No good deed goes unpunished

CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics estimated 93,331 drug overdose deaths in the United States during 2020, an increase of 29.4% from the 72,151 deaths in 2019.

93,331 overdose deaths in one year.

I can’t get my head around that number. Not even a little bit. I don’t know where in my body the pain of that lives. Let me get to know just one of those people and everything changes. Heart aches, tears flow.

Kaitlyn’s father was inANDout of jail her entire childhood. He’s back in right now for cooking Meth and getting caught with an astounding amount of it. Her mom, also on drugs, was more of a friend than a mom. When Kaitlyn was 12 she was sent to live with her Aunt in Alabama. The nearest neighbor, down at the end of the road, was a cute 17 year old boy addicted to drugs. That was when Kaitlyn first tried heroin. She was 12. That’s a number I can feel, it makes my heart hurt for her.

 Kaitlyn began fighting with her Aunt and was sent back home. She had a few years of being drug free, of really excelling in school. She dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. I asked if she was smart, she looked at me with a big smile and said, “Oh yeah, I’m really smart. In school I was getting top grades. I hope I can go back to school.”

I asked, “What happened? How did you get here?” She looked around at the mess of her tent, of her life, and shook her head. “In High School I started doing some ecstasy at raves, which led to meth, which led back to heroin. Look what I’ve done. I’m 28 years old, no teeth, living in a tent.”

When I first met Kaitlyn she could hardly walk. She had an abscess in her lower buttocks, one that had already been operated on, but was again badly infected. She was/is at the end of her rope. She wants to get off drugs and restart her life. I asked, if you could have anything right now, what would it be? She said, “Have one day sober and not feel like shit. I am so ready. It’s all so redundant. Over and over the same thing. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

That was Kaitlyn three weeks ago. What kept her from going into detox/treatment was that a person living inside, who meant to make a positive difference for her by watching her dog Prince, decided to not return him. Kaitlyn was distraught. It set her back. She couldn’t go into treatment until she knew Prince would still be hers when she got out. He is her best friend.

Kaitlyn talked about how life just keeps knocking you down. In a quiet voice she said, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Then she spiraled into sharing that she gets the shit-end even though she tries to always do good. “For everything I do that is good I get shit on. Maybe it’s life’s way of balancing things out.”

The North Seattle Neighbors Mutual Aid Group reached out to the individual keeping Prince and spoke on Kaitlyn’s behalf. Prince was returned.
Kaitlyn is ready.

We are looking for someone to foster Prince for (6) months to a year, depending on the treatment program Kaitlyn goes into. He’s 8 months old and house trained. He’s good with other dogs, but does like to chase squirrels! He’s a pretty energetic dog so my thought is that whomever takes Prince needs to either be able to walk him lots, take him to the dog park, or have a big fenced back yard. I can tell you that he is beyond beautiful! If you are interested, please call Rex 206-330-1142 to discuss.

When I asked Kaitlyn, what happened, why is she where she is? She answered like many folks in her situation do, they blame themselves. It is a constant burden they live with. Where the blame goes is more complicated than that though. From early on Katilyn’s life was stacked against her. Drugs were all around her.

If you met Kaitlyn, spent genuine time with her, got to know how sensitive and sweet she is, you would be brought to tears hearing if she became another statistic of overdose deaths.