Puppy love

AS TOLD TO BC PIRES

My name is Dominique Bain and I am a veterinarian who loves working with dogs and cats.

I hardly hear Bajans with the name B-a-i-n. In Barbados, it’s normally B-a-y-n-e. Whenever I hear of a Bain, they always say they’re from Grenada. A lot of my family is from Grenada.

I’m very proud to be from MALABAR, ARIMA! I lived there all my life, up until the time I left to go to Belize and Barbados. My mom Merlyn Bain moved to Trinidad from Grenada when she was nine. My dad Everett Bain is from Morvant. He passed away in 2019 and it was rough because I’d already took the blow of my [elder] sister’s passing.

My mom told me my dad always used to admire her when he passed her by the corner every day, waiting for transportation, her long legs in her miniskirt, her slim figure – and her big butt! He eventually shot his shot and it worked out. I’m the last of five children, the baby. And I behave like the baby ALL the time. My brother before me is seven years older than me.

I always used to joke with a work friend that he needed to find me a Bajan man ‘cause I love the accent. I didn’t think he was taking me seriously because, well, I wasn’t serious. And then he introduced me to my boyfriend Pierre Thompson-Lewis, a graphic artist. It wasn’t supposed to be anything. But that was 2016 and now we’re in 2022 and I live in Barbados with him!

I grew up Roman Catholic and always went to church. When my sister passed away before she turned 30, my faith was really shattered. But I kinda always felt this strong force – like God – was telling me not to sever my ties with him. I’m definitely not hyper-religious but I do think there is a superior being, something that has logic and reasoning above your own. That’s what God is to me.

I hated school from kindergarten all the way up to university. Primary school was Newtown Girls RC. I enjoyed it but I don’t mean the school part. I had fun and I’m not the most social person.

Secondary school was five years at St James Sec, coming all the way from Arima, every single day, my dad waking us up all four o’clock in the morning! We leaving the house by 4.45am. And, when it was time to travel, we had to get up even earlier again. I HATED it.

After St James Sec, I went to Arima Comprehensive, now Arima North, and, yeah! I really enjoyed “this ghetto school in Arima” the most out of my whole student experience. I was the student council president and really got my chance to – I don’t want to say “shine”, that’s a weird word – to be part of something I think was a big deal, making change in a school that people looked down on.

The first week at Arima Comprehensive, they tried to burn down a classroom, they threw a dustbin out of [a second-floor window], they had fights. Rambunctious like that. Speaking up for students, showing the school was much more than a [place] delinquents come out of, shedding light on the students who excelled. I enjoyed that ability to serve the school. And I came out of that school with a distinction in chemistry!

I do not consider myself the most photogenic but, when I was younger, I wanted to be a model. And also a professional swimmer. And, to this day, I still can’t swim. Yet. And then, when I was about seven, I remember saying, “I want to care for animals.” And I just stuck with that. We always had animals in the house, dogs, chickens. I also saw the harsher side of the way people mistreated animals. And I was, like, “This couldn’t be the right way to live!” I wanted to make life better for animals.

Everything isn’t cheap in this world. I would have loved to go to St George’s, Grenada, but I went to the School of Veterinary Medicine at St Augustine. People usually go to UWI for three years and then they’re out [but my course] was a LONG ROUGH five years. The subjects are hard. You’re tired, but you have to get up and study! For years! Different struggles at home. My sister getting sick in the middle of my degree. Some mornings, big, big woman in my 20s, all 23, 24, 25, I was crying on my mother’s shoulders. I tired! I don’t know if I have it in me to finish! My mother just pushed me, she was such a motivating force in my life. And it was worth it.

I OLD. I’m 30! Joint pain and stuff hit me already!

I have a love/hate relationship with exercise. When you start seeing the progress, I enjoy that – but actually exercising is hard work. I enjoyed hiking with a group called Trinbago Hikers. In Barbados, I do walks now, all over the island, everywhere. I feel like I’ve seen a good bit of Trinidad. But I feel I’ve seen ALL of Barbados!

It’s really sad to see the state of the crime in Trinidad. That’s one thing I don’t miss. I worry for my family a lot. But, in Trinidad, your dollar could go a long way – and I miss THAT! In Barbados, the cost of living is really high. However, I don’t think you could pay for Barbados’ beaches!

Anything you bring for me, I eating it. I love my belly so bad, I don’t think people understand!

I can cook. But I rather eat than cook!

For you to get me to sit down and watch a movie or a TV series, it has to be really really good. Also, I don’t like too much fighting. Or action. Or horrors. Pierre made me watch Us the other day and I’m still mad at him. Any half-hour comedy you put in front of me, I’ll watch.

On evenings, after work, if Pierre is late to pick me up, I just walk down to the beach and relax and watch the water. I really enjoy it. And I will enjoy it even more when I get learning to swim off my bucket list. I’ll join some swimming classes and learn.

Learning to swim is a matter of finding the time. I won’t lie, being a vet is a busy-busy job! I work from eight-to-five. There are consultations or treatments of hospitalised animals to be done in the morning time. It could run from simple things like vaccinations to blood-work, X-rays, ultrasounds. We function like hospitals because everything that could happen to a human could happen to an animal. And you have to make sure your patients are taken cared of before you leave for the evening.

The hardest part of being a vet, the part no one likes or ever gets used to, is losing the animals you wanted to save. Or when it’s time for an owner to let go of an animal because it’s suffering. It really breaks your heart. There were a lot of times I had to go to the bathroom and cry, just to let it out. The people love their animals. It’s losing a family member. I feel for them.

The absolute best part of being a vet is PUPPIES! Even if my day is going terrible, I see one puppy and it’s happy and wagging its tail, it fills my heart with so much joy! I love-love-love seeing little creatures! I feel it’s really bad that I didn’t say the best part of being a vet is saving lives but puppies trump EVERYTHING.

I’m having Trini-food Withdrawal Syndrome. I’m not a big doubles fan – I ask for barra and sauce – but I REALLY feeling for crab-and-dumpling. Trinidadians make the BEST dumpling. I haven’t got good dumpling in Barbados. Pelau! A good roti!

I try not to exclude Tobago so, for me, a Trinbagonian is a fusion of naughty and nice. Like when a pepper buss in a perfect callaloo. I think we’re a perfect blend.

Trinidad and Tobago is my happy place. It’s a sense of comfort. It’s home.

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