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Barry Myrick is barking mad.
The pest-control professional is in a fight with his former employer, M&M Environmental in Queens, over his loyal partner — a bedbug-sniffing pit bull mix named Roxy.
“She’s my best friend,” said Myrick, who even has a tattoo of Roxy on his leg. “I committed to her long ago, and nothing’s going to come between me and her.”
Myrick, 37, had worked with Roxy for four years, inspecting commercial and residential properties, before he was laid off from the company in March.
Although the dog had been provided by M&M, which covered her food and veterinary bills, she’s lived with Myrick and his wife, Joana, since he fetched Roxy from a dog-training facility in Florida. (M&M paid for her training.)
The pair have been inseparable — enjoying hiking trips to Bear Mountain and vacations in Woodstock — ever since. “She’s a part of our family. This is the closest to kids we’ll have,” said Myrick, who doesn’t plan to have children.
But things turned ruff when, not long after the pandemic started, he chose to be laid off rather than pivot and work for M&M as a COVID cleaner without Roxy. He returned his company vehicle, credit cards and equipment, but not his pup partner — explaining that a manager had said to him, “You’re going to keep Roxy, right?”
On June 25, M&M sent a letter to Myrick calling the dog “company property” and demanding that she be returned immediately. When Myrick refused, M&M pursued legal action, reporting that Roxy was stolen and leading the Queens District Attorney’s Office to slap Myrick with charges of grand larceny.
Still refusing to give up Roxy, Myrick in August surrendered to the NYPD. “I spent 15 hours in jail. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy,” said Myrick, who shared a cell with some 20 others. “The stories I heard were unreal — someone beat their stepdad with a baseball bat. I couldn’t tell anyone I was there for a puppy.”
M&M told The Post, in a statement, that the company always intended to rehire Myrick and that managers expected he would return to work by June.
But Myrick had moved from Brooklyn to Philadelphia in May, and says he would not have left the city if he believed he would get his job back.
He admitted to The Post that in 2016, he signed a contract that “said that if I were to be terminated or if I were no longer working there, I would have to return Roxy.” But he alleged that M&M forfeited its claim to her when the company laid him off and didn’t ask for her back.
“When they left the dog with him in March, [M&M] made no arrangement … to get the dog or pay for the dog in the interim,” said Myrick’s lawyer, William J. Kurtz.
For now, a Queens judge — citing prior divorce-case custody rulings — is letting Myrick keep Roxy until the case is settled. M&M, however, said Roxy is a working dog and this is a case of ownership, not custody.
M&M lawyer Gary Port said that, per the 2016 contract, the company owns Roxy and noted that training a dog like her can cost $15,000. “My client did not give this guy a gift of $15,000.”
Port added that allowing Myrick to keep Roxy would set a dangerous precedent: “Maybe he is attached to Roxy — maybe he wants to set up his own business.”
“That’s the last thing I’m thinking about,” retorted Myrick, who’s currently collecting unemployment, adding that he understood the company’s concerns. “My only concern is to not be separated from her. I’m not starting a competing business in a pandemic with no money.”
Myrick insists that Roxy, who came from a troubled background, wouldn’t bond with another trainer. “She’s not a golden retriever who will be happy-go-lucky with just anyone,” he said. “She has eyes for no one else.”
Loved ones have tried to convince him to walk away. “My family said, ‘Give the dog back, you’ll get another one,’ ” recalled a defiant Myrick. “But I’ve emptied out my bank account, spent time in jail . . . what else can they throw at me? I’ll fight this to the end.”
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