Pudd'n and his "Shadow".

This is Pudd'n as a toddler with our neighbor's dog Shadow.
He loved his "Shadow girl".
Shadow's owner Margaret lived in the condo next to us. We became fast friends and would exchange baby sitting duties. I'd watch Shadow when she'd go out of town and she'd baby sit Pudd'n for us.
If she left her back patio sliding door open, Shadow would come over in a heart beat. Often I'd get a phone call saying to return Shadow when Pudd'n was done playing with her.
Margaret has two grown sons that I'd see once in a while. Her oldest was a paramedic and always managed to freak us out when he'd come to visit while on duty. Your first thought at seeing a paramedic truck in front of her house is "holy shit! what happened?!" Then you remember, ohhhhhh, it's only Justin.
Justin met and fell in love with a great gal named Shanon. They got married and a few years later had twin boys. I had the pleasure of going to the shower and Maragret would always email me photos of the boys.
We hadn't been as close as we used to be these past few years. We both moved from our condos and are now living in separate cities.
This weekend when we went to the autism conference I noticed this good looking, tall, red headed young man.
OMG! It is Justin!
My joy at seeing Justin turned to "aww FUCK."
There is only one reason why he'd be there.
Both of his boys were diagnosed last year.
Lucky for them, things have come a long way since when we were first shoved in to the world of autism.
They too have been on the path of diet, suppliments, OT/PT, speech and other sundries that you do when your child is diagnosed. Their boys are higher functioning and they have a bright future. We were happy to get caught up on each other's lives. I just wish it wasn't at this type of function.
Afterwards we met Athena & Aussie for dinner. My brain was fried.
The conference was 9 am to 4:30 pm and we didn't learn anything new.
*heavy sigh*
At least now they are saying "the diet may not work for every one" as opposed to when we did it the message was "if you don't do this, you are a shitty parent for impeeding the progress of your child".
They are now also lumping everything thing we've done in to a "protocal" for easing the symptoms of autism. We had a good laugh over that one. Everything they said to do we've "been there done that" with out any one telling us.
Oh well.
At least it was a nice end to a crappy day. The food was good, we ate whaaaayy too much and had to waddle out to the car.