Thursday, July 31, 2008

Exposure Therapy

Emma has had an extreme fear of animals and really anything that even resembles an animal since the time she was able to show it. A couple examples include crying at the colored duster used at the photographer's when she was 4 months old, showing fear of even stuffed animals when she was 1 and even 2 years old, and being mortified of the very nice, calm, pet therapy dog that was brought to the library for story hour (the library was not quiet that day). If I was ever holding her when she saw an animal I could feel her whole body tense up, and she would cry and scream. The first thing everyone I've talked to asks when the topic comes up is if she has had "a bad experience" with an animal. I want to say, "yeah, every time she sees an animal it's a bad experience", but to answer the question, no. No, she's never been bit or jumped-on or anything. Sometimes I wondered if she would ever improve. Well, good news! She has. She's seen Grandma Christy's cat Oreo (aka Kitten Chow) grow from a kitten and just adores the thing. She was nervous at first, but from the pictures you can see that is no longer the case. Way to go Emma!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

seriously that is great!!! What a big step emma...I think this is the start to a life long animal lover...or not? Maybe just an Oreo Lover!