Alison peered through the thick branches of a laurel while watching the family. Kneeling on her haunches, she adjusted the binoculars’ focus bringing the dogs into sharp relief. Sheletered in deep undergrowth from the hot midday sun the mongrel mother kept getting up to retrieve one of the youngsters - of which there seemed to be five - from a bid for freedom. The pups were determined to go and play in the fine weather but the mum was having none of it. She’d get them together again and then lie down, relaxing after what had probably been a busy night, only to have to get up again and repeat the task with another. Alison was surprised that there were five pups. They looked about a month old and she wouldn’t have thought the majority would survive so long. Still, who’s to know how many were born originally. She’d come across them almost by accident. True, she had been looking for an example such as this but hadn’t thought much of her chances. The protective activitities of the mother were amply evidenced by her treatment of the pups at the moment - keeping them out of the way of prying and possibly dangerous eyes until nightfall - but perhaps her work, combined with wind direction had allowed Alison to get to within a hundred feet without being heard or seen. A soft growl had alerted her to the young family but it was meant for a particularly recalcitrant pup, not her. For over an hour and a half Alison had been sitting watching them waiting for the dog to return. The mother was far too small to be responsible for some of the killings they’d got recorded and she was expecting a brute of an animal to be lying nearby somewhere - but he would come by at some stage. There was every indication that this was a permanent base for the dogs - the father must be in the vicinity.

Suddenly the bitch jerked her head and pricked her ears. Alison caught herself doing the same.
`Oh christ’ she muttered as a thought hit her - Ray was due to meet her here after his stop in town, Not now! Not Now! she stressed under her breath, but it was unlikely he’d be able to find them - they were a long way from the nearest path and in thick woodland. Perhaps it was the return of the Dog. Sure enough, around from the right of the little bower loped a handsome collie cross. Head and tail low, he was attentive to everything around him. His stride slowed as he picked up something on the wind and he waved his head from side to side, snout up, trying to fix a direction. He paused looking in alison’s direction, one forepaw inches from the ground, tail suddenly sharp. Carefully he took a step in her direction, sniffing all the time.

Two things sprang to mind for Alison. One, this wasn’t the animal they were looking for. He was a proud dog, in good health with a matted but luxuriant coat of mottled browns and black. He was nowhere near big enough to attack a large animal though, let alone a human, on his own. Two, he was however, big enough to attack her in the defence of his family - and he probably would. She began the slow and painful task of re-arranging her limbs from a state of near-atrophy into one of escape.

`Al! - Hey, Aalissoon!’ the cry came from the path several hundred metres behind her. There was no mistaking Ray’s strong voice. `Fuck!’ grunted Alison and she looked up to check on the dogs but was relieved to see the last puppy tail squirrelling under a nearby tree root, its mother anxiously nudging it down with her head whilst taking quick spot- checks on the direction of the noise.A white and brown nose twitching from beneath an adjacent pile of branches and leaves was all that could be seen of the Dog. Pleased for their safety, Alison quietly got up and gently made her way to meet Ray - excited at what she had to tell him.