Where we get our name

As young parents, we had two boys ages 8 and 3. You can imagine how busy they kept us. We decided to buy a membership to the NC Zoological Society. At about the same time, we also became aware that our youngest was beautifully different, but we were not sure just how different. Our family took several trips to the zoo, where he fell in love with a dancing polar bear named Masha.

Masha was part of a large rescue effort from a zoo in Latin America. He was originally bred for entertainment in Russia, and then sold to a circus where he spent most of his life in small trailers, traveling from one show to the next. His diet consisted of dog chow, bread, and whatever could be bought at each stop.

Since he lived in inhospitable conditions for a polar bear, he developed tics and repetitive behaviors.

This was around the same time that he was brought to our local zoo. He was beautiful, strong, and never stopped swaying back and forth. When we read his info we saw a very familiar word: autistic.

We had heard the same word from our son's doctors. Because of this connection, our family sort of adopted the polar bear. We would make a beeline to see Masha every time we went. We took dozens of pictures of him, and we loved him in our own way.

Over the months, our son quickly progressed. He learned to talk, we worked on social skills, and he began to catch up with other kids his age. Sadly, Masha never recovered. He was put down a few years ago, and we all cried. But we will never forget the role that sweet animal played in our lives.

Today, we have become known as the Polar Bear family.