Hero the greyhound (Simon's Hero)

Hero the Greyhound (Chapter 7)

Hero slowly hobbled from his box bed to the kennel door and pushed his long, pointy nose through the wire mesh fencing. He could hear the noise and bustle and he knew it was Race Day. He was on his own in the kennel; Nods had finally retired and the lucky thing had been adopted by a nice couple with two children. She was six and a half and although she was still quite nippy, she wasn't as fast as the new youngsters and hadn't won a race for some time. There had been much excitement the day they came to collect her.

"What shall we call her?" asked the dad "I can't stand in the park and shout 'Wood Noddy' can I? That would make me sound like a right ninny."

"How about 'Black Beauty'?" suggested the mum "I'm sure, once we've given her a good brush, her coat will shine and she'll be a proper beauty."

"Nah" said the dad "Black Beauty was a horse; that would just be confusing."

"I know!" said the daughter "how about Artemis? Wasn't she the Greek goddess of hunting or wild animals or something?"

"Ooh, get you" said her brother, digging her in the ribs "with your massive knowledge of all things Greek, you little swot"

"Daniel, don't be horrible to your sister" said the mum "at least she's learning something at that posh school."

"We could call her Artie or Missy, for short." said the daughter

"How about Cleopatra?" said the dad "she was dark skinned and had black shiny hair, we could call her Cleo for short."

So, Cleo it was. They signed the adoption papers, promising not to sell or give their new pet to anyone else, made out a cheque to the greyhound adoption society, to cover the costs of the adoption and the dad lifted her up into the back of their enormous 4 x 4 before cheerily waving goodbye to Jenny, the volunteer who worked tirelessly trying to find homes for the many retired racers. She hoped things would go well, it could take time for a greyhound to learn how to become a domestic pet and too many people had returned their dogs recently, citing divorce, moving house or allergies. Jenny knew that greyhounds, along with poodles made great pets for those people unfortunate enough to suffer with allergies. She had adopted a few out to people with asthma and never had any problems but she patiently filled in the return forms and sadly walked poor old Grey Gordon back to his kennel where his pal, Saucy Sandy, wagged her tail to see him again.

Hero watched as his own kennel pal walked away towards the family's car. She turned and looked at him, she'd never been a very demonstrative girl and a few people had said they thought she was 'boring' when they came to find their perfect pet. Nods wasn't boring, she was just typical of a racing dog who hadn't known much affection; Hero was going to miss her terribly. The kennel door opened and one of the kennel workers brought in an enormous blue female. Sunshine Sarah's name didn't really suit her, she was rather domineering and Hero thought she looked quite fierce. She sniffed around the enclosure, ambled over to the bed box and, totally ignoring him, settled down for a sleep. He already missed Nods, she had been gentle and friendly and always pleased to see him. Sarah, on the other hand, didn't like him one little bit and in the weeks to come, he would find out that she wasn't very patient either. His injuries had slowed him down and when he took too long to get down from the bed box, she would nip his rump to try and hurry him up. Hero soon learned to let her go first.

The noise from the yard was getting louder but he knew nobody would slip a collar over his head and walk him to the waiting van. His racing days were over and he felt so envious of all the youngsters trotting eagerly across the yard, barking and jumping up and down with excitement. Hero felt rather depressed and he wandered back to the box bed, knowing he had a long wait until evening when everyone would arrive back, exhausted, after giving it their all at the track. He listened to the van pull out of the yard, heard the brakes squeal as it reached the T-junction onto the main road and settled down for a nap, with one eye on the wire front of his kennel door, just in case any of the kennel hands had stayed behind and might take him for a gentle stroll through the fields at the back of the kennels yard.