By Darren Rathwell

Helping the homeless with pets: advocate travels with dog to Medicine Hat area

Sep 10, 2021 | 5:54 PM

A 4000 kilometre journey by a man and his dog has reached the Medicine Hat area with the goal of helping the homeless and their pets.

James “Homeless James” Caughhill is walking his northern malamute Muck from St. Catharine’s, Ontario, and found himself at a stop behind the Co-op gas bar in Dunmore Friday.

Caughhill says he became homeless in 2016 after losing the home he shared with his father who was placed in a care home. But he says he was barred from a homeless shelter because of his dog. “I found out (in 2016) there was no place in the country that would take pets. The reason being was the liability,” Caughhill said.

While the pet policy has changed since then at some shelters, Caughhill says they are far and few between.

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The Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter is one example of a site that doesn’t allow pets as the result of liability issues. But the operation does have an arrangement for temporary care by the SPCA.

“A lot of women hesitate to leave their pets behind because they’re worried about them in a domestic violence situation.. so we set up this partnership with the SPCA. It works really well,” Medicine Hat Womens Shelter Society Executive Director Natasha Carvalho said.

Caughhill says his plan wasn’t to raise funds for his cause, yet about $38,000 has been donated nonetheless, ten percent of which he uses for expenses. “Now after 5 years i’ve got 30 homeless shelters from Montreal to Vancouver that wouldn’t take pets before (that are) taking pets, using ‘Homeless James and Muckwah’ with my permission to fundraise to get liability insurance,” Caughill said.

Meanwhile, the dog Caughhill is travelling with now isn’t the one he originally set out with. His dog Muckwah died of cancer several months ago, and his current pet Muck was rescued from a shelter soon after.

But Caughhill says Muck also rescued him. “Aw man, that furball saved my life,” Caughhill said.

‘Homeless James’ and Muck plan to head to Lethbridge in a few days before moving onto a final destination of Vancouver by April of 2022.