I once had a dog...... a dog called Charlie. She was a big, beautiful, gentle and smart Ridgeback whom we all totally adored; despite her errant ways. When my boys and I get together we all have "Charlie" stories; I guess a lot of people have a truly special animal in their lives who holds the key to much remembered and enjoyed fun and laughter.

Well this is probably the first of many Charlie stories so while being one of the funniest it is also one of the worst!

Charlie (Charlotte) was exceptionally hard to keep inside the back yard. She was very strong and would barrel through, and I mean literally straight through anything that barred her way to whatever adventure she had in mind for the day. So it got to the stage where (pre restrictive dog laws) I would let her out for a romp at about 5.30am and call her back at about 6.00am before the runners hit the streets. She knew the rules and would often be back in the front garden just before 6.00am.

This particular morning I looked out the upstairs window to see our fearless lion dog stalking someone / something unknown on the other side of the hedge.

She was slinking along the inside of the trees and the hedges keeping a close eye on what - I couldn't quite see what interested her so intensely. But it turned out that her " prey" was an unsuspecting jogger.

Quite obviously she thought he was a lion and she was doing her duty by the family keeping the enemy at bay - silently.

The odd glimpse of the jogger showed him to be dressed most finely in pristine white shorts, beautiful expensive jogging shoes, and a crisp white top, similar to the ones with the crocodile motif, I think they are Ralph Lauren or could that be LaCrosse - I will have to wait for the man of the house to return so that I can ask him and make the appropriate correction. He also had on expensive wrap around sun glasses while plugged into an ipod. Quite the athletic dandy now I come to think about it.

So there he was jogging along minding his own business whilst being totally unaware that out of his eye range (but not mine) there was this dog very stealthily stalking him

Whilst I knew there was no way she would hurt him I was nearly dying with embarrassment because I knew that short of opening up the window and waking up the entire neighbourhood there was nothing I could do. I was too far away and time was running out.

Then she struck.

Straight out of the bushes, through the trees she went, shooting up behind him - and goosed him right up those beautifully ironed creases to where the sun does not shine - he yelled loudly and took off at speed while Charlie went in opposite direction shooting home as fast as she could; literally sailing over the back fence.

By the time I picked myself up off the floor and got downstairs to let her in I swear she was laughing fit to bust. To the best of my knowledge this particular jogger did not pursue his athletic endeavours in our street again. Something I never could understand.

Copyright a.a.gallagher 2008