Seattle Speaks: You'll feed my dog, but not me

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Seattle Speaks: You'll feed my dog, but not me

Mikaela Gray, 20, scratches her dog, Keeshka's, belly near Westlake Center downtown Monday. The homeless University of Washington dropout says she makes more money panhandling with Keeshka, but people care more about her dog than her. (M�nica Guzm�n/Seattle P-I)

Some people have dogs because they give them comfort. Mikaela Gray's dog gives her something else.

"Before I had him, I didn't get as much money," she said.

This is how Keeshka, a malamote-wolf mix, looks at his owner. (Photo by Mikaela Gray)

Gray is homeless. The 20-year-old University of Washington dropout from Erie, Pennsylvania, went from being a heavy pot smoker to being a heavy drinker her freshman year, when she realized getting alcohol was as easy as paying a homeless person to get it for her. Feeling alienated from her classmates, Gray made friends with the homeless and said she started doing heroin. I met her downtown, near Westlake Center. She was there to ask for money.

Among her possessions, most of which are stuffed in several ratty bags, is her dog, a half-malamute half-wolf named Keeshka Gray said she inherited from a group of street kids who wanted to unload their baggage and get off the streets.

Keeshka does help Gray get more money. What strikes her, she said, is that people seem to care more about her dog than about her.

"That dog is warm, dry, fed," she said. "Me, on the other hand, my clothes are wet, I'm freezing and I'm starving."

She's also addicted, she said, and knows it. A cold wind whipped between the buildings and tossed torn pieces of Gray's hooded parka as she talked, with a mix of shame and resignation, about a heroin habit that's pushed her family away and makes her wake up every morning sick. Keeshka, having just eaten two doggie treats from Gray's front coat pocket, took a nap on the sidewalk.

Keeshka weighs exactly the same as she does, Gray said with a smile -- 120 pounds. Before Gray buys her drugs, she said, she gets Keeshka his food.

"He never chose to have a stomach," she said. "I chose to do drugs."

Gray has an open criminal trespass charge from Seattle Municipal Courts and an older citation for consuming liquor in public.

As we talked, a man walked down the street, stopped and approached us. Smiling at Keeshka, he pulled out a flat biscuit from a bag and explained he worked part-time at a pet store. It was a turkey steak patty. He cut it in two and offered Keeshka half. Keeshka let it fall.

"Thanks anyway," Gray said. They exchanged polite laughs and the man walked away.

Before she was on the streets, Gray told me, she had an interest in music and photography. I let her snap a few pictures of Keeshka (she knew how to use the Canon Rebel I brought along better than I did). She laughed as she remembered how she could never figure out the riff to Nirvana's "Come As Your Are" on guitar, no matter how hard she tried.

She then chugged from a bottle of Naked juice someone had "kicked down," or given, a busker down the street who shared it with her and snapped at a homeless man -- a puffy-haired young hipster type whose beaded necklace read "Paul" -- when he poured his orange juice on Keeshka's paw, wanting him to lick it.

Picking up her bags, Gray tugged on Keeshka's leash. Next stop = Bartell's.

Posted by at April 10, 2008 3:00 p.m.
Categories: Seattle features, Young Seattle

Comments

#116514

Posted by unregistered user at 4/10/08 3:39 p.m.

Her dog is helpless. She is not (or wasn't when she was sober).

I hope she gets the help she needs.

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#116534

Posted by beth.anderson at 4/10/08 4:14 p.m.

There are so many things I want to say, mostly about how we need to have compassion for both the girl and the dog, and how skewed it is that people value her dog's life more than hers- you can see even she does, and that is kind of sad... It just makes me want to wake her up- to tell her that she, too, is valuable and worthwhile... and the people paying more attention to the homeless because they have pets or kids or talent... well, I understand their point, but I still wish they'd show compassion more equitably. Those without pets/kids/talent/etc. are just as worthwhile.

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#116537

Posted by unregistered user at 4/10/08 4:22 p.m.

