Pup

Quick Overview

Pup, a 23-year-old experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles after years of trauma including childhood sexual abuse, maternal drug use enabling, and physical violence, survives by panhandling and dumpster diving while managing opiate addiction, ultimately expressing resilience and a goal to help others who share similar experiences.

Key Points: Pup grew up in Jefferson County, West Virginia, describing her childhood as a "circus" involving sexual abuse from her father and self-hate projected onto her by her mother. Pup's mother, an opiate addict, handed her a needle and told her to learn how to cope at age 11, leading Pup to start shooting heroin with her mother. At 15, Pup entered foster care after calling CPS on her mother, who subsequently broke her jaw, leaving her with metal in her face to this day. Pup graduated at 16 via a GED program through Juvie, later marrying her second baby daddy (who was 52) at 18 for housing stability while aging out of foster care. After becoming homeless subsequent to leaving an abusive marriage, Pup hitchhiked from New Orleans to Los Angeles in five days, proud of this journey. Pup currently survives by panhandling and dumpster diving, having recently upgraded from cardboard to a yoga mat for sleeping, and self-medicates with smoked fentanyl, noting she is not ready for the trauma therapy required to quit. Pup's greatest fear is becoming like her mother, but she considers her greatest strength her resilience, aiming to eventually use her experiences to help others feel less "shitty about life and themselves."

Context: This transcript captures an in-depth interview with an individual named Pup, who is currently experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. The discussion delves deeply into Pup's traumatic past, starting from her childhood in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, detailing severe family dysfunction, early exposure to intravenous drug use by her mother at age 11, and subsequent experiences within the foster care system and abusive relationships, all leading to her current street life.