Did a good deed for the day on Saturday for a pooch with ruddy features, stubby legs and a partially recessed head like Clive Anderson (if Clive Anderson were a dog) - I'm no dog expert, it could have been a mastiff, but its fur was a close-cropped and wiry dark brown with patches of white. He was clearly lost and distressed and I felt the impulse to help him out. He had run across two roads (that I had seen at least), sniffing keenly any stranger he came across and running into the front yard of every hosue that had one so he could ascertain if this was home. There was a fair chance he would be hit by car having two near misses. He (and it was a guy because of his balls) had no collar and might have slipped its leash while the master was in a shop, then going AWOL in search of his master. So we enticed him into our front garden and shut the gate behind him. The RSPCA helpline (automated voice) advised us to phone the council. This had to be done not on the QT, but on the emergency lineas everyone else had gone home. Minutes later two policemen turned up and I thought 'that was quick'. However, they were examining a flat tyre on their patrol car and saw the dog poking his its head through the railings of the gate and whimpering. They radioed to check the progress of the dog warden and then were on their way to Kwik-fit before it closed for the day. Meanwhile, I fed the dog some German ham that we had just bought from the supermarket before we met him and he gobbled that up in no time. The dog continued to whine when left alone as I observed from my upstairs flat window (landlord rules - no dogs in the house). He rattled the gate a lot and I feared he might shake the latch free. I went downstairs once or twice to pet him and distract him, but even then he still returned to the gate after a minute as if 'this is all fine but now I need to resume finding my master'. After about 10-15 minutes, the dog warden arrived to take him to the kennels in the hope that his master would retrieve him or, if he had been chipped, where his home was. The warden informed me that it was not illegal for a dog to be stray, only if it got involved in something like a road accident. And with this legal nugget delivered, she led him away on a soft cloth leash off to her van. I hope the dog fares okay in the end.