Livestock or parcel?

In that dim and distant past it was a fact that the Irish rail service had different charges for different transportation of livestock. If an animal were placed in the caged-off section of the goods carriage of a train it was treated as livestock and the charge was five shillings.

However, if the beast had a label round its neck and was merely shoved in with the rest of the mail, it was regarded as a parcel and the charge was only one shilling. So it happened that a greyhound was sent to Mullingar by rail and the one shilling was paid and a label stuck on its collar.

On opening the goods van, railman Rooney was knocked to the floor by the dog which leapt out of the carriage and raced off down the platform. Gasping for breath and dragging his twisted ankle, Rooney bellowed to the folk further up the platform:

'Stop that dog - it's a parcel!'