LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - Unforeseen circumstances can shift life as we know it. Right now, that's the reality for veteran John Harrell.
He and his furry family members have been evicted from his apartment. Pamela Duncan, Harrell's neighbor and friend, stepped up to help him during this difficult time. Both of them are searching to find a temporary home for his animals.
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“He came to me and knocked on my door, said they were evicting him,” said Duncan.
Neighbor to neighbor. Veteran to veteran. This is a situation she’s familiar with.
"I have no place to put my property right now, due to some circumstances I got behind on my rent,” Harrell added.
After 12 years, he and his two dogs, Boy and Fuzz, are now on the streets.
“All it takes is for one person to say, 'Yes I can take in the dogs while he goes and gets back on his feet',” said Duncan.
Also a veteran, she helped Harrell get into a program at the Veterans Hospital in North Little Rock. He'll be staying there for 84 days but his animals can't go with him.
“It concerned me because I was homeless myself and it brought back a lot of fears, fears for him. I'm still learning how to live with PTSD so this is triggering a lot of mine,” she said.
Duncan credits the program for helping her many years ago.
“That's the biggest thing we think about when we're in there because our animals are everything to us,” Duncan said.
Harrell doesn't have anywhere to stay right now as the program won't start until March 29. He's looking for someone with open doors and an open heart.
"I think the world of my dogs and I would like someone, if they could, to foster care them,” he said.
Duncan recently took to Facebook with a post detailing the situation.
“Some of the comments I've gotten are people saying they wish they could but they've already got dogs themselves,” she said.
If you're willing to take in Boy and Fuzz for a few months, you'd be helping this veteran keep his only family together.
“It's a stressful thing because I've helped so many people myself in past years, even homeless people, and brought them to my apartment,” said Harrell.
Duncan thinks Arkansas should look into creating a program like one set up in Texas, where they take in pets while a veteran is deployed or hospitalized.
Contact Pamela Duncan if you'd like to help foster Harrell's two 8-year-old dogs.