Louise Booth - When Fraser Met Billy: An Autistic Boy, a Rescue Cat, and the Transformative Power of Animal Connections

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Copyright 2014 by Louise Booth and Connected Content Ltd.

Originally published in 2014 in Great Britain by Hodder & Stoughton.

Cover Photographs Bruce Adams/Daily Mail/Solo Syndication

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First Atria Paperback edition April 2015

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Booth, Louise, date.

When Fraser met Billy : an autistic boy, a rescue cat, and the transformative power of animal connections / Louise Booth.First Atria Paperback edition.

pages cm

1. Autistic childrenScotland. 2. PetsTherapeutic use. 3. Human-animal relationships. I. Title.

RJ506.A9B6575 2015

616.89'1658dc23

2014040089

ISBN 978-1-4767-9729-8

ISBN 978-1-4767-9730-4 (ebook)

To Chris... My First, My Last, My Everything

For Fraser and Pippa... My Two Stars

I know somewhere out there, is me five years ago, someone who is facing the same enormities, despair, and isolation that I faced when I gave birth to Fraser in March 2008. This book was written for that person. I want it to help them see that there is hope at the other end of what sometimes seems like a very long, dark tunnel. You can get there, I promise.

It was a bright, early summer evening in 2011 and as we drove east along the banks of the River Dee the Highland landscape looked at its picture-postcard best. In the distance, the areas highest peak, Lochnagar, was bathed in a beautiful, golden glow while beneath us the setting sun was dancing off the dark waters of the river in a dazzling display of colors.

Every now and again we would pass an angler, knee-deep in the water, patiently casting their line in search of the sea trout and salmon that were now in season. It didnt occur to me at the time but looking back, I can see that, in a way, I was on a fishing expedition myself. What was that old saying? Youve got to lose a fly to catch a trout.

My husband, Chris, was at the wheel of our car while our two children were in the back. Our daughter Pippa was just over six months old and fast asleep in her baby seat. It was our three-year-old son Fraser who was, as usual, preoccupying us. He was sitting quietly, saying very little but staring intently at the two small photographs that hed brought with him. We werent quite sure what to expect from him this evening. But then, where Fraser was concerned, we never were.

Hed been diagnosed with autism just under two years earlier, in August 2009, at the very early age of 18 months. Like many boys with autism, he struggled to communicate and was prone to withdrawing into his own world. He was also capable of extreme emotional meltdowns, often over the most seemingly trivial things. In addition to this he suffered from hypotonia, a rare muscle tone condition that made his joints loose and floppy. This meant he found it very difficult to perform simple functions such as gripping things with his hands. He also found it a challenge to stand let alone walk. In fact, it had only been in the past year or so that hed become more mobile, largely thanks to supporting splints he now wore on his lower leg and ankles.

For the past year and a half, Fraser had been receiving treatment from a small team of experts, including a speech therapist and a behavioral therapist. Wed been told in no uncertain terms that he would never attend a normal school but, despite this, we had managed to find him a small, private nursery school that was prepared to take him twice a week, which had been a huge relief for me, in particular. The less good news, however, was that his moods and behavior were still highly unpredictable and volatile. This meant that our lives were never straightforward.

Fraser is an adorable, loving little boy with a personality that seems to melt the hearts of everyone who meets him. But Id be lying if I said that our life together had been a bed of roses, because it hadnt. We had been through some tough and extremely testing times. We never quite knew what to expect nor quite what to do, especially if we changed his routine as wed done today. All we could do was follow our instincts. Which was why Chris and I were driving along the Dee Valley, towards the small town of Aboyne, to meet the local organizer for the charity, Cats Protection.

Ive been an animal lover since childhood. As a girl Id play with rabbits, dogs, cats, horsesI didnt care. That evening Id looked enviously into the grounds of one of the grand Royal Deeside Estates where I knew you could ride horses, something Id adored doing when I was younger and missed terribly now that I was a full-time mother.

Our familys only pet at the moment was a cat, a rather portly and aging gray called Toby who wed had for more than a decade, since before Fraser and Pippa were born. It was dear old Toby who had given me the idea for this evenings journey into the unknown.

Toby was literally part of the furniture. He lay around the house, inanimate for most of the day, focused on the two main interests in his life: eating and sleeping.

For most of his young life, Fraser had taken very little interest in his surroundings or Toby. He was obsessed with anything that had wheels or spun around and could spend hours watching a spinning washing machine, playing with an old DVD player, or whirling the wheels of his upended stroller or a toy car, but beyond that very little seemed to engage him. Recently, however, Id noticed that he was fascinated by Toby. He would lie alongside Toby while he snoozed, placing his head on the carpet so that he could stroke and try to communicate with him.

Toby hadnt reciprocated the interest. For a while he tolerated the intrusion into his space but hed slowly become more and more wary of Fraser, especially when he was upset. On a couple of occasions, Fraser had begun screaming over some minor change to the household routine sending Toby running upstairs for cover. Since then hed become visibly scared of him and given him a wide berth. Sometimes now he would scamper away at the sight of Fraser approaching.