{"id":302168,"date":"2026-05-21T00:12:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T00:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/302168\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T00:12:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T00:12:25","slug":"homeless-veteran-tom-and-his-dog-jake-find-help-new-homes-in-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/302168\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeless veteran Tom and his dog Jake find help, new homes in Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

A formerly homeless dog and his owner now have a new lease on life, thanks to the Fort Worth Fire Department and a local nonprofit organization that helps veterans.<\/p>\n

Early Saturday, May 16, a firefighter at Station 8 heard a dog whining outside<\/a> the window, the department said in a Facebook post. Some crew members went to investigate, and found a pit bull tied to the station\u2019s flagpole. A three-page letter stuffed inside a water bottle identified the animal as Jake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a soul, and if you really care about helping babies, please help my baby,\u201d the note read.<\/p>\n

\"Tom,<\/p>\n

Tom, a disabled veteran, left his dog outside a Fort Worth fire station Saturday, May 16, 2026, in the hope of finding a better life for his pet. <\/p>\n

(Glen E. Ellman\/Fort Worth Fire Department via Facebook)<\/p>\n

The dog\u2019s owner, Tom, described himself as a 65-year-old disabled veteran. He ended up on the streets 20 months ago after an apartment manager refused to renew his lease.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t leave (Jake) alone to go do things for myself that I need to do to try to make a better life,\u201d Tom wrote in the letter.<\/p>\n

The Fort Worth Fire Department doesn\u2019t accept surrendered animals, according to the post, but the Station 8 crew decided to adopt Jake after efforts to find him another home failed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was something that just lined up with this particular story: the veteran in need, the hearts of the crews at the station and a smile on Jake that couldn\u2019t be ignored,\u201d the post reads.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, some local organizations stepped in to help Jake\u2019s owner, Tom. The Fort Worth Fire Department\u2019s HOPE Team<\/a> located the veteran and took him for a medical checkup<\/a>, according to Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV.<\/p>\n

Operation Texas Strong<\/a>, a nonprofit organization that works with veterans, supplied Tom with an RV and found a space for him at an RV park in east Fort Worth, WFAA reported. He\u2019s scheduled to move in Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The firefighters said they\u2019ve gotten attached to Jake. He seems to enjoy being with the crew and has an abundance of food, toys and treats.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not asking for anything,\u201d the crew said on Facebook. \u201cWe just thought we would tell you the story of how a heartbroken man made an incredibly tough decision and everything about the moment just lined up perfectly to work out right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udea8 More breaking news:<\/p>\n

\u25fd\ufe0f Sign up for Star-Telegram news alerts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A formerly homeless dog and his owner now have a new lease on life, thanks to the Fort…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,124,118,117,15338,109698],"class_list":["post-302168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-fire-department","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-nonprofit-organization","tag-tom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}