Judging from what I saw, pigeon racers are fanatical about their sport. Mr. Davis spent about two hours every. single. day. working with those birds, doing everything from cleaning out their lofts to feeding, watering and medicating them.

It was interesting to me that racers have to have two lofts. One is a brood loft, and the other is a racing loft. The brood loft is used to house pigeons the racer bought from someone else, and they can never be let out to fly. If they do, they’ll fly right back to where they were born. The pigeons in the racing loft get exercise every day, wheeling and diving around their loft. It’s pretty cool to watch.

Once, I got to take off a bunch of young pigeons Mr. Davis was getting into shape so they could race. We took a cageful (about four or five pigeons, if I remember correctly) five miles or so away, then turned them loose. They took off, circled around a couple of times (I guess to get their bearings) then headed off for home.

Like I said, it was pretty cool stuff.