Rural health — it’s a dog’s life

I arrived in a dusty hot town to start a locum, and was greeted effusively by the resident dog, an enormous part-Alsatian. We became instant friends, but I realised, as he scattered the waiting-room patients the next morning, that this dog was not friends with everyone. He used his Houdini talents to escape and accompany me everywhere, and caused consternation when I entered the High Dependency Unit of the local hospital. He got into the hospital by hurling himself at the front glass doors. When I went for my evening walks, he amused himself by attacking the hubcaps of passing cars.