Back in the Saddle

For those of you who don't know, my dad is a hard-core pigeon racer. It all started when I was a kid visiting his childhood friend and somewhat of a father figure, Burch Brown. Burch had tons of animals, and always sent some critters home with me when we visited. I'm sure that Birch's influence played  role in Dad's choice of professio, and indirectly, his obsession. Burch gave me a pair (and one baby) of homing pigeons when I was very young. The seed was planted. Dad and I raced pigeons together until I graduated from high school. Once I left for college he was hooked. BTW, one of the original pigeons Burch gave me was still alive well after I graduated from college.

Fast forward 1.5 decades. Dad is in the hospital for heart problems. He's had allergy problems in the past, which are attributable to dogs, cats, horses, and pigeons. He thought he had allergy complications, but it turns out he has a heart flutter plus he needs triple bypass surgery (in 2-3 weeks). He did not have a heart attack and he is home now. I'm sure he will rally to race another day.

Dad's heart issues couldn't have come at a worse time, as pigeon racing season is in full swing. He checked into the hospital on Thursday and the Western Open was to take place on Saturday. This is a race where competitors from 7 western states compete from one location, Winnemucca, NV.  He told me not to worry about the race or send his birds, but I knew it was important to him. There four local races over the weekend, but we decided to focus on the Western Open and a 100 mile race.

Dad gave me a bird-by-bird guideline for which birds to send from his team of 140. Seriously, 140 pigeons, and he made notes for each one from his hospital bed. He had a special note next to #617, and mentioned it to me in the hospital, saying the bird had an injured leg and not to send him unless he looked really good. I remember looking at him with feathers growing over the wound and thinking, damn, this bird looks good aside from the mostly-healed injury. It turns out Limpy felt pretty good after all, as he won by a whopping three seconds.
Results ( See Doc and Dewayne):


 Western Open results are pending. These results are from the local club, so we don't what the combine results are yet...

Here is the 100 mile race:

 Let me say that pigeon races are not easy to win.  I can still recite the band numbers of every race winner I had growing up. I'm sure that Dad will tell you that his years of experience, genetic selection, and training of these birds led to these wins, but we all know it had more to do with my 2.5 days of supervision...