Iguanas, dogs, snakes, tarantulas, scorpions and even eels filled the North Philadelphia home of 17-year-old Justin Reyes. As Justin’s mother says, he owned and cared for “everything except farm animals.” Their home became a petting zoo attraction for all of Justin’s friends.
Justin’s dream was to become a veterinarian or a zoo keeper. He cared for stray cats, took in a turtle with a crushed shell and adopted a pit bull that was left behind as the runt of the litter. He was just a kid, but even his neighbors would come to Justin for advice about their pets.
“Everyone in the neighborhood knew him, he’d help anyone,” Kathy Lees, Justin’s mother, said. “Animals, people, anyone in need.”
On June 11, 2011, Justin Reyes was killed in North Philadelphia. In the same area where Justin was murdered, he cared for a colony of stray cats.
After his death, a man came up to Kathy and asked her, “Do you know there’s a whole bunch of stray cats, and Justin used to feed all these cats?” Kathy said. “Justin used to ask me for money for cans of food… I found out [after his passing] that it was for buying cans of cat food.”
Just before Justin was killed, he was planning to leave his Philadelphia neighborhood behind and move back to New York, the city his mother had moved away from in 2003 “to give him a better life.” Awaiting him was a job at a pet store he adored in his childhood. It “was Justin’s Toys ‘R’ Us.”
“That was a pet store that since Justin was 4, I had to tell the pet store owner, ‘Do not offer my son any animals,’” Kathy said. “He used to help clean [at the shop] when he was 7, he’d sweep and help clean the tanks.”
In the years since her son’s passing, Kathy has felt comfort in the presence of the dog and cats that Justin loved so much. Cane, the runt-of-the-litter pitbull, and Tiger, a kitten that Justin found and bottle fed when it was just 8 days old, still live with Kathy.
“It was so hard for me to get up out of bed [after Justin’s passing], but I remember those two licking my face and telling me to get out of bed. It’s like I have a piece of connection to him.”
Justin spent so much of his time caring for his animals, but he also loved helping people.
“In New York, there’s this shelter called the Bowery Mission… I’ll never forget it, he must have been 7 years old and it was the first year we went,” Kathy said. “There’s this gentleman, he had a really strong odor. I told Justin to stay away from him, but he was walking towards him. He said, ‘Mommy, we didn’t give him a sandwich.’ I said wow, this little boy is teaching me a lesson, and I cried.”
As he got older, the good deeds continued. Kathy gave Justin money, and instead of keeping it to spend on himself, he gave it to a man in need.
“He gave [the man] his dollar that I gave him. Then when we were waiting for the bus and he found a dollar on the ground. He said, ‘God blessed us back.’”
Kathy learned so much from her son during his short life, and in the years since his passing, has continued to pay it forward.
“My son has taught me so much and I feel like I have to continue to live each day of my life to that standard kind of to keep his memory and legacy going. I don’t take anything for granted.”
Instead of burying Justin here in Philadelphia, she decided his resting place should be in New York, the city they both had longed to return to. Kathy plans to move back to New York to be with her family and closer to Justin’s resting place, but not until his case is solved.
“Justin’s case is going to be solved and he is going to get justice,” Kathy said. “And I’m going to do that until my last breath.”
