What you saying, dog?

AS TOLD TO BC PIRES

My name is Shane Sheppard and my dog Bailey goes everywhere with me.

I come from Maraval. We’re a big extended family, plenty cousins. But at home, it’s just four of us.

My sister, Savannah – Bailey started off as her dog, but she’s now the family pet.

And my dad, Scott, and my mum, Rachel.

I went to St Andrews and then I did form one at CIC(College of the Immaculate Conception).

I transferred to Fatima because, most of the time, the teachers wouldn’t come. At parent-teachers meetings, about four of the 12 subject teachers would come. Fatima boys were getting real homework all then.

So I switched. But I still didn’t like school. Not at all.

I played U-16 football for Queen’s Park Cricket Club but not for Fatima.

It was good but I didn’t really enjoy it.

School is the same thing every day. Is just boring.

I don’t have a favourite subject. Not even recess.

I’m doing principles of business, principles of accounts, technical drawing, geography, math, English and physics.

They are nice subjects. But I don’t like any of them.

I can’t wait until I’m finished Fatima.

But I don’t have any idea what I want to do after. Maybe go to university.

School makes my brain hurt. Too much information.

I don’t think I should be using my brain for that. I think I should be using

my brain to focus on whatever I want to do when I get older.

But I don’t know what that is. I never really thought about it.

But I really don’t think I should be using my brain for schoolwork.

I’m sort of passionate about football but I wouldn’t want to play professionally.

I support Chelsea in the Premier League.

I been doing go-karting about four years.

We practise in Wallerfield sometimes and racing is once a month. You gain points over the 12 races in the year and then someone becomes the champion.

First year, I raced half the season so I didn’t compete. Second year, I came third, third year, I came second, and then last year, I came first. And I’m on top of the

standings for this year.

I’m not in any relationship.

I don’t talk about those things. My mother says, to find out anything like that, she has to depend on my friends to sell me out. Which they do.

But I keep quiet about anything like that.

Until my friends sell me out.

I began fishing with my dad as a child.

I like to go fishing in a kind of like a pirogue on the north coast with a bunch of my friends.

I’ve caught a 200lb tarpon on a rod-and-reel. We have, like, a team, and we enter tournaments and finish in the top five, usually.

I listen to music.

But only when I’m showering.

I like Frank Sinatra, Bob Marley and stuff like that. My grandparents’ music.

My grandparents had dogs but we never had a dog before Bailey.

We had all kinds of other pets.Birds, guinea pigs, hamsters, tropical fish.

I had a snail as a pet once, named Gary, but not named after the police commissioner.

I had a big blue crab I brought home from Toco as a pet once but I forget his name. I used to tie him on a long string, like, 20 feet long, like how you tie goats.

After a month, my mum asked me to set him free in Toco.

We got Bailey two years ago. She’s a shih-tzu.

Bailey either sleeps in my bed or my sister’s bed but mostly my parents’ bed.

My mum says she’s like the third child we all wanted.

Except her.

Wherever we go, Bailey comes. Whenever you pick up the car keys, she runs to the front door.

When she was very young, she used to pee on my bed.

But now she’s very well-behaved. She jumps up on the furniture and lies down on the ledge of the window and looks out. My mum says she must have some cat

in her somewhere along the line.

The best thing about Bailey is when she comes up to you and wants to get lifted up. She’ll just lie down on your shoulder.

The bad thing is, she wants to play all the time. You’ll be trying to sleep and she’ll jump on the bed to start a game.

I stay up late at night. So I fall asleep during the day.

I get bored sometimes. And then I go out and lime.

I do not read at all.

I read Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

And I read a stock market book.

A Trini is a limer.

To me, Trinidad & Tobago means home. I’ve travelled to Guyana, St Lucia, Barbados. But Trinidad is home.

Read the full version of this feature on Wednesday at www.BCPires.com