Greg Pike with Booger, Kitty and Mousey Postcard

"You know they say I look like Van Gogh except I’ve still got both my ears," chuckles Gregory Pike as he poses for our camera. To most, he’s known as the man on youtube.com who’s video of his three pets stacked on top of one another - a rat on top a cat that’s also on top of a dog, has received more than three thousand hits since it’s posting. While Mr. Pike professes to have no so-called artistic talents, his resemblance to Van Gogh in the physical sense, isn’t where the similarities end. Most artists, create out of the need for some type of expression; whether it be whimsical, worldly, or political. For Greg, his message is simple: if his animals can learn to live and play together, why can’t we? And while Mr. Pike’s art can’t be seen in any museum, he can usually be found on State Street in Santa Barbara where his message is heard in the hearts of people who stop to stare in wonder at what they thought was impossible. "I don’t want people to know that I’m homeless. I don’t want people to feel sorry for me and forget that the message is from the animals and I’m just here to deliver it." Every four days or so, whenever Mr. Pike can scrape together enough money to get into a motel, take a shower, and get cleaned up, he takes a break from living on the street and sleeping in his little hovel, just across the street from the beach. "If you’ve got the homeless, you might as well be near the ocean." On State Street, Greg Pike is a friend as well as a legend. Everywhere he goes, people in the community stop and say hello. Shop owners take messages for him, give him shopping bags to carry his meagre belongings, and restaurants put aside leftover food for Mr. Pike, who distributes the food among the other homeless in Santa Barbara, proving once again, through his actions, that humanity is the message. Yet that humanity hasn’t found him a permanent home for him and his animals, because while Greg professes to make more than enough to pay a modest amount of rent, no landlords will look at him because he doesn’t get a regular paycheck nor does he have enough to put down a security deposit. He makes his living, day by day, on State Street, and although the citizens and business owners recognise he’s good for business, no one’s stepped up to help. Might it be because they’re afraid if he finds a home, he’ll no longer be outside, delivering his message of peace? But that’s like saying if Van Gogh was wealthy, he would no longer have painted. Despite his wealth, or lack thereof, Mr. Pike feeds Booger the dog, Kitty the cat, and Mousey the rat daily, and takes them for regular baths at Petco, where you can bath your animals yourself for ten dollars or they’ll do it for you for twenty-five. Mr. Pike takes the former option. At Mr. Pike’s request, we are offering a select number of postcards of him with Booger, Kitty, and Mousey for purchase online at IncredibleButTrue.net to help him and his animals find a home. He says lots of people have asked where to purchase postcards but being homeless, starting your own business hasn’t really been an option.