Diksha Sundriyal
HBO’s ‘Reality’ focuses on the events that happened on June 3, 2017, at Reality Winner’s house in Augusta, Georgia. The 25-year-old Air Force veteran arrived home to find FBI agents waiting for her. It wasn’t an out-of-the-blue visit because some time ago, Winner had done something that would warrant it. However, she tried to keep a lid on her emotions, not to say anything incriminating.
Over the next few hours, Reality tries to keep calm as two FBI agents talk to her about her life, career, and job at Fort Gordon. Reality knows where this is going, but her first thought is for her pets. She has a dog and a cat inside the house, and their safety is her priority. By the end of the interrogation, it becomes clear that Reality will be gone for a while. If you are wondering what happened to her pets, here’s what you should know.
The Fate of Mickey and Mina
When Reality Winner arrived at her house after grocery shopping, she was received by two FBI agents who told her that they had a search warrant for her home. They don’t allow her to go into the house alone but insist on clearing it first. They ask her if she has any pets, and she mentions her dog, Mickey, and her cat, Mina. Mickey is brought out and tied by a leash, and later, Mina is also tied to one place, which allows the FBI to move freely about the home and do their job.
Throughout the interrogation, Reality’s thoughts came back to her pets, and the conversation revolved around them when the officers talked about their own pets. Talking about this part of that day, Reality revealed that when she was the officers by her door, she was worried about her pets, especially Mickey, who was a foster dog and didn’t feel well around men. She worried that Mickey might react poorly to the agents, most of whom were male. Reality thought that the dog attacking them might lead the agents to kill it, “and then I would have become hysterical, and then they would have shot me.”
Once Reality realized she would not be home for a while, she called people to take care of her pets. Mickey was a foster dog, and Reality had been caring for her, hoping to get her adopted. In case she would have to go to prison, Reality mentions the name of a woman who works for the Augusta Humane Society and can pick up the dog. It is safe to assume that Mickey was picked up and later fostered or adopted by someone else. Reality had the same concern for Mina, whom she’d adopted in March 2015 from a Shelter in Maryland. She considered the cat “her best friend and an ideal partner for movie-watching.” Reality’s family took in Mina while she was gone.
Reality has always harbored a love for animals. Her parents gave refuge to many strays, so she was surrounded by animals all the time. According to one of her friends, she once rescued an injured honeybee. During her interrogation, she confessed that she would have preferred a slideshow of people’s pets instead of watching Fox News blaring on the TV all day. Currently, she has two dogs, Frannie and Dobby. She also spends a lot of time with her family dog, Domino, cat, Fiona, and horse, Trouble, for whom she built a paddock when she came home after getting released from prison in 2021.
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