We have quite strict laws here regarding loose dogs. We have a piece of legislation that was brought in a few years ago - The Dangerous Dogs Act. In it, certain breeds of dog have to be muzzled and owning Pit Bull Terriers is illegal. It still doesn't stop people doing it though and this year several Pit Bulls have been seized and destroyed.

The vast majority of people keep their dogs under control. Very few roam wild now. Any that do are usually dogs who have managed to escape from their homes and are usually found fairly quickly. We had an incident like that two weeks ago. My son was putting out the rubbish for collection when he came running back in to tell me there was a white dog that was limping badly (this was 1130pm). I went out to have a look and sure enough, there was a Retriever. Obviously someone's dog. Poor thing looked totally disorientated and was having great difficulty in walking - his left leg seemed to be damaged in some way. It was dark so we decided to ring the RSPCA (we didn't recognise the dog) and stay with the poor chap who was shaking like a leaf but appeared to be well cared for and very friendly. He did have a collar on but no name tag. Eventually he stood up and decided to follow us into our house. We kept him in the hallway - and what a lovely dog he was too. The RSPCA inspector came after about an hour and she agreed that she thought he was someone's dog who'd escaped and got lost. We were just about to put him in the van when a young man came running up claiming the dog (who by now was tail wagging furiously). Turned out that the dog suffers quite badly from hip displasia (sp) and as it had been a warm evening the people had left the kitchen door open so the dog could go sit in the back garden. Their garden slopes quite steeply and because of the dog's disability (and they thought the front gate was closed) they didn't think he would climb the fairly steep part out of their back garden. They thought the dog was still in the garden!

The reason I didn't recognise the dog was that they had only just bought the house and had only lived in our street for a little over a week. Definitely a new way to meet your new neighbours As it turned out, had the RSPCA taken the dog he was microchipped so he would have been reunited with his owners fairly quickly. Alls well that ended well - and we've made some new friends - especially the four-legged one