The postie who stepped-in to help three frightened children as a "medium-sized bull mastiff dog" barked and leapt at them in a Hastings street last week knew it wasn't "ferocious or vicious."
But Kathy Jones, known as "Kazz" to workmates at the NZ Post Hastings mail centre, knew 12-year-old Breanna McRae and young cousins Paku and Kahu Whitehead wouldn't have known that, and it was all about helping the children when the incident happened in Grove Rd, Mayfair, last Wednesday.
Yesterday, she told Hawke's Bay Today of how she called on a combination of postie aggressive dog training and her own knowledge from owning and training dogs, with the advice of her Maori language tutor still ringing in her ears: "The children are our future."
She believed the dog was confused and trying to get back home, but was agitated by another dog on a lead, when it began barking and leaping.
"I've been brought-up with dogs, and I've bred dogs," she said.