Lucky, the Imaginary Dog

A couple days ago, Caden started telling me about “Lucky.” I asked him who Lucky was and he told me it was his dog who lives in our back yard. I find this quite adorable, especially considering Caden is absolutely terrified of dogs!

Every day he mentions Lucky and that he is in our back yard. So today I talked to him more about Lucky. The following are parts of our conversation. It was so cute!

Me: “Caden, have you fed Lucky today?”

Caden: “Ummm... Yes!”

Me: “Good, you have to remember to feed him and give him water. Is he still in the back yard?”

Caden: “Yes, he's still there. He's sleeping right now in his cage.”

“And, I have two other dogs too.”

Me: “What? There are three dogs in our back yard? What are the other dog's names?”

Some discussion follows...

Caden: “Their names are Burrito and Max.”

Me: “Where do they live?”

Caden: “Max lives in the front yard, and Burrito lives in the back yard.”

Me: “Do these dogs scare you?”

Caden: “No.”

Me: “How come these dogs don't scare you, and other dogs do?”

Caden: “Because these dogs don't get me.”

The conversation went on from there. But I think it is fascinating that he created not one, but three imaginary dogs because they don't scare him. I never had an imaginary friend or animal when I was growing up. And Kyler has never talked about any imaginary friend either. Kyler does NOT believe in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy also, even though we have never said they are real or they are not real.

It's just funny to hear Caden talking about these dogs in our yard. In fact, when we were in the hot tub this evening, Caden told me Burrito and Max got in the tub with us! Haha!

I think it's cute and I have no problem with him believing in his imaginary dogs. I'm sure it will pass in time. And maybe it will actually help him get over his fear of dogs in general. I can hope anyway! :)