Our little dog Crix, named after the biscuit with its shades of brown that many southern Caribbean people consider their 'vital supplies', is singular both grammatically and dogmatically. Dogmatically, in this context, does not come from 'dogma' meaning the female progenitor of the dog in question, or the code of belief which stubbornly collides with karma to produce what in Hinduism (and Buddhism) is known as 'dharma', or the truth about the way things are and always will be.

In my case, while I believe what will be will be, things aren't what they were. My wife, Indranie, is in Guyana attending the funeral of her younger brother. It is a time of desolation for her and has been traumatic for the family. Even Crix seems to feel the loss, particularly since Indranie is not around to look after him and engage him in meaningful conversation, albeit in low tones, a technique called 'dog whispering'. The problem of having a singular and singularly playful dog in the absence of its whisperer is that, lacking patience and not being, in the animal minding sense, 'petty' or inclined to 'pettiness', I am a 'dog shouterer'.

Who let the dog out?

The worst part of the deal is that with only one canine on the premises, the plurality of the chorus of the Anselm Douglas calypso made famous by the Baha Men is reduced to the plaintive interrogatory refrain, 'Who let the dog out?' Me sah, is me who guilty sah, is me who do it.

The incredible part of it is that there I am, leash in hand, waiting every morning in the cold Atlantic breeze while Crix answers a call of nature which he did not initiate and for which I am the switchboard and the dial tone. Some mornings, I get a busy signal while he rummages around in search of whatever dogs seek out, which could be anything from the insubstantial sound of one hand clapping to the lizard which he is certain is lurking there under the twig for him to chase.

Other mornings, particularly when the cold bites through his shaggy coat, it is, 'hello, goodbye,' and back into the house. Night-time too he snuffles and shuffles as I undo his leash and take him outside. He keeps trying to pull the leash out of my firm grip which I tighten because I know if he escapes, I will never be able to catch him. Blundering around the bougainvillea would make me even more prickly than if I swallowed a case of Viagra and chase it with Cialis.

Inquisitive

Crix gets two meals a day. On those days when it is pure, unalloyed dog food from the big bag that we buy, he turns away in disgust. If my children even think of doing that to their food, Indranie would jump on them immediately and even I would join in with tales of poor starving children elsewhere in the world and stories of our deprived childhoods when we would have been glad for such luxury as broccoli or eggplant.

No such lecture for Crix. At the first sign of déjà food, Indranie fries an egg and mixes it into his menu. She saves bones and bits of leftover chicken, and even buys what in our day was a human staple, chicken backs and necks, for dogfood. Crix hangs out in the covered veranda during the day, is let loose into a spacious yard during the afternoon, and sleeps inside on a warm rug in the corridor between the kitchen and laundry room.

Crix and every other dog I have known are more inquisitive than the National Enquirer, more prone to investigation of exotic phenomena than UFO hunters. If our police pursued enquiries with the same zeal as Crix, every crime in the Caribbean would have already been solved, some before they were even perpetrated.

There is no creature on Earth more grateful than a dog. No animal in existence ever gets more mileage from a solitary act of kindness, love, affection or even indifference than a dog. Then there are those who describe women lacking in pulchritude as 'dogs'. They ought to be spayed or neutered.

Tony Deyal was last seen with his dog on a 'leash' or strap that attaches to the dog's collar and enables it to lead its owner where the dog wants him or her to go. Some dogs understand that if they wait patiently with leash in mouth when their owners come home from work or school, it would immediately make them feel so guilty that the walk is lengthened by at least 15 minutes.