A Ferocious Dog

.
Our dog, Dopey, could be very ferocious. She was well aware that it was her job to protect us and our property from all threats, and she took her job extremely seriously. However, sometimes her conscientiousness got her into trouble.

Dopey Deals with Geese

We were living in a villa on a farm outside Tripoli. I was sitting on the front porch having tea. Dopey was sitting in her usual position at our garden gate, just waiting for intruders to appear so that she could tear them to pieces.

And intruders did appear, in the form of a dozen geese that waddled past our gate. Dopey hesitated for a moment and the geese disappeared around the side of our house. Then Dopey decided they were up to no good and raced after them. I couldn't see what happened when she met up with them but there was the most awful racket for a minute or two.

"Oh, no," I thought. "She's killed some of the bloody geese. Our landlord is going to be furious."

Then Dopey reappeared. She limped into our garden, staggered up the front steps and lay down under my legs.

After that, whenever the geese appeared, Dopey would immediately leave her position by the front gate and find some urgent matter to attend to inside the house.

Dopey Meets a Mother Cat

Our third house in Libya was a modern villa surrounded by a seven-foot-high wall. Whenever we went away on an overseas trip, we would take Dopey around to a friend's house and would pick her up when we got back.

After one trip, we picked Dopey up and drove to our house. I opened the gate. There right in the front garden was a small cat with three newly-born kittens. Dopey couldn't believe her eyes. The ultimate enemy had moved in while she hadn't been there to protect our property. She made a blood-curdling snarl and hurtled over to the cat.

The cat stood up and arched her back. Dopey stopped a foot away from her. The cat hissed. Dopey backed up. The cat hissed again. Dopey moved behind me and Sue.

To cut a long story short, Dopey decided that the only decent thing to do was to let the cat raise her kittens in peace. So she kindly volunteered to spend the next couple of weeks living in the back garden.