Smith and his dogs compete for the meagre food he purchases with his pension, but he is not prepared to let his dogs go because “they help protect de property.”
The old man presented a sad picture when Stabroek News visited his Lot 287 North/East La Penitence home. He sat in the wet, overgrown yard dressed in his underwear with his scraggly dogs around him. The place he calls home has no windows. Crocus bags cover the openings where windows once were. The walls are broken. Parts of the roof and flooring are missing and the building can only be accessed by way of a precarious makeshift ladder with some of its steps missing. This same ladder has caused him to fall one time too many, injuring his feet. He has been unable to make it up into his home since last week Friday. Wasps have also taken over the building and have built nests inside and outside.
Stabroek News had received a call from one of Smith’s neighbours who indicated that the man had been sitting in the damp yard for days, and that there were large rodents running around with the dogs. The neighbour had called the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) for an ambulance to assist Smith, but was told that it had been involved in an accident. The neighbour also made several futile efforts to contact officials at the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security.
“I don’t want to leave my dogs. They protect me because people always coming and thieving things,” were the first words out of Smith’s mouth when this newspaper visited his home last Tuesday afternoon. This reporter was forced to stand beyond the makeshift gate because the five dogs appeared vicious and were rushing at anyone who attempted to enter.
Smith, who appeared very lucid with a strong voice, made several attempts before he eventually got up and approached the gate and it was at that moment that animal activist Syeada Manbodh arrived.
Manbodh, when approached, told this newspaper that she had taken Smith to his home on Monday after she saw him sitting in a pool of water in front of the 1763 Monument. She decided to return the following day as she was concerned about him and his dogs.
“I just saw him sitting in the pool of water and everyone was passing and no one stopped. So I stopped and he said he could not get up and I helped him up and he directed me to his home,” she said.
Smith entered his yard but apparently only managed to remove his wet clothing. He remained in the yard throughout the night. On Tuesday, Manbodh took some food for him and his dogs but he was more concerned about feeding his precious animals.
He related that he had walked from his home to a friend’s house in Kitty on Monday morning and was returning home when a heavy shower of rain came down.
“The rain was heavy and the vehicles passing and splashing up water and one passed and a big splash get me. I just fall down and couldn’t get up,” the man said, explaining how he came to be in the puddle of water.
Thirty-six years
Smith told Stabroek News he had been living at the location for some 36 years, part of which he shared it with his sister, Celestine Robertson, who died ten years ago.
“I living here since [late President Forbes] Burham move we from the sideline dam and bring we here. I use to work as a mechanic then at the Ministry of Housing,” Smith recalled.
As he spoke and attempted to steady himself, he kept insisting that his dogs must be fed and that they should not be left alone. As the food was being given to the dogs, he pointed out to Manbodh that there was another dog in the house. He called out for “Sarah.” Immediately, a skinny dog appeared at the door but she appeared too scared to use the makeshift ladder. In the end, the food had to be pushed through the door to her.
Smith said that after he grew old persons started stealing from him and he had to get the dogs to protect his property since he has no family to take care of him.
“I have two daughters who dey mother say is me own but dem don’t have no time with me,” he said.
“Is the junkies who thief out he things but now nothing really in deh to thief,” said one of the few residents who had gathered outside the man’s house while this newspaper was there.
Smith said that he once owned 19 dogs, as he wanted to keep people off his property.
“I don’t know if it was 19 dogs,” a female resident said. “But it was a lot and they were vicious and use to rush out at people and bite a lady one day. You can’t pass here in peace.”
If Smith is to be believed, most of his dogs were killed by persons in the area and the fact that he had so many vicious dogs means he and persons in the neighbourhood were not friends.
Mr Smith’s lily
But there are always lilies growing in trenches and Smith’s lily came in the form of 16-year-old Tanisha McCalmont. The young woman, according to Smith, always stopped and talked to him and she would take him things to eat whenever she could afford it.
“I would take whatever little money I have and buy juice and so on for him. Whenever my aunt give me my pocket piece that is what I do with it,” McCalmont said, as she concentrated on dressing Smith in a shirt and pants she had taken from her home.
The child said she had never entered Smith’s yard because of the dogs but he would go to the fence to collect whatever little she took and he sometimes went out on the road to talk to her.
“We would talk about his life and so on,” McCalmont said, “I living here about five years now and this house always in this condition. I always say when I grow up I want to help old people so I just couldn’t pass and not stop and see how he was doing.”
It was her pleading that finally convinced Smith that he needed medical attention and after he was promised by Manbodh that she would ensure his dogs were taken care of, he no longer resisted being taken to the hospital.
It was McCalmont who sat with Smith at the GPH until late Tuesday night. She stayed until he was admitted.
She visited him the next day and explained to the nurses the conditions under which he lived and suggested that he be placed in the Palms.
“But they tell me that they have to get a relative because they can’t just put him in the Palms just like that,” she said.
But for now Smith has a warm bed to sleep in and is being given three meals a day, a basic necessity he has not been afforded for many years.
“When I went and see him he said he body in pain and that he cold because he had on pampers alone but he seem okay otherwise and he was happy to be in the hospital,” the young girl said.
She begged her male relatives for clothing and took them for her friend, who was still in hospital when this story was completed on Friday, and she promised to visit every day until he leaves the institution.
“He does not seem to have any family. I know he has one friend but somebody has to go and see him so I would continue to go,” she said.
