Update on TorchTheWitch [View all]

[Moosepoop]

I've been in contact with TTW for the past week, and here's what the situation is now for anyone that has been wondering.

The eviction took place the 6th of July. TTW did some couch surfing and house sitting at first, and then found a tiny room to rent in a house with other tenants. It's basically a rooming house situation, with a shared kitchen and bathroom, though TTW does have a tiny bathroom of her own consisting of a sink and toilet. The sink doesn't work, but she does at least have her own potty, and is grateful for that.

She told me last week that she had gotten "lucky as hell" with Yoshi, as a doggie-daycare place had, given her situation, agreed at the last minute to take him for as long as needed, with no money up front and the charges (if any at all) could be worked out later. They get an awful lot of donated food, so no problem with that. They said that he would have his own large pen indoors in the air conditioning, and the first week he was there they would call TTW often and she was told that Yoshi was doing great and was happy. The daycare is a distance from where TTW lives, and given that distance and her Monday through Friday job, she can only get there to see him once a week, on the weekend.

Last weekend, they brought him outside for her visit, and given that it was very hot and there was only hot concrete for them to be on, TTW kept the visit short so Yoshi could get off the concrete and back into the A/C. She had them take him back inside before she left, so he wouldn't see her leaving. She cried all the way home, but thought that he was doing all right other than missing her.

She called ahead again this week, a couple of days ago, and arranged to visit him again today. When she arrived, she was told that "he was sleeping" and that therefore now wasn't a good time, and that she'd need to reschedule. That set off alarm bells, and she insisted that they get him for her. After an employee huddle discussing it, they went and got him and brought him out.

TTW told me that he looked horrible -- he has lost weight, his hair is falling out, and he was listless and didn't even seem to recognize her. The difference from last week to this one was astounding. She got very upset and demanded to see where he was being kept indoors. It turns out that the "very large pen" is a very small crate, not big enough for him to even turn around in. There was no water dish. There is A/C, but not set cool enough for a dog with a coat like Yoshi's (the other dogs there are shorter-haired). When he's outside, the area he's allowed to be in is all concrete with full sun. When he's indoors, it's in the tiny crate with no water dish. TTW said that when they first brought him out today, he went to every available water source and drained them, and was still looking for more.

I spent over two hours on the phone with TTW tonight. She's terrified that Yoshi is going to die there, that he's dehydrated, overheated, and is being essentially tortured to death. She's afraid he may die in the next few days, if left there. She was crying so hard I could barely understand what she was saying a good deal of the time.
She has not yet been able to retrieve her belongings from the place she was evicted from. She has nowhere to put them, as it's only a room she is renting and a small one at that. The place she's at right now is unsafe, I won't go into detail as to the particulars, but it isn't a safe place to be at all.

She is working. Between the rent and gas for the car to get to work, plus basic living expenses such as food and toilet paper, etc.., she won't be able to get a place of her own for her and Yoshi for some time. She would need first/last rent + deposit, and she doesn't make enough to save that up for a few months out.

She's terrified that Yoshi isn't going to make it. She is doing all she can to get a place for them, she's doing it for Yoshi, but he isn't doing well at all where he is. He's in pretty bad shape already.

So yes, this is a plea, on TTW's behalf, for any financial help that anyone on DU sees fit to offer.

She desperately needs to get a place where she can live with Yoshi and bring him back to health. I don't have a target dollar amount. I only know that she's been working, has been doing what she can, and yet Yoshi is in dire straits.
I'm the one asking on her behalf. I don't know if she could bring herself to ask again anyway, but the point is moot as her computer is down with a virus and largely unusable. I figure it can't hurt to throw this out there (yes, again!), and see if DU can help some more in any way.

TTW has been beaten up and hammered for asking for help here in the past. If you don't want to help, if you think this all a scam, if you just want to stick another knife in because of some past issue with her, please keep your comments to yourself this time. Yes, it's a public message board, yada yada, but it's also hard as hell to ask for help and, in my opinion, deplorable to be piled on the way she has been by a few. Show some class and just go your own way, please. Please.

For anyone who can help and sees fit to do so, here is TTW's gofundme: http://www.gofundme.com/slumlord-escape

TTW is my friend. Thank you in advance for anything you can do for her, and if you can't -- at least, please, just leave it alone.

Thanks again.

Moosepoop