Dave Williams is most often recognized first not because of his commanding personality or good-natured quips, but by his massive Great Dane, Laia. She accompanies Dave everywhere, and is well known to Dave’s customers and fellow Real Change vendors.
“[She] keeps my PTSD, my bipolar in check, ’cause I gotta be polite and talk to people.”
When Dave is selling the paper, “she’ll just lay there, or if we’re outside and she’s waiting and I’m just blabbering away, she’ll be sitting straight up and start staring at me, like, someone’s giving me an indication it’s time to go.”