What do a pony, a bunny, and a puppy have in common?

You can give yourself a pat on the back if you answered that they all have 4 legs, but that's not where I was going with this!  The answer I was looking for is that they've all been touched by Leighton this month.  This is seriously major news.

He used to tolerate being near dogs when out on walks, but now runs screaming or gets paralyzed with fear at the sight of them.  This past year, he's grown more and more fearful of them.

He rode a horse a couple years ago, but refused when we were at Old Macdonald's Farm in the fall.

He happily fed (wish assistance) the animals at the petting zoo in the Bronx on a few different occasions, but chickened (ha ha, no pun intended!) out at the petting zoo last year at the rodeo and has shown zero interest at the petting zoo here.

So, who is this guy that is sitting on ponies and petting ponies and puppies?!?!

He told me he rode the pony (on a field trip to Bayou Wildlife Park) like everyone else in his class because it looked like they were having fun and because he wanted his friend's mom to take a picture of it to email to me!

The bunny petting at the rodeo was a surprise.  When I asked if he wanted to go over and see the bunny, I thought he might object.  And I thought he'd just walk by it.  When he stopped, and stuck out his hand, I had to get him to pause long enough for me to scramble to get my camera out!

And the puppy petting still has me baffled!  We were at the playground on Monday and his friend, Laila, asked to pet a woman's dog (the same one Riley and Leighton had just run screaming in the opposite direction from - you're gonna laugh when you see the size of this scary beast).  Out of the blue, Leighton says, "If Laila's not scared and can touch it maybe I should go try too."  He walked (a wide, wide path) over and stuck out his had after a bit of hesitation.  Contact!  And then he had fun touching it's wagging tail after that.  When we got home, he wrote a message to Roy that he petted a dog on his little whiteboard and was waiting by the door with it when Roy got home.  He was very proud of himself!  We are, too.  And totally shocked!