MONROE — She rolls through towns along U.S. 2 in a Subaru Outback, stopping when she sees someone who might need a hand.
The Microsoft finance director steps out of her black SUV at homeless camps and panhandling haunts. She opens the stuffed hatchback and starts handing out supplies to help people and pets.
Melanie Ryan is getting her Monroe-based nonprofit up and running. Beck’s Place — named after her own dog — finds temporary homes for critters so their owners can tackle troubles, such as domestic violence, addiction and homelessness.
On a chilly morning in December, Ryan pulled up to a camper parked in the Tualco Valley just outside of Monroe. The man living in it emerged wearing his signature Australian bush hat.
“Good morning, sunshine,” Ryan quipped.
She’s come to expect Billy Belgum to be grouchy early in the day. And this morning was no different.
“Well kickstart my heart,” Belgum countered after being called a grump.
Belgum, 55, was sitting on a Monroe street corner with nine puppies and his dog, Suzy, a pitbull mix, when Ryan first offered her help a year ago. She worried him. He was sure Ryan wanted to take his pets away.
Later, Belgum got into trouble and was separated from his pets. Ryan picked Suzy and two puppies up from the Everett Animal Shelter. She arranged Beck’s Place to handle their care.
“She’s helping with the dogs, big time,” Belgum said.
Ryan, 44, does what she can for him, too. She brought him a sleeping bag, warmers and two pairs of wool socks Wednesday.
Those who are down on their luck often build especially tight bonds with their pets, Ryan said.
Not wanting to give a pet up is a common roadblock people face in getting the help they need to get off the streets and turn their lives around.
“It’s a barrier to their self-sufficiency,” said Janos Kendall, director of the nonprofit Take the Next Step’s drop-in center in Monroe. “It’s been wonderful to have Beck’s Place to take care of the animals and the people.”
Beck’s Place will offer vaccinations, flea treatment and microchips for a sliding fee at its pet clinic from 12:30 to 2 p.m. on Jan. 17 at the Tractor Supply store in Monroe.
The nonprofit is set to provide pet food and supplies as well as stuff for people from 10 a.m. to noon Jan. 23 in the parking lot of Monroe’s closed Haggens store.
Ryan is often asked why people get pets when they don’t have money.
“For me, animals are therapy,” said Crystal Silva, of Monroe. “They’re so soothing, so comforting and so healing.”
Silva asked Ryan for help paying the veterinary bill after her 15-year-old calico cat, Lucy, got sick and the time came to put her down
The 69-year-old held the cat in her arms, before she was euthanized on Wednesday at a clinic in Sultan.
“Even though you know you’re doing the right thing, it’s hard when they trust you so much and you have to do this,” Silva said.
Ryan tries to support all her clients, especially when times are tough. She doesn’t dump clients for making mistakes. She sees them through jail lockups, drinking binges, drug abuse and stints of depression.
“We meet our humans where they’re at,” Ryan said. “Our job is to love and accept people wherever they are on their journey.”
For more information, call 425-419-8992, email contact@becksplace.org or go to becksplace.org.
Amy Nile: 425-339-3192; anile@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @AmyNileReports
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