Dupont Dog Owner Tries to Move On After Loss

In 2001, the Austin American-Statesman said Joe had been on a national tour of city councils for three years, promoting silent prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance in schools as a means of reducing crime.

Over the years, Joe said, people gave him their beat-up cars and money. He ended up "in and out" of Washington, pushing prayer and the pledge.

"I'd given up on people," he said. "That's why I've gotten into causes."

Two years ago, he found Precious while visiting his brother in the Dallas area. The brother had tenants who had left behind a malnourished white dog.

"I protected that like my baby," Joe said.

Last year, Joe got into trouble in Maine, according to the Bangor Daily News. Workers at a Wal-Mart in the town of Brewer restrained him, believing that he was making off with $40 worth of goods.

Joe was arrested, and police tried to remove two dogs from his car. One of the animals, described as a pit bull, bit the pole that police used to try to capture it, the paper reported. Officers eventually used a Taser gun to temporarily incapacitate the dog -- Precious. A judge later found no probable cause to pursue the case against Joe.

Joe said the incident at Wal-Mart "was a misunderstanding." He said authorities returned Precious, but his other dog was adopted out.

He eventually returned to Washington with Precious. He hung out in Dupont Circle, near the fountain in the park's center, with other street people. Some grew to love Precious, whom they considered harmless.

Dupont Circle became home. At bedtime, Joe and Precious would wander off to a secret spot. Sometimes they slept in Joe's car -- before it broke down.

"Hotel rates here are in the hundreds," he said. "I could have made it in a small city. I quit asking people to stay at their place."

During the days and sometimes into the darkness, he preached and created signs about the Lord and reducing crime through prayer. Sometimes he gave another man beer money to watch Precious while he went off to preach outside the White House. When he took a train out of town, he said, he sometimes snuck Precious aboard by pretending she was his seeing-eye dog.