What is good about having a pet?

Here in Honolulu, many homeless people have dogs, occasionally cats, too.  I used to be surprised to see this possession because I thought, ‘if they cannot provide for themselves then how…?  One answer is that the Hawaiian Humane Society provides free food to homeless dog owners. Those of us with jobs do not get any support and we sometimes struggle to do right by our animals, but I digress.

Another answer to the apparent contradiction of homeless pet owners providing for a dependent being is that they do not truly provide for them.  The most common method of acquiring pet supplies is through theft, or boosting.  People who steal never say they steal and certainly do not call themselves thieves. They are boosters who “go to work.” They sell their loot to the gamblers, usually older Philippino and Chinese men who spend their days gambling in either A’ala Park or in a public walkway/mall between Beretania Street and Kukui Street, where the sex workers ply their own wares.  However, dog and cat food is typically not sold to these men who will send whatever they buy back to their countries of origin for less than half the retail price.

The question of how pets benefit people with addiction makes me think of a gay friend I had until he started doing fentanyl, affectionately called “fetty” (rhymes with Betty), by Honolulu users.  I was not a source so I was kicked to the curb on a pretext.  Now, from what I hear, he is practically housebound. He trades access to his affordable studio apartment for fetty.  Anyone holding is welcome until the moment it is gone.  I hear he is no longer inventing pretexts but simply outright demanding fetty for a shower.  His only conversation is about fetty. He has retreated into himself. He has acquired an abusive boyfriend who hated me because, and time revealed, he had to pretend to care for my friend when I was around.  The guy is there bc he wants a place.  He has connections that bring in dope otherwise unavailable to the person I once knew. Obviously, he is forever welcome. World without end . Amen. This guy, whose name always did slip my mind, was my constant detractor and now that he has succeeded in ousting me I am told he actually hits my emaciated, HIV positive former friend who is also 13 years older than his abuser and considerably weaker. He escapes from the guy by sleeping or pretending to be asleep until someone without shelter arrives with fetty after a successful go at theft or prostitution. The windows are covered over to prevent the bothersome sun from interrupting the 24 hour rest cycle which goes from true sleep to drugged sedation and back

My former friend is almost no one’s friend now. Except for 3 soulsthe two dogs and one cat. The abuser, not surprisingly, hates animals and does not participate in their care. My former friend still has enough love left to care for the animals Two, maybe as many as 3 times a day he takes the dogs for a walk. Extraordinary, under the circumstances. I have seen people put down newspaper for their dogs’ needs. They did not change for weeks.  Weeks. True story. Too busy.

Can I get visitation with the animals when the human association d;ies?

Without the dogs, he would be a shut-in, with no one to love and no one to love him. The animals give him something, just one thing, to do other than fetty.

They make him a true human in the spiritual sense. As long as he takes care of them he cannot be totally gone, right..

?

Maybe one day we could be friends and not just associates. With dogs the impossible seems more like a far fetched dream than an absolute taboo. Hey, it’s progress. When dealing with fetty addicts you take what you can get.

I love the animals too

I thought of myself as their godmother, and

That made them my god dogs and God cat, labels that always cracked me up, when they were in my life.

I wonder if they remember me on some level.i hope so, otherwise my absence will not matter to anyone in that apartment and it would be like I never existed to anyone. I do not have to ask if my former friend remembers me. The answer is obvious.