Hi, I’m not an Auburn grad, but did a search for J. T. Thomas and Carrot the cat and found this discussion. We met J. T., the homeless AU grad and his cat, Carrot, a couple of weeks ago at Seagrove. We talked with him almost every day on the beach. I became curious about his Aubie story and did a search of all Aubies. It seems that there was an alternate Aubie in the early 80s named J. T. Thomas, I think around 1981 or 82. You can Google “Complete list” of Aubies and find that there was a lead Aubie and usually 2 alternates. J.T. mentioned knowing Barry Mask, the lead Aubie around that time. So either J. T.’s story is true, or he’s using someone else’s name. I kinda think it’s true. My heart goes out to this man, who says he has lived on the beach around 20 years, moving from one beach to another at times. He may seem like he has a carefree life, but where does he go in stormy weather, hurricanes and such? He seems happy, but his skin is like leather from too much sun and he says he’s had 2 heart attacks and a stroke. I really would like to see some organized effort to provide him with some kind of shelter. Not sure how he ended up homeless.
