After the animals were taken away, donations were raised to bring them back.
JACKSONVILLE, Fl. – Life is tough enough, figure Jeff Hulett and Kady Fox, what with being homeless and usually penniless. Take away their Emily and Zoey, a couple of furry, bouncy mixed-breed dogs, and it would be just about unbearable.
The dogs have been with them step for step across the Southeast this past year, on a route that’s taken them from Asheville, N.C., to Jacksonville — much of it on foot.
“They’re the ultimate friend, the person who will always be there,” Hulett said.
The couple don’t have much, but they pamper the dogs. Consider what happened after a kind stranger in Asheville gave the four of them ramen noodles and steak to put on their camp stove. Guess who got the steak that night?
“Well, dogs can’t eat ramen noodles,” Hulett said.
The dogs bring out the kindness in people, he believes. But they also make life considerably more complicated. They found that out after arriving at the Beaches, where they were cited by police for not having licenses or proof of vaccinations for the animals. Emily and Zoey were taken from them.
Dog-lovers soon heard of their plight. This would not stand.
Help come quickly
Matt Meshnick is owner of A Friend in the Woods, a pet-sitting service. He’s a dog person, so he noticed the couple around the Beaches, with their big backpacks and happy-looking dogs. He’d stopped and given them a bag of treats for Emily and Zoey.
Then one day earlier this month, he saw Hulett and Fox outside the Publix in Jacksonville Beach. They were alone. He stopped and called to them.
“Hey, didn’t you guys have two dogs?”
Fox started crying, and Hulett explained what had happened.
Meshnick made a quick decision. “I said, OK, we’re going to try to help these kids,” he said. “We put a message on our business Facebook page. Our family, friends, clients stepped up.”
Between that page and another Facebook page called Hope for Jeff and Kady, they raised about $500.
That was enough to pay for the needed shots and documentation and boarding costs. A little more money came in, and there was enough left over to put them all — humans and dogs — into a dog-friendly hotel on the Southside for a few nights.
There was good coffee in the lounge for Hulett. A TV in the room. Two big beds. Air-conditioning.
Saturday morning, the money ran out.
Barbara Pierce of the Southside is among those who have been active in trying to help them. She’s been driving them to various places to try to get their lives straight, and people have been helping her with gas money for that.
Now that the hotel money has run out, Hulett will likely move back into his tent with the dogs, she said. Meanwhile, Pierce and others are trying to get Fox into a facility where pregnant women can find a place to stay and help with getting work.
Fox felt ill and dehydrated earlier this month and had to be hospitalized. After some testing, they told her she was three months’ pregnant. As if life wasn’t complicated enough already.
Not giving them up
The bond between pet owners and their pets is often just about indestructible. That doesn’t change when the owners are homeless.
“They don’t care that you stink,” Hulett said.
“They’ll never judge anyone,” Fox said.
Some people looked more kindly on them because they had friendly dogs with them, they said. But the dogs made it hard to get places to stay; homeless shelters can’t take pets. And it’s hard to find a job when you have to leave the dogs alone in a tent for hours.
There are options, though, for the homeless who have pets.
“We try to do everything we can to keep them together,” said Amy Pierce of the Jacksonville Humane Society. That group helps about 500 families a year, she said, through a program that gives those who qualify help with pet food, vet care and boarding.
First Coast No More Homeless Pets is partners with the Sulzbacher Center and will take in the pets of homeless people in need. They’ll find foster homes for the pets for 30 days, often longer, said Rick DuCharme, founder of the group. The owners can claim them at any time.
It’s not always easy to persuade people to part with their animals, though, even for a short time, he said: “Often they’ll find people who have pets and because they’re not willing to give up their pets, they don’t want to come off the streets, even to get cleaned up or get a good meal.”
Count Hulett and Fox among that group. The last thing they’re going to do, they say, is give up Emily and Zoey.
“They’re our protection. Our kids. Everything,” she said.
‘Time to stop’
Hulett is 30 and feeling old. In years past, he spent time in jail — “I was stealing cars and doing dumb stuff, a real knucklehead,” he said. After he got out, he started traveling and has been to California and back three times, often riding the rails. He liked it. But it’s time for a change.
“I dug myself into this hole, and I can’t get out of it,” he said.
She’s 23, and joined him on the road about a year ago.
They came south thinking life might be better there. He’s handy around house repairs, and she has an artistic streak that’s seen in the jewelry she makes. “But I do anything,” she said, “from roofing to retail.”
They’re also thinking of North Dakota someday, where they hear that they’re begging people to come fill jobs in the shale fields. The lure of the road is still powerful. Now, though, she’s pregnant, and that changes everything.
“It’s time to stop, time to settle down,” said Fox.
Hulett agreed. “Raise us a kid, do it right,” he said. “The street’s no place for that.”