Here was my "blast from the past" posted 3 years ago on this forum:
The year was 1972 in a small village in Scotland near Edinburgh called
Loanhead, or to the locals, " Loanheed".
We were planning a raid on a nearby village, Wallyford. They had a greyhound
track and a few bookies, and we had a greyhound called " Lucky Jim" who
could run a bit and we were planning a betting coup.
The background to greyhound racing can be a bit devious. The first thing you
have to do when you have a good dog, is make it look bad!
This involves entering it into races and making sure it runs badly. The best
way to do this is, with no exercise and excessive eating of pies, not for
the owner, but for the dog! This can lead to problems, as one night we gave
Lucky Jim so many pies, he threw up in the motor {so beware}. The other easy
way, is to stand on its foot as you place it in the trap.
After a few bad races Lucky Jim was getting a better handicap mark, what
this means is, that it gets yards start from the other dogs.
We had eventually got it of the maximum start of 12yards in the No 6 box, on
the rails and close to the hare.
The next stage was to get him fit, which entailed he was given a brisk walk
morning and night the week before the race, and fed fillet steak, while the
owners fed on the pies. The final plan is the night before the race you give
the dog a "kill" This requires you go to the local pet shop and purchase a
nice furry rabbit, that looks just like the hare, that the dog will be
chasing the following night. So everything was in place, The job of
purchasing the rabbit was given to the youngest member of the syndicate.
After about an hour he returned to join the other syndicate members, who
were plotting our betting coup, in the grounds of the Loanhead Primary
school, this is where the kill would take place, as soon as it went dark.
What happened next was the terrible news, that the pet shop had ran out of
rabbits. However the young lad had used his discretion and bought a kitten!
After he was slagged to death by the others, it was suggested , what's the
difference to the dog? After a quick committee meeting in the bushes,
nothing was going to stop our "coup".
So the kitten was placed in a bag and rubbed against the dogs ear , the
theory of a "kill " is to let the rabbit slowly out the bag and the dog
sinks its teeth in the rabbit to taste the blood, he is pulled away and when
he sees the hare the following night, he will travel faster than ever to
catch it?
This was the theory, what happened in reality was something from " the Texas
chainsaw massacre" with screams, blood and total panic, which resulted in a
healthy pussy and a dog with a missing eye, after a rush to the vet.
The story does not end here, as we would not be denied our betting coup. We
got " Lucky Jim " patched up and did consider changing his name? especially
after he had lost an eye out of the deal?
It took about 6 weeks to be ready again, this time we put the money down,
the traps opened and Lucky Jim was 10 lengths clear at the first bend, the
only trouble is that he didn't go round the bend, he ran straight and ended
up hitting the grandstand.
There is no moral to this story, because its true, but I can only say we
shouldn't be greedy or cruel to animals, but most important remember to
check which eye is missing.
scotia
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