Strays

Description

Misha is a young girl viewing life through the multicoloured window of autism. She finds social communication difficult, struggles to make friends and often withdraws into herself.

Her mother works at a dog shelter. Misha spends a great deal of her time there. The animals help to calm her. She has a special connection - a kinship.

There is an area of the shelter that both her mother and the shelter manager forbid her to go. The basement houses the most dangerous dogs. The worst of the worst. Out of curiosity Misha sneaks down into the basement. This is where she meets Butch. He is muscular and outwardly loud and aggressive. However they have an immediate connection. He’s like her; scared, lonely and misunderstood.

The manager catches Misha visiting Butch and takes great joy in telling her that the animal is due for termination. At first Misha is distraught. However she finds the courage to stand up for her friend. To make a difference. To save Butch’s life.

Biblical Connection

The story of Moses is one of most recognised from the Bible. Plagues on Egypt, parting the Red Sea, leading the people of Israel to the promised land. All hugely epic and cinematic. However my story comes from a gap in knowledge and focuses on a much smaller and intimate story. I pose the question; what might Moses have been like as a child and what life events may have helped to shape him into the great leader he became. We actually know every little about his younger years. He was an outsider. A Hebrew boy raised by the Pharaoh’s daughter. He must have known he was different. He stood up for injustice. He knew the difference between right and wrong. However as an adult he wasn’t always confident. When God told him of his plans he had five excuses why he was unfit to fulfil God’s wish. He wasn’t not good enough. He didn’t have all the answers. People wouldn’t believe him. He was a terrible public speaker. He wasn’t qualified. All areas of self doubt that in a modern context could be associated with a child on the autistic spectrum.