Doghouse shelters panhandlers’ pets

GRANTS PASS, Ore. – An agency that supervises and maintains the Interstate 5 Manzanita rest areas north of the freeway’s Merlin off-ramp has built a day-use doghouse for animals belonging to panhandlers.

On Wednesday, the dog house was well-used. Two of the four dogs using it belonged to a grateful Keith Merrill, a frequent panhandler at the rest area.

“I love it,” Merrill said. “My dogs love it. All the dogs love it. The dogs get along. They don’t have to be out in the weather no more.”

As he spoke, Merrill stood outside a restroom at the northbound rest area, holding a sign that read “Homeless. Anything helps. God Bless.”

One purpose behind the doghouse is to get dogs away from the restrooms, where they might intimidate visitors, said Mark Grinde, who mans an office at the rest area for the Oregon Travel Information Council.

“Not everybody is a dog lover,” Grinde said. “We came to an accommodation.”

The doghouse was built from scraps. “We just slapped it together,” Grinde said.

The travel council also maintains rest areas near Salem, Wilsonville and along Interstate 84 east of Portland. Employees provide visitor information and assistance. Grinde, a former Oregon Department of Transportation employee, said he is not aware of any other rest area that has a doghouse. He estimated that six people are regular panhandlers at the rest area.

“When we stepped into the facility (last January), they were all here,” he said.

Merrill, 57, said he has lived nearby for “a couple years.” He currently lives atop a hill west of the freeway, staying warm and dry by living in a small tent placed inside a larger tent, all under a tarp. His friend, Anita Brazille, 36, camps nearby.

“It’s not easy living out here,” said Brazille who was hanging out with Merrill and others at the rest area.

People seemed generous with them. A man driving a pickup truck bearing a California license plate gave them some food. A few people gave them money.

Merrill said he was given a backpack on Tuesday at the Seventh-day Adventist Church and got a sleeping bag and thermal underwear on Sunday from the Merlin Community Baptist Church. He said he was expecting a visit later on Wednesday from someone with the Disabled American Veterans organization.

Merrill declined to specify what he makes panhandling.

“Some days I don’t make nothing,” he said. “Other days I’ve done better.”