Autism and Elsie

I don't know where I would be without my cat. Not a cat, but this cat. Our relationship is such that she is perfectly in step with me, all the time. As I type this, she's sitting directly behind my head, purring.

One of the ways she calms me down is by that purring. I love it. I hold her and rock back and forth and listen to her purr, sometimes for a half hour. She just sits contentedly in my arms and purrs. I think you can see how comfortable we both are:

When I had my evaluation done at a major medical center, they noticed that I still have some echolalia, or speech that isn't exactly my own. You can see it here. When my mom gets home from work, she says, "Hi, Els." I say it... all the time. Sometimes I even say it when Elsie's not there, to get her to come. So, it's functional, but it's still the remaining vestiges of echolalia.

My extreme kitty perseveration has paid off, at least in one way. This is one smart cat. She not only comes when I call her, she follows very closely behind me. Here, watch!

And, finally, here's another example of Elsie's calming methods. This is a bad example of it. She was following me around, and I picked her up and put her on the couch. She clearly wanted to walk around and so got up at the end, but usually, with the lights off, she would lay there in her little kitty ball for as long as I needed her to do it. I think she could tell I was trying to make her perform, and that I didn't really need her right then. Oh well. You get the point. Talk about bliss!