Where it began?
In a broad Yorkshire accent “eyup our Leena”, that’s where it all comes from! My uncle kept a stable of racing greyhounds and his favourite was a fawn named after his wife Leena. I was only ten years old when I first met them, so to me these were giant dogs, with great big flappy tails, but so gentle.
And then in 1999..
Some time later, we were considering a dog for a family pet, so a greyhound seemed like the right choice, my wife wasn’t as sure, however a trip to a racing kennels near Sheffield “just to have a look” resulted in us returning home with Holly, no lead, no food, no feeding bowls, erm exactly nothing… Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust didn’t exist at this time, however we had already been in touch with Kev and Mandy from the Lincoln branch of the National Greyhound Trust. They soon popped round with everything we’d ever need coat, book, proper lead, the works..
Princess Holly 
Holly doing the very rare greyhound ‘sit’ 
What happened next?
So a few weeks later Kev invites a few friends to Lincoln City’s Sincil Bank. It was November and freezing, but we all had a chat and eventually this group evolved into the standalone charity “Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust” Committee with a single aim to re-home as pets, as many greyhounds as possible.
Meanwhile our life with Holly progressed, little did we know how lucky we were, she was an absolutely perfect lady, always well mannered, totally relaxed with life, so much so a walk along the Viking Way on fireworks night was not unusual she never even flinched. Occasionally she would join me for a run, I’d run a few miles pick her up from home, take her for a run with a group of us, she’d run alongside “off lead” gradually dropping back to the last runner then come flying past to catch the guy in the lead. When we had done five miles or so, I’d drop her off at home, and carry on with my run.
Fred – not quite so angelic!
Our next grey was “Fred” – having had the absolute perfect princess hound in Holly, Fred was a total ASBO dog, we literally took him as he was the longest stayer in the kennels, he had absolutely no manners, no rules and was a rather large dog too.
The Fred tales are endless, basically he didn’t mix well, he ate whatever he wanted, whatever he could reach. Every time we returned home from an outing of any kind, our first thoughts were, what’s he been up to now? The shredded bed was pretty standard , we once found him with a bottle of Port in his bed, luckily though he’d removed the foil though he hadn’t managed to get the top off.
While walking Fred it was a case of staying away from other dogs because he would want to eat them and as a consequence he never went out without a muzzle, unfortunately it wasn’t just dogs… Hedgehogs were fair game, even with a muzzle he’d play football with them cutting his nose to bits!
I even took Fred out for a run one day, (on a lead) we got to the 2.5 mile point Fred sat down! That was it, he wasn’t going any further! In the end I had to carry him back and he wasn’t a lightweight either. That said with weeks of training, reinforcing rules, Fred gradually came round to our way of thinking…….and no matter what he did he was a handsome beast.
Fred, looking as handsome as ever! 
Poor Fred didn’t have a valid ticket! 
A half eaten collar – Fred’s handy work!
Our time with Lincoln RGT/Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust
During our time with the Trust, we tended to host the committee meetings at our house, there were plenty of laughs, lots of Greyhound talk, and the people have changed dramatically over the years, there are of course several constants, who have maintained the standards set out from the very start.
The charity has evolved alongside the way Greyhound racing has also changed. There is always a grey needing a forever-home, and while that is the case there will be a LGT here to help out.
Greyhound pups!!
Meanwhile our life with greys continues, five years ago we had the opportunity to take on two “Puppy” Greyhounds this is a very rare chance and we couldn’t decide between the two so guess what, we have sisters! Though in no way related to Holly or Fred these two do occasionally show their traits, but luckily more Holly than Fred.
We thought that getting puppies would mean totally unscathed adults, but oh no far from it, these two have the same scars as any Grey who has raced, simply too fast for there own good!
Sacha and Star 
Perfect bookends 
Like all sisters Sacha and Star behave perfectly with each other! 
Worn out pups! 
What’s that we spy over there?
Editor’s note
Ian and Anne are two of the unsung heroes at LGT.
As Ian says when we first set up a meeting in 1999 with a view to forming a committee of Lincoln RGT Ian came along and after that all meetings took place at Ian and Anne’s place.
When we became an independent charity in May 2004 Ian and Anne were happy to be trustees and have been ever since. Their support for Mandy and myself has been unwavering, but Anne, in particular, like any good trustee, likes to keep me on my toes by asking difficult questions and making sure I can justify any decisions I feel we should take.