Autism Journey Day 22-Our house is on a corner. The elementary bus stop for our kids was always right at our corner. I always watched them from the window until the bus came. As Paige got older we could go outside to do that, but in her younger days I would have been chasing her everywhere. One day she was in her room which was upstairs. I knew she couldn’t get in much trouble up there, so I kept an eye on the bus stop. There was a lot of commotion at the bus stop and I didn’t know what was happening. I heard someone yell Paige’s name. I ran upstairs to see what was going on. I had opened Paige’s window about six inches to let some fresh air in. She pushed the screen so hard it came apart from the frame. She was pushing her stuffed animals out that opening and watching them drop two stories. She loved to watch things drop!! I looked out the window to see how many were down there. I looked just in time to see a golden retriever run by and grab one of the animals in his mouth. He then ran away with his “kill.” The kids had apparently watched this happen multiple times and that was what caused the commotion. I called my neighbor and good friend to tell her what had happened. She was driving to work and said she saw the golden retriever with the pile of stuffed animals on the front porch around the corner from us. He was so proud of his work that he sat quite tall on his porch with his pile of animals. I had to get the animals back because several of them were important to her. How was I going to get them back?? I knew the family but not well. The woman was home recovering from a recent surgery. Paige and I got in the car and drove around the corner to get the animals. It was the only way to logistically get so many animals back to my house without making multiple trips on foot, which would have surely been a problem for Paige. The dog was inside, but the stuffed animals covered the majority of the porch. Their front door was open, so I knocked. I didn’t feel like I could just take the animals without saying something. She and I had a good laugh about it. Paige and I went home to wash those animals.