Just caught an episode of the dog whisperer

[Izzysdad]

It had to do with a bulldog mix is my guess, the owner was basically homeless and dirt poor, at his lowest he found a quarter in a couch cushion. He went to the corner store and got a nutter bar because there are two pieces to it, he ate one and gave his dog the other.

 

Talk about love for your dog!

 

Tim

[Tommy Coyote]

It had to do with a bulldog mix is my guess, the owner was basically homeless and dirt poor, at his lowest he found a quarter in a couch cushion. He went to the corner store and got a nutter bar because there are two pieces to it, he ate one and gave his dog the other.

 

Talk about love for your dog!

 

Tim

I see dogs with the homeless people here in KC. I know its probably a gimic but I always give money to the people on the street if they have a dog with them. I worry about the people out there - and I also worry about their dogs.

[geonni banner]

Theo is a neighborhood homeless person. I have known him for nearly a decade. Our dealings with each other have not always been cordial. Like most relationships, however casual, ours has had its ups and downs. But Theo is a real person. He is not some cookie-cutter homeless person. I see him often. He is a member of the community in which I live.

 

Then there is his dog, Daisy, a little rough-haired, yellow terrier mix. Theo has mellowed over the last couple of years. Daisy is his constant companion. She was befriended and rescued by Theo about two years ago. They are, like dogs and their owners the world over, genuinely devoted to each other. Theo takes good care of his little dog, and in turn is loved unconditionally by her. It is my assertion - endorsed by Theo himself – that caring for Daisy has made Theo a better person. He used to hang out with a really rough crowd. I asked him why he stopped running with them, and he said, "I can't have Daisy around that kind of stuff!"

 

Theo smiles more often now, and he is less apt to become disorderly and hostile. I believe that Daisy has enabled Theo to dismantle, or at least look over some of the barriers between himself and the rest of the world. And I think that he has begun to feel himself a little more part of an “us,” and a little less separated from humanity.

 

Theo sleeps under a freeway overpass. He has next to nothing, although he makes a tiny income doing odd jobs for people here in the Point. But Daisy has her shots, she's licensed and she gets regular baths. I give him Frontline for her. And EVERYBODY feeds her. We feed Theo too, sometimes.

 

I wrote this three or four years ago. Theo died last year of a heroin overdose. Daisy was scooped by one of our local firefighters and is now living in the country with an older couple in Sonoma county.

[rushdoggie]

Theo is a neighborhood homeless person. I have known him for nearly a decade. Our dealings with each other have not always been cordial. Like most relationships, however casual, ours has had its ups and downs. But Theo is a real person. He is not some cookie-cutter homeless person. I see him often. He is a member of the community in which I live.

 

Then there is his dog, Daisy, a little rough-haired, yellow terrier mix. Theo has mellowed over the last couple of years. Daisy is his constant companion. She was befriended and rescued by Theo about two years ago. They are, like dogs and their owners the world over, genuinely devoted to each other. Theo takes good care of his little dog, and in turn is loved unconditionally by her. It is my assertion - endorsed by Theo himself – that caring for Daisy has made Theo a better person. He used to hang out with a really rough crowd. I asked him why he stopped running with them, and he said, "I can't have Daisy around that kind of stuff!"

 

Theo smiles more often now, and he is less apt to become disorderly and hostile. I believe that Daisy has enabled Theo to dismantle, or at least look over some of the barriers between himself and the rest of the world. And I think that he has begun to feel himself a little more part of an “us,” and a little less separated from humanity.

 

Theo sleeps under a freeway overpass. He has next to nothing, although he makes a tiny income doing odd jobs for people here in the Point. But Daisy has her shots, she's licensed and she gets regular baths. I give him Frontline for her. And EVERYBODY feeds her. We feed Theo too, sometimes.

 

I wrote this three or four years ago. Theo died last year of a heroin overdose. Daisy was scooped by one of our local firefighters and is now living in the country with an older couple in Sonoma county.

 

OK, that made me sniff a little.

 

A little off-topic:

I am an occupational therapist, I work in nursing homes for the most part. I have spent the past month covering in a facility that has a lot of residents who have issues with drug and alcohol abuse or mental illness. The facility where I worked is a nursing home but will accept Medicaid patients, so a lot of homeless and uninsured people end up there. No one wants to work there...they say "the patients are too hard to work with" and that they feel "creeped out."

 

I had no issues going there as it was only a month or so, I reasoned even if it was awful it was temporary.

 

Wow. I will never forget my time there. I got to know some human beings for whom life has not been kind. Many were physically and sexually abused, many have never been loved by anyone. Many lived through war and came out irreparably broken. Some were born with diseases that impaired the way they deal with the world around them.

 

Some are simply a**holes to the people around them, many are so sweet and kind its impossible to not like them.

 

But, they are all human...and my perception of them changed dramatically. Almost daily I considered myself blessed and lucky and whatever else you want to call it that my life had taken a different path. Some days I cried driving home.

 

I brought my dogs 2 or 3 times and every time seeing these folks interact with an animal was amazing...faces softened, barriers dropped. There were all gentle and kind to both my Border Collie and my elderly Papillon. It was amazing.

 

Yesterday was my last day...I'm so glad I went.

[coyotecreek]

I think I remember that episode..and I felt the same way when he talked about sharing the candy with his dog..

 

They certainly do so much for us and ask for so little in return.

[martySQ]

Many homeless are disabled due to mental illnesses... I wonder if his doggie helped him the way Ranger's dog does from time to time...yeah, other than the trained work he does like getting his bag with his meds etc. when he can't... the emotional side of things.