Alec Todd - Legend
When I decided to write this article I was stuck for subject material, would I use excerpts from my old hunting journal? or some of our foxing exploits from years gone bye. A thought then occured to me looking at my avatar pic and then it hit me there was all the material I needed auld Alec Todd. Now Alec is an old friend who's in his 70's now and I'm sure he would be the first to tell me not to bother writing about him as he was nothing special. You see that was the kind of guy Alec was unasuming and modest to a fault, but far from ordinary. Alec was a miner most of his working life which as you can imagine was a hard way of life and you had to be able to hold your own in this environment. As I said Alec was a quiet unasuming bloke but you riled him at your peril. Standing at over 6ft with hands like shovels and a lean muscular frame many's the ned that ended the night on his arse if Alec thought he was taking liberties with him or anyone in his company. There was a rumour that Alec had done some bare knuckle stuff in his youth but he would never go into it and would only smile or wink at you and say "no me son" but I digress. Alec's passion was his dogs a wee non-discript JRT type with sticky up ears and a tail called Kim and his lurchers, Buck, Glenn & Belle. But more of them later.
I remember one day many years ago being out with Alec and the dogs and his terrier (Kim) went to ground and we sat and waited for it to come out. Hour after hour passed and the light began to fade so Alec decides that we will have to dig the dog out, problem being we had no spade or locator on the dog, "nae problem son" say's Alec you go get a spade and I'll start moving some of this debris. Now to set the scene so you get an idea of the task in front of us. This wasn't the run of the mill rabbit burrow no, this was one of those big giant orange type rocks that are common round the old coal bings. So of I go for a spade returning around an hour later with some supplys, torches and a pick and shovel for the task ahead. Only one problem no Alec! so I'm looking around but there's no sign of him I'm whistling and shouting but still no response and I'm thinking the auld gits gone home. Now these were the days before mobile phones so there was no way of checking on him until I got back home. So I flick on the torch to have a look about me and notice that the rabbit hole has got considerably bigger and theres a big pile of rubble around it almost like there was a giant badger at home. Anyway I shine the torch into the hole and about 3 - 4 ft in I can see a pair of wellies and hear shuffling noises and grunting. The old buggers only gone and tunelled into the hole for the dog using a old piece of slate and his bare hands(I did mention the hand's being like shovels). So I sit down and pour myself some hot coffee and by this time there's a big yellow moon in the sky and the tempreture is hitting the freezing mark and the steam from the coffee is wafting toward the hole where Alec is. About 20 minutes later Alec emerges with the dog both as black as coal and none the worse for wear. I'm like, why didn't you wait? what if there had been a cave in or something? Alec just looked at me and smiled and said "I've been in tighter spots than that young fellah"! At that I just laughed, it's hard to stay angry at the man for any length of time, and you cant question his devotion to his dogs, not many men would have hung around, let alone dig to their dog in freezing weather with their bare hands, and not bad for a man in his 60's. So we finish our coffee and head back home for the night sharing some gossip and general chit chat and laughing at the things we do for our dogs.
Alec's devotion to his dogs was only matched by his ability to train them. I never in all my time of knowing the man did I see or hear him raise his voice or hand to his dogs, he was what I suppose you would call a natural. When we lamped Alec never used a lead or slip preferring to have them walk at his heel. His dogs had loads of collie in their mix which may explain how he got them to the standard he did but I think it was more to do with the nature of the man, some people are suited to certain types of dog's but Alec just seemed to bond with all his animals no matter what the cross. Buck was his first lurcher a bitsa type but with lots of collie in his blood that was brother to the bitch I had at the time. The dogs came from a litter of 6 that were distributed between 5 equally enthusiastic tyro lurchermen and added a bit of competativeness to the mix. As the pup's grew so did the boasts from everyone, "my pup will do this" "my pup will do that" and the enevitable jibes of "your dogs a monkey" whenever training would go awry. Funnily enough Alec never got involved in any of the banter about who's dog would turn out the best he just laughed and shook his head. In fact thinking about it now if memory serves me we hardly saw him at all that first year we had the pups in training.
