Just like many other 6 year old boys, Felix has so much energy he could have been feeding back into the grid.

He has a great sense of fun, enjoys making people laugh and loves, loves, LOVES to play chasey – often trying to rope his kinder chums into a much favoured game of “Chase Felix”.

But when all other children need to stop for a breather, not our Felix. He’s got power to burn! But Felix also has a significant intellectual impairment, autism and global developmental delay, which means that friendships are difficult for him to maintain and he’s often not able to find friends willing to chase him around or to play with him.

Felix lives in Northcote with his adoring Mum Micky, his Nanna, his older sister Zoe (13) and his twin sister Jaimee. Jaimee has mild left sided hemeplegia which makes her tired and less physically able than Felix, and Zoe has developmental dyspraxia.

Due to his sensory processing difficulties, Felix also has a high sensitivity to sounds – particularly crying babies and traffic noises – which cause him great distress and often result in an aggressive response. This has resulted in other children being scratched and injured and is often a dangerous situation when driving for Micky. Micky says he is very sad and remorseful when this happens, but he just can’t seem to control these reactions.

Recently, however there has been light at the end of the tunnel. The family have had a new house guest, “Chance”. While much hairier than Felix’s Kinder mates, Chance has no problem at all with Felix’s energy and behaviour issues. You see Chance comes pre-loaded with training as a Companion Therapy Dog. He’s learning how to distract Felix when he becomes distressed, sleeps at the foot of Felix’s bed (resulting in Felix now sleeping in his own bed at night – a new and wonderful circumstance for Mum!), and has more than enough energy to keep up with Felix in their backyard games of “Chase Felix”. There has also been a noticeable improvement in Felix’s behaviour both at Kinder and home since Chance’s arrival, which Micky feels is because he’s been able to use all that pent up energy and get a better night’s sleep.

But Chance has only been on loan from Dogs for Kids With Disabilities to see if he would be the answer. Well, it sounds like he certainly is, but for this single parent family on hugely stretched resources, the $3,200 cost of this specially trained dog is way out of their reach.

With the help of our wonderful supporters we were able like to make Chance a permanent part of Felix’s family – and it only took three weeks!