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Recovering drug users, ailing dogs form bonds of need at Agora House
Residents care for animals infected with heartworms at Gainesville treatment center
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Scruffy shows Nick his belly while visiting the Agora House on Wednesday afternoon. Recently several men going through substance abuse treatment at the Agora House for Men have recently started taking care of heartworm-infected dogs from the Humane Society. The dogs need someone to intensively take care of them so they may live and become adoptable. The experience gives the men a real sense of accomplishment as they go through treatment themselves.
Strip away the size difference, hair color and the fact that Taco has two more legs than Nick, and the result is a pair supporting each other to get better. “It’s about the same way we were when we first came in,” said Nick, a resident at the Agora House for Men, a substance abuse treatment center in Gainesville. “We required a lot of attention to relearn life skills we forgot or never had, and the dogs are kind of the same way.”