Pete & Buster 1 year later: happy, healthy, grateful
The mattress is down on the floor, so the arthritic Buster doesn’t have a tough jump up to the bed, and Pete Buchmann rises at 3:30 each weekday morning to have quality time with his dog before work.
Buster, a 10-year-old Rottweiler-boxer mix, is very protective of Pete, and the feeling is mutual.
“I’m coming home every day to Buster, and it’s a blessing,” Buchman says. “I’m just happy to be with Buster. I’m a simple guy.”
For five months last year, Buchmann, 55, couldn't come home to Buster. Buchmann was homeless and living at the Sunday Breakfast Mission. Buster was at a shelter. And only Buchmann's nearly five-mile walk each day kept them together.
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Their plight generated massive support after The News Journal and Delawareonline.com ran a story about them in November 2014. A groundswell of support helped Buchmann find a job, a vehicle, an apartment and even a supply of cash to get resettled. None of them were things Buchmann ever expected to need.
He grew up in Long Island and moved to Delaware in 2013 after his mother, for whom he was the primary caregiver for seven years, and his sister died within a month of each other.
“The Holy Spirit moved me here,” he said, about picking Delaware for opportunities. "I always had faith.” But work dried up, and by July 2014, his funds were gone and he moved from an apartment into a tent.
That wasn't a stable situation for either man or beast. So when Buchmann asked where he could take Buster, police suggested Faithful Friends Animal Society, a no-kill shelter just southwest of Wilmington. They turned a spare room into a home for Buster while Buchmann went in search of opportunities, moving into the Sunday Breakfast Mission shelter in Wilmington and starting his daily journey.
His commitment was "extraordinary," says Jane Pierantozzi, the shelter’s executive director. Buchmann's not alone in being a homeless person with a pet. According to www.petsofthehomeless.org, 5 to 24 percent of the homeless have pets.
“I used to walk and pray to God so that me and and Buster could be together,” he says. And one day, while waiting for Faithful Friends to open, he saw a good omen: as clouds were parading by, he spotted the face of Jesus in a cloud going the other direction, toward him.
Buchmann spent several hours a day at Faithful Friends, being with Buster, walking other dogs (the shelter generally is caring for 400 dogs and cats) and washing dishes.
“It was the least I could do," he says about the efforts the shelter made to keep him and Buster together.
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After the article ran, the pair were given six months free in an apartment, an old pickup, furnishings and more than $34,000 in donations thanks to a GoFundMe.com account. And Pete won a job he still has.
Trippe Wayman, president of Wayman Fire Protection, recalled reading about them and thinking “if that guy has that stick-to-itiveness, then he’d be a great employee. I went out on a limb, and it totally paid off. He’s educated, articulate and extremely motivated,” he said of Buchmann. “He’s a superstar.”
Wayman financially supports Faithful Friends, which is less than a mile from his firm, with a dog named Abby recently adopted from the shelter joining a dog named Charlie as director of greeting.
Buchmann started work just before Christmas last year and after accelerated training now works as a life safety technician, assisting in tests and operations.
“The services that Faithful Friends provides and a community that cares made a difference to get him back on his feet and back together,” Pierantozzi said, praising the shelter's network for helping him get a job, vehicle and support. “He had peace of mind and a purpose.”
The truck didn’t work out – where could he fit the 120-pound Buster? – so he sold it to a coworker. He bought a 2006 Subaru Forester where man and dog are both comfortable. The donations are largely gone, spent to get his finances in order, for the Subaru and for other living expenses, he said.
“I’m living paycheck to paycheck," he says. "It’s hard to save money." But at the same time, he says, "I’m happy, and I’m grateful to be here, and I thank everybody for making all this happen.”
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His days are filled with work, time with Buster and keeping up his apartment and car. Once he really settles in, he plans to resume volunteering at Faithful Friends, and he also wants to share his story to motivate the people given shelter at the Sunday Breakfast Mission.
Here’s what he would like to say: “God is real. Don’t give up hope. Don’t drink your life away. Ask and ye shall receive. I’m a success story. It can happen to you when you get good people helping out.”
A HELPING PAW
Needy Delawareans with pets and those who want to help pets can turn to several groups, including the Chester County SPCA (which starting in January has a three-year contract to handle stray and abused animals throughout Delaware) at www.ccspca.org or 610-692-6113; the Delaware Humane Association in Wilmington at www.dehumane.org or 571-0111; the Delaware SPCA in Stanton and Georgetown at www.delspca.org, 998-2281 or 856-6361; Faithful Friends near Wilmington at faithfulfriends.us or 427-8514 (Faithful Friends is running a campaign through Feb. 15, and “every gift is doubled during the $200,000 Match Challenge,” it says on it website); First State Animal Center and SPCA in Camden at www.fsac-spca.org or 943-6032; and Paws for Life in Chesapeake City, Maryland, at pawsforlife.org or 302-376-7297.