I prefer to give homeless people a copy of the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting directory. It's about the most valuable thing I can give. I'd certainly give one to Ms. Gray, if I could find her. Heck, I'd even give her a lift to a meeting. It works.

The world could do with more compassion and less judgment. That doesn't mean enabling with handouts - instead, teach the starving man to fish.

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#116545

Posted by mmbb at 4/10/08 4:33 p.m.

After reading this story (nice job, Monica), I just knew that there were going to be several comments from people who could really benefit from Dalai Lama's Seeds of Compassion conference.

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#116624

Posted by Onyotaka Lukwe at 4/10/08 7:10 p.m.

Having done the Teen Shelter and Teen Feed in U-district, I can assure you it's not as simple as you want it to be- and also, these ones are often the brightest and most creative of the bunch. I think it's a lot easier for some to relate to a cute doggy than deal with what's really wrong, and the question of what makes it more comfortable on the street than in the "mainstream" pretense of normalacy- been on both sides

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#116628

Posted by Onyotaka Lukwe at 4/10/08 7:12 p.m.

Oh, that was meant for the ones bashing her

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#116761

Posted by tiktok at 4/11/08 3:51 a.m.

"He never chose to have a stomach," she said. "I chose to do drugs."...What strikes her, she said, is that people seem to care more about her dog than about her.

"That dog is warm, dry, fed," she said. "Me, on the other hand, my clothes are wet, I'm freezing and I'm starving."

Well, there you have it.

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#116783

Posted by ldrider51 at 4/11/08 7:11 a.m.

Addicted or not, she has the free will to seek help if she chooses to do so, and there is plenty of help available for those who want it.

I have sympathy for her but it stretches only as far as her unwillingness to do something about her plight beyond continuing t live that way.

LD

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#116864

Posted by unregistered user at 4/11/08 10:23 a.m.

ldrider51: There is no such thing as "free will" for a heroin addict.

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#116971

Posted by ElephantInRoom at 4/11/08 4:34 p.m.

I guess the only comments that are welcome here are from sanctimonious bleeding hearts? Fools who want to give this girl a medal and plenty of public funds, free housing, etc. for choosing to screw up her own young, able life (and the life of an innocent animal, which is what's most appalling)?

I totally agree with ldrider51. She is young and able; she did not come from abuse (or, no doubt, Mikaela would have blathered on about her various childhood torments, exercising neither decency or boundaries, to the author as an excuse for addiction and failure), and as a UW student, we suspect she has the intellectual capability to make smart choices.

these ones are often the brightest and most creative of the bunch

Bright IS as bright DOES. Kids who choose loitering, crime, prostitution, street life and drugs instead of using precious youth and health to make something of themselves are not all that bright, but that's just my $0.02.

Still hoping the dog can be taken away from this addict and adopted by a family with a warm home -- a family that does not begrudge the dog its full stomach.

Of course, this comment will be deleted too, because it doesn't fawn all over the poor self-destructive, privileged white college girl-urchin whose only fault is that she likes to party too hearty.

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#116982

Posted by Onyotaka Lukwe at 4/11/08 5:01 p.m.

Yeah, elephantinroom, you must be god, to know what her story is, or any of the rest of them. Doesn't matter if she made it into UW, that's not more than a fraction of her story. Like the woman I from that place that was raped, pregnant at 13 and so damaged she didn't know right from left. You wouldn't know if that is this girls story, if she chose not to tell it, and what would make her obligated to?

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#117009

Posted by unregistered user at 4/11/08 7:31 p.m.

Monica-
Nice story & pic. Thanks for making us think...

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#118207

Posted by unregistered user at 4/16/08 4:10 a.m.

I knew Mikaela when she was a young teenager! She was VERY smart and had a bright future. If she would accept the help then she would be welcome in my home. If anyone knows her whereabouts and sees her...please tell her her "nanny" loves her and her mother worries. Her brother would love to here from her!

The Nanny

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