BEST FRIENDS REUNITED
Homeless man gets his dog back
Mid-morning Thursday, on a cold sidewalk on west Wellington Street, a dog named Kiro chased his tail in a circle, then leaped in the air, clicking his teeth as he tried to eat fat snowflakes that fell from a grey sky.
Here was joy, on four paws, in the depths of January. Owner Paul Brown, a homeless man, was nearly in tears.
Kiro, a 10-year-old border collie, was taken from Brown, 56, in mid-December, when he was hospitalized overnight after an attack of pancreatitis.
The pair are fixtures in this stretch of Wellington near Parkdale Avenue, usually found in front of the Giant Tiger store that has come to adopt them, or tramping about nearby Tunney's Pasture.
“He's a lovely dog,” says Brown, hooded and layered up against the elements, “and he's my best friend.”
When Brown fell ill that day before Christmas — needing help right here on the sidewalk — an ambulance was called and he was taken away by paramedics. In the rush of his sudden departure, Paul says a woman named “Jen,” a once-nearby merchant who seemed to be a friend, offered to take Kiro overnight.
Seemed like a plan. But the following day there was no sign of her and Brown says she wouldn't answer her phone.
The days came and went: still no Kiro, still no Jen.
“Jen is not the person I thought she was,” says Brown, who grew increasingly despondent with Kiro's absence. “I don't have children. I don't have a girlfriend. The dog meant everything to me. We were not apart, except for the odd night here and there, for 10 years.”
(Postmedia interviewed Brown before and after Kiro was returned.)
Well, hell hath no fury like a community of dog lovers betrayed. The plight of Kiro soon hit many Facebook pages, and his neighbourhood friends began to mobilize. A friend named Stephanie got the police on board and Brown was taken to Elgin Street headquarters to provide a statement. Another friend, Sophia Wong, heard about Kiro's plight and decided to pitch in.
A federal public servant working from home, she had the computer and cellphone access that Brown lacked and was in contact with Ottawa police to see if anything was being done.
Turns out, they were all over it. “I want to commend them for being so persistent,” said Wong, 43, a mother of two who has occasionally sheltered Brown in her garage.
She said police officers took statements from the staff at Giant Tiger, looked at surveillance footage and began tracking down the mysterious “Jen.”
Wong said a couple of visits were paid to her Gatineau home, where inquiries were met with evasive answers. Officers, however, were convinced the dog was there.
Ottawa police confirm that three officers, aided by Gatineau police, executed a warrant at a home in Gatineau last Wednesday evening. A 47-year-old woman has been charged with possession of stolen property “because she refused to return Kiro to its rightful owner.”
By about 9 p.m., officers were delivering Kiro to Wong's home. She reunited the dog with Brown on Thursday morning.
“To have him back is astounding,”
To have him back is astounding. It's unbelievable how the community responded.
PAUL BROWN, Kiro's owner
Brown said. “It's unbelievable how the community responded.”
Inasmuch as it's a story of a found dog, it's the saga of a foundering soul. Brown has many friends in the neighbourhood, those who donate food or money, or provide temporary shelter, but he has no permanent home and has sometimes crashed at the Shepherds of Good Hope.
Wong has come to know him over the last five years. Her family has taken in Kiro from time to time and she's had many conversations with Brown on the sidewalk and at her home. (On first impression, he is a kind, articulate man who does not seek attention and deserves a better fate than street life.)
In the fall, she began to notice that he seemed to be feeling poorly. Little wonder. He had no regular place to live, was couch surfing, staying with friends or just roughing it outside. He was also losing weight.
But hope is on the way. A housing worker with the Salvation Army is lining up accommodation and he hopes to be inside within weeks. Until then, Kiro will probably spend nights indoors with Wong and he'll pick up the pooch during the day.
“For them to offer me that, it's huge.”
Like a lucky dog, Kiro had his day this week. Now to Paul Brown, made master of his own house.