The Cape Argus has launched a new collaborative editorial initiative called #TheDignityProject – a 15-part daily series about the homeless people of Cape Town. Homeless person Danny Oosthuizen will be writing a daily column for the duration of the project. Read the eighth entry in Danny’s Diary below …

Cape Town – If there is something that irritates me more than the money I don’t have, it is the way some people react towards homeless people who have a dog as a companion (note that I did not use the word pet).

Now listen up and listen good. Like most of you folks out there, we love animals. Yes, sure we can’t afford the weekly doggie parlour and the top-of-the-range food and treats, but in general they are fed.

Some of us even skarrel for the dog.

There are mobile clinics where owners can take their friend for check-ups and vaccinations. And when they can’t afford the fee, they get help for free.

Yes, they sleep outside, but so do thousands of home-owners’s dogs. Right? And the dogs are not these purebred animals that are so super-sensitive to everything.

These pavement specials give us unconditional love.

They would die for us if need be. In fact, all in all, they lift our spirits and bring joy.

If I had to have a dog and you tried to take it away from me… you would end up finishing second.

So, instead of spending time removing the dog, why don’t you buy a tin of food or whatever you think the brakkieneeds?

We are very protective over the squirrels in the Company’s Garden. And the ducks. Yes, lemme mention the rats (the size of cats!).

Those ones we dare not interfere with. “Live and let live.”

At the Castle of Good Hope you will find fish. And they’re beautiful to watch. At times I will feed them and boy, they are huge.

I don’t have a dog, but I reckon the day when a dog finds me, I will take it.

Cape Argus