Hound of the Robertovilles

Dark interesting little places. I have had a fascination for them ever since I was a boy ~ I had had a slight fear of the dark when I was young, that was until I was walking home one day and all the electricity in the town went out. A new moon was out but the heavy cloud cover meant that I had to negotiate winding alleys and streets in complete dark with no light. My house at the time ran alongside a school field, and I was at the edge of the lane that ran to my house when a rottweiller jumped out at me ~ the first I knew it was there was when it's jaws were a couple of inches from my face. There has hardly been a time when I have been more scared. It had jambed it's head through the fence and the only reason it hadn't been able to get to me was that it's neck was too thick to go through the fencing. It did that ferocious attack dog thing of snapping its jaws in my face while scrabbling desperately to get at me. I have never run 200 yards as quickly as I did that night, it reluctantly pulling itself away and running a large circuit around the school field angling back towards me for another go. The last I saw of the dreaded hound was a break in the cloud cover and it silhouetted briefly...

Samuel Taylor Coleridge sums the last vivid moments of the event for me...

Like one, that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread.
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.

The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner

An event that maybe for most would have put them off dogs and dark places for life, but I like to make an effort to get to know the dark corners and dogs I come across ~ and for them to get used to me.