An anecdote for Thursday, #1.

Years and years ago a friend of mine lived in Fulham and I'd often stay over at weekends if I'd been out on the town.
The landlord of the flat also owned the shop below and another house across the road which he was renovating with the intention of renting it out at exorbitant rates to people who could ill afford to do so.
This man also had a dog. It was a pedigree Doberman, aged about three years old, and although many people thought the dog was fierce, it was in fact soppy as a Mills and Boon story and daft as a very daft brush.
The owner was an arsehole. No other way of describing him without being too rude, but he was the type that thought having wads of cash, a big car and a fierce dog made him a Big Man. The only thing big about him was his waistline, and he was also a bully to boot, especially towards his poor dog.
Most of the day, the poor thing would be chained to a safe in his house with only a bowl of water for company, and the chain wasn't even long enough to enable the doggy to stretch his paws properly.
On the occasions that the man took the dog into his shop, he'd think nothing of teasing it and one time squirted lighter fuel up the poor animal's bum
I'd made up my mind to contact the RSPCA but before I got a chance to do so, the man took the dog to the nearby park.
The dog looked forward to his walkies big time, as it was the only chance he got to run about and enjoy himself, and if the owner was in a particularly good mood, he'd even throw a stick for him which the dog loved to chase.
One fine day, the owner took the dog to the park and after a while, threw the dog a stick.
The dog ran after the stick, got to where the stick had landed, and simply carried on running.
It ran.

And ran.

And ran some more.

And then it ran out of the park and off in the general direction of Chiswick, never to be seen again.

I can't say I blamed it one iota, and if anybody reading this found and adopted a Doberman back in the late 80s, give him a pat from me, akay?

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PS. Please give a big round of applause to Scaryduck for holding the fort admirably yesterday while once again my intermanet connection failed.
I blame the rain.