“if you are ever surrounded by wild dogs”

That last post made me think of a story I once heard in Beirut from a Lebanese gentleman (and pardon me if I’ve told this story here before). It’s an interesting tale in its own right, and may also come in handy someday.

Cairo has its share of packs of mean street dogs. Once in awhile, especially late at night, you’ll catch sight of one of these packs, and obviously it can be a bit scary. I’ve never seen any in Zamalek, but near downtown it becomes increasingly common.

The Lebanese guy I was speaking with told me he had visited Cairo once. At 2 or 3 in the morning he was walking alone on a side street near the Sayeda Zeinab metro station (maybe 6-8 blocks south and a little east of Tahrir Square).

A pack of street dogs surrounded him and began closing in, growling. He really thought he was going to be attacked, but suddenly thought of a desperate strategy.

He rolled up the newspaper he was carrying, decided which dog looked the weakest, and attacked it pre-emptively with the rolled-up newspaper.

Amazingly, it worked. All of the dogs ran away.