In mid-February, our friend and old neighbor Kohl shared with us that he has found himself down on his luck, and was planning to move back out west and try to check into a community called Camp Hope in Las Cruces, New Mexico. We had known Kohl and his little dog Gizmo for around 4 years around Carrboro, and were horrified to learn that he’d had to temporarily surrender him to the Orange County Animal Shelter while he stayed at a local homeless shelter and tried to get his ducks in a row. Urging him to go fetch Gizmo and bring him to us for a few weeks, we helped catch him up on some vet care, get a pet carrier, sleeping bag and some other comfort items, and babysat him for 2.5 weeks while Kohl procured a ticket to El Paso and made arrangements to fly out in early March.

We said goodye to Gizmo on the morning of March 5th when I drove them out to the Raleigh airport and got them sorted out to to fly over. Because Kohl wouldn’t be able to check into Camp Hope until the following week, we were able – with the help of generous friends both here and out west in Las Cruces – to secure him 1) a shuttle from El Paso to Las Cruces, 2) a few nights at a dog-friendly hotel a stone’s throw from Camp Hope, and 3) some supplies like dog food, a tent, and a spare leash.

For pictures and recent updates on Gizmo and our future efforts to help other dogs and the humans that they love, follow us on Twitter and Instagram!

To learn more about how pets both help the homeless as well as from living with them with proper community support, please visit (and consider supporting!) Feeding Pets of the Homeless.