Bajan's Tale: A Story About a Lucky Dog

By David G. Taylor

On a pleasure trip to Barbados, David and Robyne befriend a stray beach dog and Robyne decides he must come and live with her in America. Thus opens the story of the adventures of this “local” dog as he waits for the day when he can fly to Chicago and live with Robyne and David. Learn how he got his name—Bajan. Meet Basker-Ville Bajan’s worst enemy. Among Bajan’s local “friends” are Deedra Dread and Jeb the Kennel Master. Fly with Bajan and his companion Richard the Roach.

You will enjoy meeting Tyler—and Jezebel, Bajan’s brother and sister. And live with the ache and pains of illness, the joys of a three dog family and the incredible magnetism of “just a beach dog” from Barbados. Enjoy the recognition Bajan receives from friends and organizations.

Most of all feel the warmth and love and gratefulness of a lovely dog toward his parents and friends. He never forgets that he is a lucky dog!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 22, 2005
• ISBN: 9781463455514

David G. Taylor

David Taylor is a retired banker residing in Southern California. Married to an Australian retired flight attendant they have accumulated a family of three dogs~a beach dog and two beagles. David says three dogs are the perfect number for a dog family. Their interaction is superb. With three of them there is enough diversity to assure independence and when needed a formidable force to make their needs known. David’s purpose in writing this book is to provide those that read it with at least part of the joy that Bajan has brought to Robyne and himself. He says “Writing this book has been an uplifting event for me. It has enabled me to put into words the life of a creature that transcends the ordinary and that dog lovers should know about.” “Summoning all of my writing skills I could never do justice to Bajan’s story but here it is and I hope the reader enjoys it.”

Book preview

Bajan’s Tale

A Story About a Lucky Dog

by

David G. Taylor

© 2005 David G. Taylor. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

AuthorHouse™

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

COVER ILLUSTRATION BY ANN YOUNG, IDYLLWILD, CALIFORNIA

ISBN: 978-1-4208-1354-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4634-5551-4 (e)

Published by AuthorHouse 08/12/2022

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Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Bajan—Chapter 1

Bajan—Chapter 2

Bajan—Chapter 3

Bajan—Chapter 4

Bajan—Chapter 5

Bajan—Chapter 6

Bajan—Chapter 7

Bajan—Chapter 8

Bajan—Chapter 9

Bajan—Chapter 10

Bajan’s Story—Chapter 11

Bajans Story—Chapter 12

Bajan’s Story—Chapter 13

Bajan’s Story—Return To Barbados, Chapter 14

Bajan’s Story---Chapter 15

Bajan’s Story—Chapter 16

Bajan’s Story—Chapter 17

Bajan’s Story—Chapter 18

Bajan’s Story—Chapter 19

Bajan Story—Chapter 20

Bajan Story—Chapter 21

Bajan Story-Chapter 22

Bajan Story-Chapter 23

Bajan Story—Chapter 24

Bajan’s Story—Chapter 25

Bajan’s Story Chapter 26

Bajan Story—Tyler’s Demise Chapter 27

Bajan’s Story Chapter 28 Closing

Bajan’s Story—Epilogue

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my wife, Robyne Taylor who was

Bajan’s press agent, mother, nurse and chef. She had a dream of having

a dog just like Bajan and she fulfilled that dream daily with her boy. And he never

forgot how the Nice Lady kept her promise that some day he’d live with her in the

United States. She proved to him that yes, he was a lucky dog!

David G. Taylor              July 2, 2004

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The Family

Bajan, Jezebel, Tyler

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T he interest of friends and neighbors in my writing a book about Bajan the Beach Dog is gratefully acknowledged for it spurred me on to record the history of a remarkable animal. As in all things, the complimentary remarks of those who read the early drafts reinforced my resolve to keep at it until it satisfied me that it was reasonably complete.

My wife Robyne of course must be acknowledged as the principal aide in devising the story and helping me to tell the tale in both an entertaining and interesting fashion.

As cheer leader and prod, Larry Bischof, a real author, provided courage and imparted a high standard to the project. He would as yet seek improvements.

Jeanne Curtis proofed the book in great detail and corrected many an errant error and Jeanne Fogle and Victor and Margery Kirschman critiqued the book prior to it’s submission to the publisher.

The wonderful cover illustration is a water color by Ann Hogan Young of Idyllwild, California. She loved Bajan.

Finally, the photographs scattered throughout the book are the work of Robyne who tenaciously records every movement of her dog family and is equally proficient in storing the output in case of future need.

And finally the real inspiration of course was Bajan and the sheer joy of recalling and relating the events that shaped his life. It has truly been a labor of love!

David G. Taylor

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Bajan

The Patriot

INTRODUCTION

T his is a dog story—a story about just a dog—a mutt or as they’d call him in his home island of Barbados—a local dog! I’ll even tell you his name even though when we first met him we didn’t know if he had a name. And part of this story is how he got a name. But it’ll be easier to tell you about him if he has a name so—it’s BAJAN! Bajan means belonging to, a native of or made in—Barbados. There are Bajan citizens, Bajan rum, Bajan history and there is the local dog Bajan!