The first year seemed to fly by all to quickly and the time was fast approaching when we could really start getting out and doing some serious work with the dogs. There had been the odd foray out with the lamp and during the day with the ferrets and the rest of the pack to get the dogs well socialised but as the winter began to take hold it was time to get down to the serious buisness of proving who had the best dog and pride was at stake. So a lamping trip was arranged up along the East coast of Scotland and five of us crammed into the back of an old bedford van with our dogs and set of for our version of the gunfight at the ok coral. So after being dropped of at our various locations the time for talk was over and it was down to the buisness at hand. The conditions were perfect for an October evening with a strong gusting wind blowing across the North Sea whipping sand and spray into my face. I got of to a flyer with my dog taking her first 3 rabbits with consumate ease then disaster struck, after missing a couple of relatively easy slips she came back from her last run holding her back leg up. After a quick examination it was clear that she was finished for the night and a visit to the vets was on the cards for the next day. So I headed back to the van feeling quite dispondent that all my efforts and hopes for the evening had come to an abrupt an unexpected end.
One by one the others trickled back to the van each loaded with varying amounts of rabbits. My 3 gained at a cost, next
one back bag bulging, I look on enviously as he drops the rabbits one by one on the ground 12 in total. Contestant number 3 arrives a little later, 6 drop to the ground and the gloating begins. Contestant number 4 turns up and another bulging bag hits the ground 14 this time and the bragging rights really start to kick in, then someone mentions that Alec has still to turn up, we could still see his lamp in the distance and we waited in anticipation for him to arrive. I suppose we had all kind of dismissed Alec out of hand as a serious contender as we had hardly seen him the past year so and thought he hadn't been doing much with Buck, I guess we should have known better. Anyway Alec eventually comes back to the van and he's got one of those game carrier things over his shoulder and there's 6 rabbits either side of it throws it on the ground. Most of the guy's congratulate him but contestant number 4 goe's into overdrive and starts doing one of those stupid wee dances and giving it the "Ali" I'm the greatest stuff. Alec picks his moment and suddenly speaks up quite forcibly which kind of startled us all, as I said earlier Alec's one of the most quiet guy's you could hope to meet. "Sit on yir arse son" he says and goe's into his pocket and pulls out another rabbit, thats 13 now, then another, a tie I hear you all say, but no Alec aint finished yet. Another pocket is opened and another two bunnies hit the ground, 16 in total, and we're cheering him and clapping him on the back calling him a fly auld bugger. But Alec still aint done, he clicks his fingers and Buck lies down and Alec walks of back into the night. Buck meantime is doing one of those wee victory rolls on the sand and enjoying the attention he's getting. Shortly Alec returns and he's got one of those small back packs slung over his back and empties the contents on the ground another 8 rabbits and a hare for good measure. Oh did I mention contestant number 4 had stopped dancing by this point?
On the way back home the banter was good I got of quite lightly due to the injury to my dog but contestant number 4 got it big style. Alec, well he dosed off and had a big assed grin all over his face. Now your probably thinking what a fuss to be making over some bunnies and why so competative? well this was most of the guy's first lurcher and I think the competition among us drove us on to have better well trained dogs and there's nowt like a wee competative edge to make it an enjoyable evening I say. We were also much younger back then and the slagging was all part and parcel of owning a Lurcher. I had many enjoyable days and evenings in Alec's company and learned a lot about dog's and training from him, sadly a few weeks later Buck was killed on the carriage way chasing a fox and Alec took it quite badly. We all lost dogs that season some to injuries and others on the roads that criss cross the estate we hunted on. But you dust yourself of and start again because its the thing that you love doing and thats the part the anti's will never understand. Alec also got a new dog but thats another story for another day, I would just like to dedicate this to him and finish this by saying Alec its been a pleasure knowing you as a man, a friend and dog man extrodinaire I salute you for you are a Legend.
Anon