That growing up with animals has multiple benefits for children is a scientifically proven fact. Children who have or have grown up with pets have a high degree of responsibility and respect; they learn to share, to love the same being and to work as a team; etc.
However, even though this fact is nothing new, there are stories of animals and children that touch you deeply… This is the case of Iris and her cat:
Iris is a six-year-old British girl who was diagnosed with autism when she was only two years old.
Iris is very fortunate to have parents who not only adore her, but who from the first moment they learned of her condition, have fought tirelessly to get their little girl to connect with the world.
One of the things Iris enjoys most is painting. Her mother, Arabella, in her eagerness to normalize her daughter’s life, realized that art, and specifically painting, awakened something in her daughter and she showed a special interest. Thus, the mother encouraged the practice of painting in her daughter….
However, nothing has been as big a change in Iris’s life as the one her cat has brought about since the moment he came into her life.
Thula
is the name Iris has given to her great friend, a Maine Coon, who for the past two years has become her best companion and inseparable companion.
This is not the first animal that Iris’ parents tried to get her to have a relationship with. After a lot of research, they knew that animals could help the girl, and they also knew many cases of other autistic children who had good experiences and a great connection with animals. Therefore, they tried some dogs and even horses before Thula came into the family. Although without much result.
Thula came to the family by chance through the little girl’s uncle, her mother Arabella’s brother. He was going on vacation and needed someone to take care of his cat. At first, the little girl’s mother was somewhat reluctant to take in Thula, as she had an image of cats as distant and independent beings and did not think it was the best thing for her daughter.
It was, without a doubt, a great surprise for the whole family to see how it was a matter of very little time before a very positive first contact between the girl and the cat took place. Since then, they have been inseparable.
