College teaching assistants, stray dogs, and schizophrenic men on campus

It is 1980 or maybe 1981 and Carl and are teaching at the University of Louisville and being professional academics working on our MA degrees in English. One afternoon we found a German shepherd on campus with a huge gash in his neck and he was quite thin; he was also very friendly. We got him to come into the Humanities Building where our offices were and it was late afternoon and the building very empty. We got him some food and called the shelter.  They said he had probably been chained outside and possibly starved and he had pulled free from the chain which caused the gash. They took him.  Not much of a success story but it was more interesting if you were actually in it.

  We used to eat lunch on the third floor of the Humanities building. Several other friends ate with us depending on the day and their schedules. We started seeing an young Asian man in our building and he was putting trash in a bag and also eating from it. The second day we saw him we put on our Superhero capes to try to help him. He kept putting in trash and picking out food from the bag he carried, so we asked his name and he gave it. He followed us downstairs while we got him a sandwich and the window and then he put it in the filthy bag.

He didn't make a lot of sense when we talked to him but he was cooperative and agreeable.  At one point we thought maybe he had a head injury and he told us that we were right he did.

I had to go to class but we agreed it didn't seem safe for him to be wandering around, anyone could easily do anything to him since he was doing anything we suggested so I went off to teach and Carl took him to the medical facilities on campus; he was refused treatment because they could not determine if he were a student there.  Not one to give up, Carl decided to take him farther downtown to one of the hospitals. While walking with him to the parking lot, the guy fell over in a complete 180 board like fall and then got up.

Carl took him to the hospital where he was recognized by the staff. His name was not the one he gave us, but he was a regular because he was a mentally challenged schizophrenic; his family had to work  and he often wandered and ended up there. His family was called.

Carl left.

The next day our guy was back picking up cigarette butts and trash and putting them in with food into his bag and eating from it.

So much for Superhero capes.