For anyone who isn't familiar with the Scottish Games festivals, these are annual celebrations including events such as terrier races, border collie sheep herding, clan kiosks, authentic food, whiskey tasting, and vendors selling kilts, tartans, tams, etc. In Virginia, the festival is usually held in The Plains, near Middleburg, but the Scottish Games in general can be found all over the country.
I'm of Scottish heritage, so this festival appealed to me on an ancestral level, but also because of its dog-friendly nature. Chase and Trinity happily joined us on our adventure.
So what great activities did with partake in? Next to none. Why? Because when you have greyhounds, you cannot walk more than three feet without someone stopping you with a barage of the following questions?
"Is that a whippet?"
"Can I pet your dog?"
"Is that a Great Dane?"
"What kind of dog is that?"
And invariably, fellow greyhound owners attend these events, and you end up in a forty-five minute discussion about greyhounds, rescues, racing history, geneology, etc.
Here is a list of a what my husband and I did at the Scottish Games besides stop and talk to people about our dogs:
- Looked at one wool sweater (but we never made a deicision about buying it because people were stopping to talk to us about our dogs)
- Watched half of a sheep herding event (Chase and Trinity were too restless to stand still for more than a few minutes)
- Bought food (but had to stand and eat, and as Trinity jerked at the end of her leash, the remaining contents in my bowl of haggis flipped over and into my purse)
- Drank a beer (successfully)
- Stepped and fell into a hole badly bruising both knees
- Viewed British imported and antique cars (but only saw a few--waylaid talking to other greyhound owners whose dog was distantly related to our retired racer).
Finally, exhausted after three hours of talking to people and seeing next to nothing, we walked what seemed like three miles back to our car and headed home to collapse.
The dogs had a great time.
