Just the other night, Lizzy and I were out for her nightly walk (we usually take the same route through our complex, where we come out by one of the parking lots between two buildings).

As I was slightly in front of her, I turned to see Lizzy just approaching the big concrete step in front of the door to one of the buildings, when she froze in horror. There it was. A big white plastic garbage bag!
She stared nervously at first letting out two gasps of air, then immediately jumped clear over the large concrete step and sprinted away at break-neck speed for about fifteen feet, and in an instant, she then turned to face her adversary in a fearless robust stance and proceeded to bark like mad.

Now, this can be viewed in two completely different ways.

Firstly, by someone who doesn't own Bulldogs.
Such a person would think that this legendary couragious dog was simply scared to death of a plastic bag that someone had temporarily put outside of their door. But this of course, is not the case, as all of us Bulldoggers know.

This is what happened.

As Lizzy approached the big concrete doorstep (which to her would be the same size of the Vietnam Memorial to us humans), she immediately stopped, knowing that this was danger of the worst kind and very immanent. Her nervous gasps of air were actually her smelling the contents of this very suspicious object, which confirmed her initial instinct. Traces of Baathe party Iraqis, and the biggest pipe-bomb ever made.
Then, realising that she was standing in the most vulnerable place she could be in, she lept clear across this massive man made structure, using all of her Super-Bulldog strength, and couldn't slow down in time to push me to safety as she went past me. So, she immediately screamed at the top of her lungs, "Daddy...run as fast as you can and get behind me so I can protect you. NOW!!"

As I casually walked over to her, I knelt down to say, "It's OK, let's go home".
And so, we slowly meandered our way back to the house where she was given a treat for her very heroic act of bravery.

Ahh!, Bulldogs. What would we do without them?
Now if only I could get those "Iraqis" to dispose of their rubbish, because this re-enactment has now become nightly with the same passion.

By the way, 'Tis good to be back on the board.
All the best,
Lizzy's dad.