Guard Dog

Nevis has earned his way out of the dog house.

I was working late last night when he suddenly went berserk - barking and growling and trying to get out through my office door. I opened the door and he shot off into the back hall, where I noticed a shape at the window, and then heard a banging.

Holding Nevis by the collar I cautiously opened the door to find a very drunk lad swaying there - looking for directions to the next village. I was just telling him to get on his bike (less politely), when I noticed he was bleeding from a nasty cut above his eye.

Here's where my two personas had to fight a battle for control.

Persona A - self-righteous, slightly scared, my home is my castle, get-orf-my-land householder
Persona B - concerned, there-but-for-the-grace-of-god, Good Samaritan

Persona B slowly started to win out as he claimed he had been hit by a car, and had also hurt his leg (and his jeans were ripped in a non-fashionable sense).

All the while Nevis was bow-wow-wowing and growling like the vicious beastie he patently is not. I found this very reassuring, although I think the lad was too drunk to be scared of him.

By this time the racket had got Mrs B out of bed. We managed to get a phone number out of him, and called his girlfriend to come and collect him (he didn't want an ambulance, and didn't look that badly hurt - not convinced by the car story) - unfortunately she doesn't have a car. After a while it became clear that the quickest way to get him off our hands was to take him home ourselves, so off we went and returned him to his unimpressed girlfriend, him trying to have earnest and incoherent discussions all the while. On the way back, we came across a police car out looking for him - it appeared he had been disturbing other houses before us, but no-one else was crazy enough to open their door to him!

When the policeman heard his name he rolled his eyes - 'known to the police' but essentially harmless.

So after all the excitement we got to sleep about 2am, with Nevis in position, proudly guarding the end of the bed.