not a guarantee with the Labra…Poodle/Lab. Also, Chester grew to be eighty-five pounds; a reasonably sized dog in my book, but as stated earlier, an unreasonable size for any dog in Angie’s book.

So, did we accomplish what we thought with Chester? Mostly. I wouldn’t say Liam and Chester are best buddies although Chester tries pretty hard. He is great with both of the kids and they can do anything to him and he just loves the attention. I would say that Liam and Chester have formed a more subtle bond. I remember one summer afternoon looking out the window and seeing Chester lying on the back lawn with Liam lying on his back using Chester as a pillow while looking up at the sky. That was a perfect picture for me. Another time Liam was really upset and collapsed crying on the kitchen floor and Chester came up to Liam and curled his whole body around him, and it really calmed Liam down. When Liam gets upset sometimes he will hit or throw things. Chester gets hit a lot when this happens and he just stands there and takes it. At first I was thinking “Are you stupid? Why don’t you get out of the way?” but after a while I realized that when Liam is upset Chester is always there or he appears there and Liam hits him and Chester lets him. It doesn’t hurt Chester and it got me thinking that maybe Chester can really sense what Liam needs at the time and if Liam needs to hit something Chester is there for him. Maybe I read too much into it. I do believe Chester would do anything to protect Liam, and Claire, and Angie, and me. I also believe that despite the mess and the destruction and the mess and the hyperactivity and the mess, He is a good boy and he makes our lives far richer…and so does Chester.