Hot Dogs.
Amongst the plethora of engineering-based holiday/summer jobs I've had, One of my favourites was with a tiny-one-man-band of a company that built and restored/repaired potato sorting machinery. Wintertime we'd build, Summertime we'd repair on site as students stood waiting for their potato sorting to begin.


Oneday we turned up at a local farm to give his star-wheel-cleaner a service before the picking season began, and noticed Shep - One of the farm Dogs - hiding behind a barn. We thought nowt of it.

Later on in the day one of the farm-hands happend to mention that "since laast night, Shep's been gorn". We dug deeper and found out why.

The night before, Shep and his owner had been off to the local as per normal... but Shep'd done what dogs do best, and rolled in a the carcass of a dead and rotting badger on the roadside: he obviously loved the smell. His owner disagreed, and - in a flash of drunk inspiration though it'd be the perfect opertunity to test the new toy that he'd had delivered that very afternoon. Shep was tied to a post as the new diesel-fired steam-washer was wheeled out.

The farmer had then proceeded to steam-wash Shep, blissfully unaware that he ran a very real risk of stripping the skin right off the poor hound. Squealing and terrified, Shep had unsurprisingly bolted the moment he was released.

A week later, Shep was trusting his owner again. Choice bones from the butcher were on his daily menu a long time after that: The farmer had tried it on his own hand after Shep had bolted and realised what he'd done... He was a very sorry man.

Totally accidental: the old fella had no idea of the power that steam washer had: hed simply assumed it was the modern equivalent of a hot hose-pipe. =(
( Humpty Dumpty was Pushed Is unaware of having any limits., Thu 13 Dec 2007, 11:29, Reply)