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Owning a greyhound has enabled me to give a little back to a great sport

Greyhound broadcaster Darrell Williams looks back on the early days of owning a dog

Part of the reason for wanting to own a dog was because I wanted to 'give a bit back'. The greyhound industry has been good to me as a broadcaster and journalist, and while I had been involved in a syndicate many years earlier, I had never actually owned a greyhound in my own right. So my wife and I agreed we'd look for a dog. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a regular run-of-the-mill grader that we could go and watch run with the kids and hopefully get a bit of enjoyment out of.

That was back in early 2002, and as Catford (now, of course, no longer in existence) was my local track and one I had worked at on and off as track commentator, that was where we would look. While I obviously knew a few people at the track, it was the Racing Post Classifieds that would put us onto Lockham Rosemary.

I can't quite remember the wording of the ad, but basically she was a bitch just over two years of age, already running at the track - a big advantage in my book as at least you know what they are capable of - and was on offer for £500. Just the kind of figure I wanted to pay - nothing too expensive for a dog that hopefully would just carry on doing what she was doing for another couple of years.

With little hesitation I called Sonja Spiers, the dog's trainer, to put forward our interest. In fact, if I remember rightly, by that time I was already convinced we wanted her, having looked up her Catford record on the computer which told me she was running in S3 and seemed to have plenty going for her given the price. Sonja told me that her current owner was no longer living in the area and therefore would rather let someone else have her.

I later found out her former owner was Don Henley, a highly regarded breeder/owner now based in the Midlands, and a thoroughly nice guy who I still bump into from time to time. So, with great excitement, we were now proud owners of a racing greyhound, and one that over the next two years would give us an enormous amount of pleasure watching and cheering on. The next step was to go and see her, and so the following Sunday we set off down the M20 for Waltham, near Canterbury, where Sonja was based to get acquainted.

Upper Thruxted Farm is certainly deep inside Kent countryside, in a beautiful picturesque area that most of us would probably give our right arm to live in. But Sunday mornings there are like Sundays mornings at greyhound kennels the length and breadth of the country - full of owners walking their dogs, while chewing over the form of their last race. For us, a visit usually consisted of walking two or three dogs, or even taking out a 'second lot' - some owners were not able to visit as often as others, which meant you soon got to know the other inmates at the kennel.

For 'Rosie', as with most of the racing greyhounds, it was two to a kennel, which meant she and Roger, or Wodger as it was really given his racing name of Wodger The Rabbit, were good companions and he usually ended up as part of our walk. We very nearly bought him as well much later on; he was a great character - a real handful when put on a lead and a bit of a lad in every way. But one dog was enough, well at least that was until I bought a second one with Sonja a year or so later - but more on that another day.