Stand Your Ground

The streets of London aren’t paved with gold. Quite the opposite. They can be intimidating and unsettling. And Bob had his fair share of scares.

During our days busking and selling The Big Issue , he was always particularly aware of dogs. Not necessarily because he was scared of them, but because he knew he had to handle them carefully.

His instincts were so strong that he could tell if a dog was an empty threat. All bark and no bite. A bully, in effect.

It happened very rarely, but in those instances, he would confront them. He would hiss or snarl or even slash his paws at them. It always worked. The dogs themselves either froze, or they fled. I saw Bob reduce several seemingly scary dogs to gibbering jelly.

And whenever he did so, I was reminded that the best way to deal with a bully is to call their bluff.