If ever I saw a story crying out for a song thread...

Guard dogs keep a flock at prayer
By Richard Savill
(Filed: 20/11/2001)

FORTY parishioners spent longer than usual at prayer on Sunday when two guard dogs, trained to recognise only 20 people and bite anyone else, stationed themselves outside a church.

The Rev Peter Chicken's sermon at St Philip's and St James' Church, Cheltenham, had included a reference to Daniel entering the lion's den.

But when the service was over, his congregation preferred not to tackle the rottweiler and a mastiff roaming the churchyard. They had to be rescued by police who trapped the two animals.

"They were more ferocious than the lions," Mr Chicken said yesterday.

James Balneaves, 75, a chorister, was bitten on his buttocks on his way into church. "I could hardly sit down, but I sang the hymns," he said.

(c)Electronic Telegraph

RtS "Ain't nothin' but a guard dog...you done bit a choir boy, ain't no friend of mine")