barking mad

Another item in to-day's paper - in addition to the alcohol one. A young man in Newcastle was being told by the local bobbies not to use bad language when he turned to some nearby barking dogs and growled at them instead. For this he was arrested, found guilty of upsetting them (the dogs, not the cops) and fined. The sentence was quashed on appeal. It reminded me of why I never never bark at dogs. As a young man myself I was doing the christmas postal round in a village on my bike. I passed a barking dog and barked back at it. I tell you I was tormented, chased and barked at by that dog for several minutes until I eventually managed to shake him off. I did not dare stop - and I was going up a long steep hill too.