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Pet doesn't make life on the streets easier

He has Casey's company, but a Clearwater man finds homelessness just as rough.

By DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD
Published January 31, 2006

	[Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford]
	Franklin Fisher Jr., 41, and Casey, his 4-year-old pit bullterrier mix, take shelter from the rain Monday at a Clearwater carwash while waiting for a friend. Fisher said he became homeless a year ago after getting addicted to crack cocaine. Casey is his best friend, but Fisher finds Florida to be an "unfriendly pet state," he said.

CLEARWATER - For Franklin Fisher Jr., the hardest thing about being homeless has been taking care of Casey.

The 4-year-old pit bullterrier mix keeps him warm at night. She's his best friend, and they share hard-to-come-by meals and even a birthday, March 14.

But the streets aren't always friendly to homeless people, much less those with a pit bullterrier mix. Last week, he got into two fights with people who kicked Casey. He said Florida is an "unfriendly pet state."

Fisher, 41, is one of hundreds of homeless people counted Monday as part of a yearly census conducted by the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless. Results won't be known for about a month, but officials expect numbers to be up from last year's 4,540.

The numbers are important because they help direct social service funding and help advocacy groups fill the needs of the homeless.

Fisher said he has been homeless for a year after becoming addicted to crack cocaine. He experimented with the drug when he was living at the Economy Inn on Cleveland Street while working in construction.

"I was introduced to it, and I'm a creature of habit," Fisher said. "I lost my job, and now I am trying to get back to who I was before."

Fisher said he has not smoked crack for one month and is working on staying clean by associating with people who do not use the drug. But he said he still thinks about getting high and admits he would buy some if he had the opportunity.

"I call it the dollar-a-minute drug," Fisher said. "Because the high is $20 for 20 minutes, and it makes you feel better than you have your whole life."

But Fisher said that is the key to the addiction.

"It takes you to this really high level, then you fall far below where you were before, and the only way to feel normal is to use it again," Fisher said.

He said he sleeps in different places from night to night. Many homeless sleep in bushes, woods and abandoned buildings.

Fisher said he lives day to day and has trouble finding the motivation to search for a job. He has never married, he said, adding that he has had trouble his whole life with anything long-term.

For now, he spends most of his energy trying to stay out of jail while fighting the urge to use cocaine.

Fisher moved to Clearwater from Kentucky to be a foreman on a construction site, where he was earning $16 an hour. His life has changed dramatically, he said, since his addiction.

There is a history of bipolar disorder in his family, and he has been estranged from his mother for four years, he said. His father was a career military man and abusive, he said.

"I don't blame my past," Fisher said. "I have abused myself."

Fisher was waiting for a friend Monday morning at a carwash on Cleveland Street. He and Casey were sitting inside a bay, taking shelter from the rain, when a carwash employee asked him to leave.

It was a familiar request.

"We're leaving," he said, gathering his few belongings and heading out into the rain.

[Last modified January 31, 2006, 00:30:20]