Mrs Bush, who runs a dog walking business, said she had heard that a cat had been seen falling from the viaduct a week earlier but had dismissed the idea that it was Gus.

BBC: Cat found six days after fall from Gloucestershire viaduct

They were thoroughly humiliated by Bush senior's attack dog, the late Lee Atwater, who used everything from the state of Boston harbour to the activities of Willie Horton, a murderer and rapist, to destroy Mr Dukakis.

ECONOMIST: A curse on both their houses

Det Con Boow said the dog then bit PC Bush.

BBC: Pit bull owner guilty over attack on Newham police officers

For the most part, however, the additional homeland attacks we all imagined after September 2001 - and which President George W. Bush once described as his greatest nightmare - are a story of the dog that did not bark.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

To be fair, they have sometimes tried, only to find the media pushing the debate off into semi-childish abstractions Mr Bush's rudeness to a journalist, Mr Gore's inventions about his dog's medicine.

ECONOMIST: Lights, camera, action