Tessie

Having autism, I know what it is to be different.

My dog also knows.

My best friend, Tessie, is half Siberian Husky and half Bluetick Coonhound. She is a beautiful girl. But the first thing everyone notices is the single china eye. One eye is pale blue, sometimes called white. The other eye is dark brown, with a tiny stripe of blue going from the white of the eye through the iris. But she isn't blind in the blue eye--if anything, it's closer to the opposite.

Tessie is a very special and incredibly intelligent dog. I got her from my brother for my twelfth birthday. I had only met her once before, that summer, but we had an instant bond. She listened to me as I started to teach her commands the day we met. And she remembered all of those commands.

So when I got her the following November as a belated birthday present, I immediately started training her. I was very careful, but she surpassed all of my expectations. Tessie and I started slowly, but within a year, we had grown to the point where I could signal her and she would just understand my innermost thoughts. 

There was just one trouble, though--she ran away.

The Coonhound in her is always begging her to sniff, so she rolls in the grass a lot. But when she rolls, her leash comes unhooked. And she can jump right over a four foot fence without trying. We live right near a major roadway, so that is very dangerous. She once crossed the roadway. We only caught her because of her fear of water. And even then, my dad couldn't have got her if he had run for her. But the moment I called, she came running, just like the song always says.

Winter is her favorite season. She can jump vertically through the piles of snow we get around here, and the best part is that I can keep up. Spring and fall come next. That's when we take three hour walks after school is over for the day. We'll go down the street, visit her friends(Jinx, Lilo, and Max, along with others on occasion), and finally go to the skate park. She taught herself to climb the concrete half pipe. So I used that to my advantage, and after a lot of practice, she was able to do anything I told her to when we were there. She's become the unofficial dog mascot of the park.

In the summer, I don't see her much. I have words floating around my head all day, every day, and I can only write them down constantly for three months of the year. So Tessie will lay outside the closed door to my bedroom until Mom gets home from work at two o'clock. We'll be forced out of the house for a couple of hours. And for once, I actually don't want to.

But with Tessie around, I don't care. I can still remember all the words I need to write down for when I get home. So even if it does get annoying for the dog, with me typing all day, we are still happy.

And that is what matters.