Cali Chronicles: The dogs have their day

There is a popular Jamaican expression usually used to describe a poorly supported event: 'three men and a dog'. Well, on Friday night, I saw four dogs - and a man - on a bicycle.

It was a gimmick of course, a creative way Cali natives have of attracting attention and perhaps a donation from generous passers-by in much the same way our window wipers do, only with a little more imagination.

As I was leaving the Pascual Guerrero Stadium not long after Christopher Taylor claimed the Boys' 400m title, I saw a large crowd gathered around a man on a bicycle.

There on the bicycle with the man were three tiny dogs sitting on the crossbar, with a fourth even smaller dog in a small basket.

They were all dressed in football jerseys in the colours of the Colombian flag and one was wearing a James Rodriguez shirt, Rodriguez being the Colombian star of last year's football World Cup.

In fact, the bicycle was an ode to the Brazil World Cup 2014 clearly stated in a painted bar with a miniature Jules Rimet trophy on the bicycle.

I found the whole thing hilarious and couldn't stop laughing as I walked away.

I've seen other examples of this kind of panhandling all around the city.

On my first afternoon, there was a young man sitting in the middle of the pedestrian crossing juggling a football while the traffic light was on red.

At another intersection, on another day, I saw a young man juggling pins, and three young boys dressed as mimes passed me on another occasion, and I could bet they were all headed to an intersection.

Crazy as it may seem, their acts are done in the middle of the street, but they leave as soon as the lights turn green and the traffic starts moving again.

Just another side of this city. Outside of Taylor's run, the dogs were the highlight of my evening. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but those dogs were killing it that night.