His Peaceable Kingdom

Scotty has always loved animals...big or small...soft or slimey...he loves, loves, loves them all. He is not afraid of any of God's creatures and to him an alligator is no less lovable than a kitten. He wants to hold them on his lap and kiss them on the mouth. We have had an assortment of creatures residing here over the years. Dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, fish and an endless stream of hamsters named Bubba have all lived under our roof.

Scotty loves animals and they love him too.  

He has never gotten bit.
Okay one time...but it wasn't because he was too rough. 
It was an accident.

And although he is strong enough to put his fist 

through a wall, he has never harmed one of his kingdom. 

They must sense his innocent and gentle spirit.

 Okay that's fake, but if we let him he WOULD have a snake!

And if they animals couldn't fit 
in the house we went to them.

Recently, I have been praying for a way that Scotty and I can get out more during the day.  We are both going a bit stir crazy and need a diversion, but it needed to be something I could manage on my own.
 To say the least, at 170 lbs my "little" guy
can be quite a handful on outings.

I realized his love of animals was a great starting place.
 A Pet Care service...Bingo!
 I reached out to friends with dogs
and the response has been overwhelming.

So Scotty's Pet Care was born.
My goals:
1. Task completion
2. Follow directions.
3. Stay focused.
 4. Understand the concept of working/earning/spending.

We have spent several weeks preparing and modeling expectations.
 
We ordered a special shirt for him to wear to "work."

We made a "work" notebook for him to take to his job.

Our service is free,
but he can earn a dollar tip that he places in his book.

When he earns enough dollars
he can buy a hamburger for lunch.
I make sure he will get the positive reinforcement
each "work" day.
He is all about immediate gratification!

We set up his Ipad.

We were ready.
Yesterday was his first official day of work.
We started out taking care of Bonnie.

Next we drove to our friend Mary's house and cared for her dogs Gizmo, Chloe and Elsie.

He let them out, patted them softly and fed them a treat.
We were there for about 30 minutes.
It was pretty labor intensive trying to get him to focus
and stay on task, but for our first day I would say it was a huge success.

This was so cute.
 He showed his "work" book to Chloe♥
He was so proud!

He was so happy...so, so happy and excited!
As an extra bonus he had lunch
with one of his caregivers, Kevin and his daughter.
He bought himself lunch with the money he earned!
What a great day.
In a few weeks we will start to add new clients to his list.
We need to just take it slowly so he doesn't get overwhelmed.

And what a better way to end the day than a celebration dinner at Peace Burger.

Cheers!

The wolf will live with the lamb, 

the leopard will lie down with the goat, 

the calf and the lion and the yearling together; 

and a little child will lead them.

Isaiah 11:6