Nine-year-old James Isaac has autism. He can’t speak and finds it hard to make contact with others.
But luckily, James has one close friend – his dog, Mahe.
This beautiful assistance dog is so loyal, in fact, that he has refused to leave the boy’s side ever since they first met, two-and -a-half years ago.
James, who’s from New Zealand, recently underwent an MRI scan to diagnose his seizures. Amazingly, doctors at the hospital recognised how much the pair rely on each other, and allowed Mahe to stay with James during his scan.
While James was put under the machine, Mahe comforted him and helped keep him calm by snuggling up to him.
James’s mum and dad filmed the moving moment in which Mahe can be seen watching over James protectively as he went under general anaesthetic, and cuddling him as James slept in the hospital bed.
James’s mum Michelle said that leaving the house with her son used to be very tough, but that Mahe changed all of that.
“We couldn’t even go to a café as a family. James would get very anxious and want to leave immediately,” Michelle told stuff.co.nz.
“But when we got Mahe, James would just sit there waiting for us to finish our coffee.”
Mahe was trained for six months by The Assistance Dogs New Zealand Trust, to help kids with autism and other disabilities.
They are taught to distract their owners, and alarm other family members should something be wrong. They’re also trained to track missing people and objects.
Wendy Isaacs, the trust’s funding development manager, said: ‘There is such a magic that happens between a child with autism and the dogs, they just calm the kids down.’
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