Street Beat’s random trip this week through St Philip included encounters with an owner and her beloved tiny toy dog, a resident indignant about a neighour’s “careless” grass fire and beachgoers keen to keep a relatively secluded spot to themselves.
First up was Wendy Browne, a vacationing New Yorker who was spotted by the team in St Martin’s. What drew attention to the petite woman was the even more petite bundle she took from her bag – Lady, a teacup shih tzu puppy, barely weighing a pound and comfortably fitting in the palm of her owner’s hand.
Such breeds are much more common overseas, with people walking around with them in their handbags and entering restaurants, supermarkets and just about everywhere. However, this custom is less common here as Browne quickly found out.
“Many people look at us strangely, they just don’t understand the bond we have, it’s like having a child,” she said.
Even so, Browne said even more people do not even notice Lady and she had been many places with her little dog with no hassle.
Regarding her preference for the breed, she said: “A teacup teacup shih tzu will only grow to about five pounds. Small dogs are easier to maintain; as long as they have something to play with, they won’t destroy your stuff.”
Browne said Lady goes with her everywhere and the pair had actually travelled from New York together. She said they were headed back on March 21 and Lady was accustomed to air travel by now.
The next story is far less cute. A grass fire had begun in Kirton next to the home of a very
irate woman, who did not want to be identified. She said a neighbour’s careless actions were to blame.
“I have congestive heart failure but this morning that lady cross there burning stuff,” she pointed out. “How can you expect to burn stuff surrounded by grass and not realise it could catch? We dealt with it this morning but now it catch back up this afternoon again.”
Thanks to the helpfulness of another neighbour, Margo O’Neale, the fire was seemingly brought under control again, but there was no consoling the angry complainant.
“I home here with a friend and all of a sudden I hear ‘crackle, crackle’ and out here burning. If I didn’t have a 20-foot hose and a nearby pipe to run it to, all out here would be history. Suppose I didn’t home?” she said.
From burning grass to soothing sea breezes, the stop was a beach near the Crane, which the people there asked Street Beat not to mention for fear that too many people would descend upon it and destroy its placid beauty.
A group of tourists made up the majority of the people there when the team passed. They said they were from all over the world but had a connection with each other and as such planned a yearly expedition to Barbados.
Also enjoying the beach was Barry and Kathyann.
“We come here once in a while,” Barry said.
“It is not too noisy and a nice escape. Bajans don’t come to these places, only when they ‘maliciousing’.”
The pair agreed the beach was one of the best hideaways in Barbados but the only gripe Kathyann had was a lack of benches.
Another beachgoer, who declined identification, lamented, however, that the beach was not what it once was. He said the grape trees and the fat pork trees were already gone, removing a source of food and shelter from the area.
“Out here already ruined because somebody cut down those trees but it is still a place where you can have your privacy, although not as much now,” he said.
There are still plenty trees on the beach, just not those two varieties. He acknowledged that the beach was “kinda hard” to find and he liked that.
carlosatwell@nationnews.com