No YOU’RE crying.
Quaden Payles is a five-year-old boy from Brisbane, Australia who has a common form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia and was feeling worried and uncomfortable starting his first year in school.
His mother Yarraka told Mashable Australia about how Quaden was struggling in school:
“He’s only half the size of everyone [at the school]… so many questions have been coming to him since the start, it made him feel a lot more inferior to others. He was really uncomfortable, and struggling to come to terms with the fact that he’s not going to grow big and strong, just like daddy.”
Enter Buddy.
He’s a nine-year-old Shi Tzu who also has dwarfism and was introduced to Quaden by a friend who is a vet.
The two of them instantly bonded, and now the canine companion has helped him come to terms with his own dwarfism.
“Before Buddy, we could not mention the word dwarfism or achondroplasia [around Quaden].”
“He said he wants people to meet Buddy because ‘he has dwarfism like me.’ That’s like music to my ears, I prayed for the day he would accept it. I honestly didn’t think it would be anytime soon, I thought it would be years.”
You can follow their journey on Facebook.
