I love your approach to commenting, including taking your time - it's what I like to do too, neither feeling rushed myself, nor that the other is rushing to answer back :D.

And thanks for this comment of yours, I laughed at the TL;DR bit :).

I can’t imagine what was going through your young mind when you saw that dog’s teeth clutched to your friends arm

I'd like to know too....frankly, I suspect that he was bitten first and I just stood rooted, frozen to the spot. If I had been bitten first I'd've been screaming and wouldn't have this freeze-frame memory as my attention would be elsewhere. I guess I didn't have the instinct to run away when I perhaps could've! .........interesting, actually never seen it this way until now.

And err, Shanti wanted to have a word. She's promised me to hit the 'reply' button when she's done. It won't be the first time she's authored stuff under my name, so I'll just hand over .......