in recovery

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Buford the Cocker Spaniel listens to wolves howling on youtube and then posts his video response (This poor little guy was being abused by his owner's 'personal care assistant.) To me when I watch it, it is almost like he is trying to express his fear and pain. - CMH ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here in Burlington we have quite an eclectic assembly of eccentric persons. Among the mentally ill and chronically homeless one can be surprised by the charm, the character, the insight and the perspectives that these disadvantaged folks bear within their threadworn exteriors. One such person is a woman named Abigail Roberts, or Abby as she is known around town. Abby is profoundly distrubed and otherwise mentally ill. She is probably mentally retarded as well, though it can be hard to tell or to be sure in many cases. A Howard client, Abby once lived in a one bedroom apartment on the top of floor the building located at 190 Church St. This was quite a few years ago now. In attending twelve steps meetings and frequenting the recovery drop-in center, Abby attracted the attention of a chronically homeless alcoholic named Randy Lamore, who started out as a long term house guest in her one bedroom apartment. Over time Randy ingratiated himself to the landlord of the building and to the treatment team at Howard that is responsible for seeing to her welfare as she struggles to live outside of institutions. Howard caseworkers are notoriously lazy so when it was suggested that Randy could take up some of the slack by being officially added to Abby's voucher as a support worker they leaped at the chance to pass the buck, despite Randy's criminal history, his lack of employment and his alcoholism. So Abby and Randy were moved three floors down to the ground floor in a two bedroom apartment where Randy lived rent free in exchange for helping her keep house and manage her affairs. For the next few years Randy controlled Abby's apartment and her money. The place was a bacteria riddled catastrophe of dirty dishes, dirty clothes, cigarette butts and rubbish. There were mulitple events wherein Randy would get drunk, even though both Abby and Randy were ostensibly in recovery, and Abby would ask a neighbor named Derek St. Don to eject Randy from the house as he was very abusive and known to hit and harrangue her, even in public. At one point a neighbor took Abby and another mentally disabled woman into one of the bedrooms in Abby's apartment and secually assualted the pair of them while Randy sat in the livingroom watching television. Abby reported this attack to the police, who then took no action whatsoever as Randy assured them nothing happened. Randy was compensated in marijuanna and beer money by the rapist for this obstruction of justice. I know this for a fact as he bragged to me personally about this and a whole host of criminally abusive activities that he perpetrated in the time as her caregiver. Abby bought a little cockerspaniel dog named 'Buford' as this was supposed to be therapeutic for her. Randy would kick and beat and torture that poor little dog like you just would not believe unless you saw it happen. In time, the dog got re-located and Abby began to refuse to go home out of fear of Randy's alcohol fuled domestic abuse. After months of this scenario, with Abby wandering the streets at night, often with black eyes and other bruises, Howard finally found Abby a tiny little one room efficiency. She moved to it and Randy was left in the Church St apartment, which he remained in until forcibly evicted by the courts, never having paid a dime of rent. Flash forward a few more months and what do you know? Randy, homeless like always, was back under Abby's roof at her little one room studio, drinking and hitting her, blacking her eyes and controlling her money. Throughout this disgraceful epic, going back to the early days of their association, countless indiv...