COEUR d'ALENE - A policeman walks into a bar. He sees a woman in a zebra costume and says, "What's going on here?"

She turns to the policeman and says, "Talk to the flamingo."

It might sound like a joke setup, but it's just another day in the life of the Coeur d'Alene Hash House Harriers.

Members of the local Hash House Harriers (H3) club, known as a "kennel," dressed as animals during a Friday night pub crawl this summer as they raised funds and awareness for H.E.L.P (Help Every Little Paw), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the well-being of all pets.

"The officer said, 'If I hadn't stopped to find out what you guys are doing, I'd be thinking or wondering about it the rest of the night,'" said Coeur d'Alene H3 joint general manager and co-founder Mark Enegren, who was the flamingo. "If we're in town and we're going to be doing something really weird, we try to give them a heads up."

"We had a bat," said Anne Marin, the zebra. "He was trying to drink beer with bat wings."

The following evening, local H3 members, called "harriers" and "harrierettes," participated in their third annual Red Dress Run, where males and females alike donned red dresses and rambunctiously flitted through selected locations while soliciting donations for their cause. This year, they began and ended the run at Mik's in downtown Coeur d'Alene, frolicked on Tubbs Hill, raised $669 and collected 273 pounds of pet food for H.E.L.P.

"We get most of our donations on trail," Enegren said, explaining that donating to local charities is embedded deep in the H3 code.

H3 clubs, known as "kennels," are irreverent, rowdy, steeped in mystery and bound by tradition while maintaining fun atmospheres, altruistic spirits and never-ending yearnings for antics and adventure. Its members enjoy "hashing" - raucous running romps combined with bubbly beer, blazing trails and bellowing cheers. It all began in Malaysia 1938 when a group of British company men began a hounds-and-hares running club, and the tradition has grown ever since.

"Some people have tried to label us as a cult-kind of organization because we have this weird what we call 'religion,'" said Enegren, of Coeur d'Alene. "We have these weird rituals, but pretty much everything we do is, like, based on rugby behavior."

"It's more of a kangaroo court," added Marin, who is also a co-founder and joint general manager of the Coeur d'Alene kennel.

"Hashing" is a way for grownups to cut loose; H3 has been described as a "drinking club with a running problem." Adults can shed their normal lives and take on their hashing personas, complete with patches, trinkets and raunchy nicknames bestowed upon them by H3 peers. Enegren said he once hashed in Las Vegas with a judge, a coroner, a lieutenant and a sergeant from the local police department.

"When you're hashing, you're not that," he said. "I'm a retired cop. When we're hashing, it's not about whether I'm this or that, it's 'No, I'm here to drink beer and run around.' It's not about what you are in your real life, your 'Muggle' life. It's about everything that's not that."

On a typical hash, a hounds-and-hares type race is set, where one or two people - the hares - will mark the trail and run ahead of the others - the pack - and try to outrun them to the end of the trail, where cold beer, traditional H3 songs and a whole lot of fun await. Hares can set false trails, traps and decoys to waylay the pursuing mob.

"You show up and you go, 'Where has this been all my life?'" Enegren said. "Or you show up and go, 'Those people are really weird, I'm never going back.'"

They'll wear costumes, they'll dance, they'll use props, shimmy through tunnels, sled down hills, lumber or speed through wildernesses and do whatever is necessary to catch the hares and have a blast in the process.

"In my life, I've always done stuff like this," Marin said. "I've always had a few beers and put on a sombrero and ran around town. I've always liked silly clothes and the kilts and all that. Here I am, I was already a hasher before I found out about it."

The Coeur d'Alene H3 core group comprises about 30 people with many more in the Northwest who travel to hash with other kennels. Enegren said he estimates about 3,000 kennels to be active throughout the world, making H3 one of the largest running groups in the world.

"The people that I have met in the hash are some of the best people that I've ever met," Enegren said. "They're some of the best friends. Most hashers will bend over backward to help another hasher. We can go almost anywhere in the world and not pay for a room. We call it 'crash space.' Hashers can come here and they can stay with us if they need a place to say. It's just the people, for me. That's the biggest thing."

H3 is open to anyone 21 and older and to people of all types and abilities. To learn more, visit www.cdah3.org/index.html.