ABSTRACT
If you find me dead, please take care of my dog, she is all I have in the world and she has stuck by my side when no one else would.2
The epigram encapsulates the two starting points of this chapter. The first is the surprising absence of animals in socio-legal thinking about homelessness given their visibility on the street and in the media. The second is that care provides a dominant theme in the stories that homeless people tell of their relationships with their pets/companion animals. The chapter therefore seeks to fill a significant gap in the literature by reflecting on care-receiving and care-giving and the connections between humans and non-humans in the context of homelessness. My argument is that understanding homeless people and their pets as agents/actants of care enables a revaluation of care through a focus on care’s relationality and a significant and potentially progressive reframing of homeless people.
