Heh, Donuel!

Steve Shaw, it really sounds as if someone or some people is/are letting dogs out to roam.

If I had my way, people would have to have a licence to own a dog - yeah, I know they do, and no, I don't mean like that. I mean only people who had the proven civility to live in society should be able to apply for such a licence and be examined for it.

For instance, a few years ago I met a particularly lovely lurcher on our rather traffic-heavy street. I took her in and found that she had an ID tag, but the number on it rang out. In the morning I rang again - it was a city council number because she'd been a rescue dog. The council staff said they'd ring the owner.

So I waited, and after a while I got a call from a sleepy-sounding man who said he'd let his dog out to have a trot around the night before, and could I keep her for a few hours more because he'd come home on a long flight the night before and needed more sleep! I was to drop her around, rather than him collecting her. Or I could just let her out and she'd come back.

It must be 10 years since this happened and I'm still raging!