“What’s Russell saying?”
Jonah will ask us this probably 50 times a day.
Russell and Jonah have grown up together. We call Russell Jonah’s emotional support “therapy cat.”
Whenever Jonah (or anyone) is escalated, Russell gets right into the middle of us to try to regulate everyone’s emotions (by getting pets, of course).
No matter how angry or upset Jonah has gotten during a meltdown, he has NEVER shown aggression toward Russell, or any other animal for that matter.
Do you remember a while ago we had a problem with Jonah’s anxiety when his tablet wasn’t at 100%?
Jonah has solved this dilemma…
He goes to find Russell…. The emotional support “therapy cat.”
That darn cat prompted Jonah’s first sentence (“Russell, Out!”) and still prompts him to speak every day.
“I’m gonna get you, Russell! What are you doing under there, Russell? I’m gonna put a pillow on you, Russell! Russell come here!! What’s Russell saying?… What’s he saying?”
It’s so awesome.
It wasn’t that long ago that JONNY would ask us what Jonah was saying, when Jojo was completely nonverbal.
Now Jojo is asking the same questions of his pets. It seems we have come full circle.
I was never an animal person growing up. My mom was allergic to almost all pet dander.
But This darn cat…
sigh


