Newcastle Herald columnist Paul Scott wrote about the term "dog act" on Monday.

Funny that, because we've been thinking about that exact thing lately.

We've used the phrase before without really thinking about it.

As Paul wrote, dog act is used to describe treacherous and cowardly actions.

"What a dog," is another term we'd sometimes use to describe detestable types.

Thing is, we love dogs. Mostly. We don't love the psycho ones. But then, they usually have psycho owners.

We agree with Paul that the decent thing to do would be to stop using the word dog in this way.

After all, dogs are man's best friend. And the use of the phrase "dog act" is inaccurate. Dogs aren't treacherous. They're loyal. And they're hardly cowards. They're actually quite brave, especially those ones that sniff out bombs. Oh ... and the ones that get all defensive when they see their reflection.

So we'd been thinking about what words we could use instead of "dog act" or "what a dog".

Then a couple of weeks back, a leech attached itself to the bottom of our ankle. We were soccer training at the time. The ball went into the bush. We retrieved it and the leech hitched a ride, attaching itself to us like ... well ... a vampire.

When we finally spotted it, we got quite a shock. This leech was as fat as a pig. Hang on, should we refer to a pig in that way? Well, pigs are fat.

Anyhow, that leech was fat and happy until we stepped on it and cut it in half. Blood splattered on the bathroom floor. Then we noticed blood running down our ankle. Some went on the carpet. So the leech got a bit of revenge, really.

When we looked at our sock, we couldn't believe it. The bloodsucker had bored a big hole through it.

The leech left quite a scar. Possibly a mental one. Definitely a physical one.

That leech sucked our blood for the best part of two hours while we trained, stopped on the way home for tacos and drove home.

We didn't feel the leech's bite at all. Apparently they use anaesthetic when they suck blood, so the victims don't feel it. What a leech act, hey.

That's it. From this day forth, in those phrases of concern, we'll replace the word "dog" with "leech".

We know, we know, it's not very catchy. No need to be catty about it.

Speaking of animals, the RSPCA Rescue Run is on now. You can run, walk, or roll 67 kilometres to help prevent animal cruelty.

Participants have two weeks to fundraise and reach the 67-kilometre goal, representing the 67 reports of animal cruelty that the RSPCA receives each day.

Money raised from the rescue run will help RSPCA inspectors investigate cruelty reports.