© 2024 Blaze Media LLC. All rights reserved.
Homeless man volunteers to help dogs displaced by Harvey
A homeless man seeking shelter at Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey volunteered to help dogs displaced by the storm. (Image source: KTRK-TV screenshot)

Homeless man volunteers to help dogs displaced by Harvey

A homeless man seeking shelter at Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey volunteered to help dogs displaced by the storm, according to KTRK-TV.

Sasha Von Troetsch, the owner of the pet grooming business Your Hipster Pet, told KTRK that she and her company wanted to help the furry evacuees in the convention center. She said they decided to offer all the pets there a bath.

"Someone who is an evacuee said, 'I know how to groom,' and so I gave him some clippers," Von Troetsch told KTRK.

The man, Stanley Baizle, 59, took the clippers and began to groom dogs.

When a KTRK reporter came by to ask the volunteers about their efforts to help dogs, Baizle revealed he is homeless.

“I got caught in the weather, I’m actually homeless,” Baizle told KTRK, adding that he traveled 24 miles to seek shelter at the convention center after the storm.

Asked why he was helping the dogs, Baizle said he used to work as a groomer before he lost his job and became homeless two years ago.

“I was just trying to help as much as I could,” he said. “That’s the way I was raised.”

Baizle said he is “in between jobs right now” but would like to find work.

"I am trying to find something," Baizle said.

Baizle’s revelation shocked Von Troetsch and the other volunteers.

“I had no clue he was in that kind of situation,” Von Troetsch said. “I just thought, ‘OK, he’s an evacuee here taking shelter,’ but I had no clue he was homeless.”

Von Troetsch said Baizle has helped “tremendously” because some of the dogs who were caught in the storm have matted fur.

“He’s helped so much, it’s been amazing,” she said.

Von Troetsch said Baizle is a talented groomer, while Baizle said he’s happy he found “something I’m good at.”

Von Troetsch told People, “We asked him ‘What do you need?’ And he said, ‘I want a job.’”

“I can’t walk away from this, not doing something for him,” she said. “I believe we are placed in certain places for a reason — maybe he was there to get help.”

Von Troetsch said her company is currently unable to hire Baizle, but “we want to help him any way we can.”

She said that anyone interested in helping Baizle can contact her business in a Facebook message.

Want to leave a tip?

We answer to you. Help keep our content free of advertisers and big tech censorship by leaving a tip today.
Want to join the conversation?
Already a subscriber?