Homeless and their dogs

[Bamps]

I have never been homeless, I have been down and out but thanks to family help I was able to get back on my feet. Some people do not have that. My problem is that where is that line, should only monetarily effluent be able to own a pet? If so, should children be removed from parents who loose their jobs? If so how much in come should they make to have pets, 75k usd per yr? 100k? More? Where's the cut off?

One of of the things some people don't understand is that when you loose work as in a recession, depression, etc., you have to make choices, Ok, let's let the car payment go so we can make the house payment. That's good, now you have "late charge" and the whole gets deeper, so you try to call them and reason with them and nope, the WHOLE amount AND late fees or nothing. So you have to look for work, right? So the car payment is paid and the house payment is late, do you see where this is headed? Then, they close down the plant and ship the product in from China.
WELCOME TO. AMERICA!!!

[TuMicks]

Coming from someone who was at one point in time homeless, this thread made me want to vomit. First, I have to address the whole "Social Services" bit. Here's the deal, I was told by human services when I was homeless that without a psychical address, I could not receive benefits. The same goes for finding work, without a psychical address, no employer will even begin to look at you. It's sickening and it's sad. Sometimes, people go through hard times and it isn't easy to get off the streets. If it weren't for me meeting my husband I'd still be homeless. You have no right to judge others when you don't know their situation and furthermore, YES, I had two dogs with me at that point in my life as well as a child and the three of them came before me at ALL times. Those "panhandlers" as you call them could be having trouble getting help because of heartless people who "won't ENABLE" them. Sorry but this thread has really struck a nerve with me.

I am sorry for your suffering and happy that you are in a better circumstance. I spoke in the context of the town in which I live. It's large enough to have a lot of resources and small enough to use them effectively. In particular, the "no physical address" situation has been addressed in our town. By social services, I was mainly thinking about the robust private agencies and work we have here. Except for the mentally ill, and/or addicted... there are options for food and a roof over your head. And even for the addicted and mentally ill, there are folks that find them and feed them.

I have learned on two occasions that my sympathy was misplaced. Once I took the person (sign read "I'm homeless and hungry") into a nearby deli and handed money to the guys behind the counter and asked them to make a sandwich of anything the guy wanted. Another time a woman said she was out of gas. I had her follow me to a gas station and bought her a couple gallons of gas. In both cases, the two folks were furious with me. (I guess while they humored me in the deli and gas station, they missed out on offers of cash.)

The person who has been at her grocery store with a sign saying "Car broke down, need help" with her suitcase beside her has been on that corner for a year.

I know you may be very irritated with me. Have I been broke and in debt with a demented mother-in-law, two kids and an assortment of dogs and real estate agents demanding $700 deposits that we didn't have. I thank God that a property owner took pity on us gave us temporary rental housing and my husband was able to work our way out of trouble.

It sucks. But to the issue of what I would do with my dogs if I was literally on the pavement and couldn't take him/her into a shelter. I'd sleep outside with the dog. Then probably try to find a temporary situation for the dog until I got on my feet.

[arentspowell]

Well I get where you are coming from Labradorks. When I lived in Tallahassee I witnessed homeless people that would use puppies to get money. They knew people would give them money for the puppies. Its sad but it happens.

[ZoeysMommy]

Well I get where you are coming from Labradorks. When I lived in Tallahassee I witnessed homeless people that would use puppies to get money. They knew people would give them money for the puppies. Its sad but it happens.

Yep same here