Cats might have nine lives but I must be down to last two might nine but I be to two; SLASHED GANGSTER IS BACK IN JAIL BUT STILL TAUNTING HITMEN.

Byline: DAVID TAYLOR 

SLASHED gangster Ian "Blink" McDonald has taunted the hitmen trying to kill him and claims his dog is more upset than he is.

Bank robber McDonald was photographed for the first time since leaving hospital after knifemen inflicted a gaping wound across his cheek and ear.

But he was arrested and held in custody the day after we tracked him down on Thursday.

He is due to appear in court tomorrow over an alleged breach of the peace at a nightclub.

The career criminal is back behind bars after surviving two attempts on his life in four days.

Sources say police moved to get him off the streets in a bid to defuse the spiralling gangland violence.

The knife attack came after army explosives experts defused a deadly bomb found under his Mercedes..

The attemped hits have been blamed on an underworld feud but McDonald - who branded the bombers "daft wee boys" - remains defiant.

Before his arrest, McDonald, 48, told the Sunday Mail: "My Labrador, Lucky, is in more shock than I am.

He was there when the bomb was discovered and when I was attacked.

"People have asked me what the dog did when I was being set about but the truth is he'd have probably licked them to death.

Chibbed "I have been pampering him all week and giving him doggie treats to help him get over it." The gangland hardman admitted slashing people in the past but said he has never been knifed before.

He said: "The life I've lived I have been pretty lucky.

"This is the first time I have been chibbed in 48 years. Cats have nine lives but I feel like I am down to my last two now. My face isn't too bad but my ear was pretty badly

sliced

." Plastic surgeons at Glasgow's Canniesburn Hospital spent three hours piecing his face back together.

McDonald said: "I was put under full anaesthetic and when I came round there were armed police in the hospital.

"They asked me if I wanted police protection. I told them I didn't and asked where they were when I was slashed.

"I feel if I was someone from a nice area who had been almost blown up a few days before they would have been watching over me.

"They think I'm a criminal piece of s*** but I'm the victim in all this." The Sunday Mail tracked down McDonald and two pals after a tip-off as they came out of a coffee shop in Glasgow's south side.

He revealed CID officers advised him to get rid of his distinctive black Mercedes with personalised number plate "B1LNK".

He said: "The police told me it made me an easier target but there's no way I'm getting rid of 'The Blinkmobile'.

"The police better not have put a bug or a tracker in it." McDonald was ambushed, battered and slashed near his mum's home in Provanmill, Glasgow, last week by three men who jumped out of a car.

His mother thought he was dead when she came back from a break in Spain and saw a police cordon with blood splattered across the street near her home. McDonald said: "My mum had been on holiday and when she was coming home she saw the police tape and immediately thought I had been killed.

"She is 70 years old and doesn't deserve to be put through all this." "I've never had so many phone calls in my life. Loads of my criminal associates have been on the phone to see if I am all right.

People are standing by me." McDonald has a history of trouble and was convicted of a bank robbery in 1992 serving 10 years of a 15-year sentence.

In January this year he was fined pounds 200 at Alloa Sheriff Court after clashing with a prison guard while visiting a killer pal in Glenochil jail.

He represented himself in court after being charged with driving while on his mobile - and won.

Last night, Strathclyde Police said: "A 48-year-old man is in custody. He is expected to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court." [e-mail]