Everything changed in the boy’s life when he met a really special dog.
Dogs have the unique ability to change our lives dramatically, and no one understands this better than this five-year-old boy.
Leon Kirby-Bulner, who was diagnosed with autism and a rare brain disease, never spoke a word and things didn’t go well. But everything changed for him after he met a really special dog.
Leon, or Mancub as he likes to call himself, has been extremely introverted since childhood and has difficulty connecting with others, including his family.
But as soon as he met his companion Fern, a magnificent cocker spaniel, his self-doubt evaporated.
“At the time, Mancubus was locked in the depths of autism — no eye contact, no words, no interaction,” Hailey, the boy’s mother, told THE METRO.
He was hopelessly locked in his own little universe, but when he met Fern, it was love at first sight.
They instantly became inseparable, best friends for life. His first encounters were with Fern, not people. There was a new gleam in his eyes that we hadn’t seen before.
When the boy’s family saw how close their son and Fern were, they couldn’t believe their eyes. With each passing day, the young man became more attached to his pet and smiled whenever he spent time with the gentle dog. This gives his parents cause for hope.
Leon’s mother remarked: “This tiny puppy made him smile and giggle – all these feelings that we have never seen from him before”. “And we realized we had lost our falconry dog within a few weeks—Fern was supposed to be his dog”.
Because of their unwavering friendship, the family believes that Fern still has a lot to give in Leon’s long road to recovery, so they enroll her in special education so she can help her mini-human even more.
The training went exceptionally well, and Fern is now able to comfort and reassure Leon in ways his parents never imagined. However, the most striking event was that the autistic boy began to communicate for the first time.
