A homeless man is trying to persuade the county’s animal services shelter to reverse the adoption of his 7-month old Chihuahua after it was given to a foster family while he was in jail.
“I was arrested in the grocery store for eating out of the salad bar,” says Lonnie Mead—picked up by the cops on November 20th in the Safeway at the corner of SW 10th and Jefferson.
“I take psychiatric medication, anti-depressants, and they’re pretty strong. I bought a pint of vodka, and I only drank about an inch of it—but I blacked out. I don’t remember even being in the store.”
Mead spat at a police officer when he was arrested, and pled guilty this morning to harassment and criminal trespass, having been previously excluded from Safeway. The judge sentenced him to 25 days in jail, with compensation for time served, and fined him $300. The fine will be difficult to pay, but for Mead, the biggest concern now is getting back his dog, Riff Raff.
“9 months ago I attempted suicide,” he says. “I just felt like there wasn’t much to live for. So I got a dog. I raised him since he was a puppy, he’s been a companion.”
The county’s animal services shelter called Mead at the jail shortly after his arrest, asking him to come get Riff Raff.
“But they didn’t give me much of a chance,” he says. “I didn’t have anyone who could go get him for me, and I was in jail until today.”
In the mean time, the county has given the dog to a foster family. And it’s actually up for adoption on the county’s website, right now:
- RIFF RAFF: NO! NO! DON’T ADOPT HIM!
“We called him in jail on the 22nd, and since then he hasn’t been able to find a single solitary person to come take responsibility for this dog,” says John Rouwton, the county’s shelter manager. “We’re not a voiding service. We placed it into a foster family.”
Rouwton says he was aware that Riff Raff was gotten to help Mead with his depression. “But it’s not a service animal,” he says. “There isn’t documentation for that.”
“Do I want to place this dog with someone else? No I don’t,” Rouwton continues. “I’m hoping we can hear from Mr.Mead and we can get something going.”
Rouwton’s attorney, Brad Kalbaugh, has already called the shelter, twice.
“They’ve just told me he’s been given to a foster family,” says Kalbaugh.
Let’s hope something can be worked out.
Ahhhh, crap, I used to eat at scary salad bar.
The headline made it sound like a good thing, not a real-life version of “Wendy and Lucy.”
He takes heavy duty psych meds, drinks vodka and then is suprised he passed out. He is lucky something worse didn’t happen with the poor pooch. Are we supposed to feel sorry for him?
@gloworm That’s the general idea. Yes.
He said his dog is a 7 moth old Chihuahua, while the picture says it is a 2 year old Pekingese mix. Which is it? Is it even the same dog? How can apersaon like that take proper care of an animal? Just askin’
While there are a lot of problems in this situation, and I think most of them are this guy’s fault in one way of another, I do have to say that I think most of would agree that taking this guy’s dog away just makes things worse…
Can’t he re-adopt it from the foster family?
@ujfoyt He raised it from a puppy. So I suspect the MCAS website is LYING! (All caps might be a bit unnecessary here, but good spot).
@Matthew D I hope so. And I do think the “his fault” stuff is somewhat mitigated by his suicidal depression. Many’s the time I’ve wanted to just buy a liter of vodka, mix it with some strong medication, and forget it all. And my life is going pretty well, by all accounts.
@Matt Davis: You’re lying to yourself. Your life is a festering cesspool of misery and despair. End it all now.
Wait…
Don’t do that. Then who would I abuse online? I can’t just yell at smirk, that would seem racist and mysoginistic or something.
@Graham Don’t worry—I’m sure you’d find someone else to torment, fairly quickly.
“I take psychiatric medication, anti-depressants, and they’re pretty strong. I bought a pint of vodka, and I only drank about an inch of it—but I blacked out. I don’t remember even being in the store.”
I don’t care if him and the dog are in love and planning a June wedding. This man is not capable of taking care of himself, let alone a dog. The dog should be adopted out, and he should have to prove that he is responsible enough before he can legally own an animal again.
So he’s homeless and depressed. If a guy with a nice house and depression did this and no one came forward on his behalf to take the dog, there wouldn’t even be a discussion. It would get adopted out, period. The idea that the homeless are exempt from the rules of society sure as hell is doing nothing to help them ever join society again.
@Matt Davis: Don’t do it, even if Graham can find someone new to harass. However, it doesn’t sound like he was trying to kill himself, he said, “he only drank an inch,” as if to imply that he was just trying to drink a little bit. (Or at least, that is my read of the story. You wrote it, so you probably know more.) That doesn’t work, and whoever gave him the medications should have given him a strongly worded warning about not drinking on them, or “You’ll end up like Tiger Woods.” (I pointed out that that didn’t seem like a bad thing, he gets far more action than me, but I understood what was meant.)
@supeena: You are confused. The dog was taking care of him. Not in the, “fed him, bathed him” sort of way, but in the “Don’t drink the entire bottle” sort of way.
@Matthew D: If that’s true, the dog should have to demonstrate that his job and living situation can support a middle-aged hobo. This should set an example for dogs everywhere who think they can just bring any street person home on a whim, never realizing how much the yearly costs for food, medical and alcohol will run. If dogs would think twice before they just fell in love with big sad bloodshot eyes and a scraggly beard, the homeless shelters would not be so overcrowded.