I’ll even tell you a little bit more about Bajan and his story. Bajan now lives in the United States with me (my name is David) and my wife (Mistress Robyne). We were lucky enough one day when we were vacationing in Barbados to meet Bajan and to eventually have him come to live with us in the States. But that’s all part of the story.

You should know a few other things about Bajan so that you can better appreciate and enjoy his story. We don’t know how old Bajan is but we think about eight years or so. He weighs about thirty pounds and is 2 ft. tall and 3 ft. long. He has a handsome coat of brown coarse hair and the front of his legs are bright white. He has limpid golden colored eyes with two bright white spots over them. And he has a brown nose and brown pads on his paws. He has sticky-up ears—one with a notch out of it, we think from a fight and a nice tail with a pretty white tip. His tail wags constantly—held high for normal happy times he wags hundreds of revolutions a day. He even has an unhappy—stressful wag—not so fast and the tail is only at half mast—but its always in motion!!

Well, that’s a little bit about Bajan—enough I hope to make you want to read his story and not so much that it spoils the tale.

Finally, the story is a true one even though between the lines the author has had to assume and embellish a bit—but if you knew Bajan, you’d believe every word!!

Bajan—Chapter 1

I t was a bright sunny morning in Barbados. A few hundred feet away the white sand started and ran down to the blue sparkling ocean and the quiet mini-waves that gently churned the sand as they washed ashore. There was a bit of a breeze that caused a barely audible rustle as it jostled the fronds on the coconut palms. Inevitably the quiet was shattered by the raucous crowing of the island roosters—so much a part of the beautiful islands of the Caribbean of which Barbados remains the crown jewel.

As the rooster crowed, Bajan opened an eye to check out the day. Had last evenings rain storm passed—yes the sun had dissolved the rain clouds. As he moved he was reminded of the sore ear and gash in this throat that were slowly healing thanks to his loving mom’s ministrations. A week or so before this beautiful morning, Bajan had gone down the beach looking for some food at a few of his favorite beach hotels. Unfortunately, one of the few real enemies Bajan had was a mean old dog named Basker-Ville. Basker-Ville was big and ugly—he had wrinkled jowls that dribbled when he showed his rotting teeth. His skin was the color and texture of an old army blanket. His body carried the ravages of numerous fights with other dogs as well as the occasional local farmer striving to protect his chickens from this evil dog.

And that very morning Basker-Ville had chewed through his chain and was roaming the beach looking for trouble!! And sadly for Bajan as he rounded a big rock he ran smack into the slobbering, growling fierce apparition and before he could turn and run Basker-ville had grabbed him by the throat and in seconds would have finished him off—except for an early rising little old lady tourist with an oak cane and an iron will that said big ugly dogs should not pick on nice little dogs and with that she unleashed a whirlwind blow with the cane that sent Basker-Ville flying through the air into a crumpled heap of ugly dogdum!

Saved from extinction, Bajan just ran as fast as he could for home and into the loving paws of his mother Esmerelda. On this beautiful morning as he awoke remembering his scrape with Basker-Ville he wished that he could have given that nice old lady some jump-ups and licks to say thank you. At home, Esmerelda had taken her boy to the water and let the salt cleanse his throat and his cut ear—and later she licked the wounds to further clean them and help them heal. And after a week, the pain was gone and the healthy skin repaired itself and Bajan felt pretty good about his life!

With both eyes open now, Bajan looked around the home that his Mom Esmerelda had made for her family namely Bajan and his two Sisters –Jenifer and Trixy. As soon as Esmerelda knew she was going to have a family she had started to look for a home. One day as she scouted the beach she noticed a very old row boat that was overturned in some grass not far from the beach and also not far from a small neatly kept house. She thought what a wonderful home this could be for her new family. For a few days she returned to this place to see if it might work out as her home. She observed that it was far enough from the beach so people rarely came near. She also examined the pretty little house and learned that it was occupied by a man and woman who were old and seemed very nice.

Finally one day she got up her courage and approached the house just as the old couple sat down on their porch for dinner. When they saw her they didn’t yell or shout—they spoke kindly to her and even gave her a scrap of food!!

Then the old couple noticed that Esmerelda must be pregnant and as they talked among themselves Esmerelda heard them say, I wonder if she has a home or shelter for her family?? When she heard this she barked and ran out to the old row boat—and then ran back to the old couple and then back to the row boat! Pretty soon they understood that she was asking if she could live under the old boat to have her family.

The old couple were thrilled to have this nice dog in their yard and they found some old blankets to put on the ground over an old canvas sail. And they brought some empty tin cans that would gather water from the frequent rains and the old man found some timber and made a platform that would be dry if there were a storm. Esmerelda was so grateful to the old couple that she went to each one and jumped up on the lady’s lap and gave her a lick and then did the same to the man. The lady said you make us very happy and you must have a name—we’ll call you Phoebe! So Esmerelda now had two names—but she was so happy she didn’t care—and she kind of liked the sound of Phoebe

And she loved her new home and her new friends!!

Bajan—Chapter 2

F eeling good—better than he had in quite a few days, Bajan decided that it would be all