I sit here alone, looking all around
There’s no one about, not even a sound.
It’s night time you see, and it seems very late,
All I can do is sit here and wait.
Surely someone will come, and take me back home,
Why have they left me here all alone?
Did I do wrong when I ran my last race?
I tried my best, but I couldn’t keep up the pace.
Is that why they hit me, and kicked me about,
And called me bad names, and told me I was out?
I cowered as they tried to drag me around.
Why are they doing this? Because I’m a Greyhound.
I tried to say sorry, and lick at the hand
But that hand just grabbed me and threw me in a van.
They tied me to a tree and left me out here
And as I watched them drive off, my eyes filled with tears.
What did I do to them, other then give them my best?
They used to be pleased, and said I was better then the rest.
I tried to like them, in spite of their rough ways,
I was born a Greyhound, that is how we are treated most days.
Shut in dark, cold places, without another care.
The long cold nights were the hardest to bear.
So that is it then, they want me no more
And keeping me on would have been too much of a chore.
A new home for me will never be found,
And what was my crime, to be born a Greyhound.
Sue Stoddart.