[megansmomma]

Originally Posted by mscat

Thank you,
My son, Matt, is high fuctioning. He is verbal, yet , with the cognitive delays, he falls far below average . He is in a SDC classroom , goes to school out of town is gone from 6:15am-5pm during the week days.
Now that we have Suzi , we are sharing her. Matt loves her so much as I do .ANd it is hard at times for me. ANd for him, I don't like it when he just takes her off my lap... However, he needs to spend time with her too.. Matt is wonderful with Suzi, no problems , or issues> He wants Suzi to sleep on his bed, i will not let her. But, Every morning, i'll still be sleeping and Matt takes Suzi off my bed , and She's with him, then he lets her out of his room, she "attacks" me! LOL .
I guess you could call it Doggie Rivarly! Matt needs his own service animal. I just do not know what kind yet or if it ought to be a yorkie, or what would be good to have with Suzi? She is only a little 7-8 lber. I would not mind anther yorkie around, Matt loves the Yorkie Breed, considering how much he Loves Suzi>
I understand I need to go through the same approvals I had to when getting Suzi for a service animal > However, if this worked out, and he is approved, I am looking at anther service animal for my disabled son. He is not going to be living on his own , due to the cognitive delays, and if he did he would need the support services , such as a developmental disabled home for adults > however, i would not do that to him, unless that is what he wanted to do. But, if he was 30, YES, that is something he might consider> i am a single parent and he is my only child.

Ha ha! It sounds like he is doing some pretty typical kids things to me with Suzi The point of my question was that if he did ever decide that he would like to transition away form home to an assisted living situation I would think that having a professionally trained service animal would be a wise choice for him. A few years ago I took a class and was certified as a disability childhood advocate and there are a lot of wonderful services that you could be offered when he is no longer eligible for disability services through your school district. I believe it is 19 they start the process of finding services as an adult but I am sure that you already know this information. Keeping this in mind, it might be wise to really think about different scenarios that you both may face in the future. He might be able to work through a local program and want to take his service dog along. A dog trained specifically to react to his disability would be a wonderful asset to his even small independence.

You sound like a wonderful and loving mom to want the very best for your son.