# Tell us about yourself



## bigbird (Aug 19, 2000)

Carl Gulledge:
My bio,
Here is a little information about me, I hope it is informative and that some of you regulars will also post some information about yourselves here on Pigeon-Talk. 

My name is Carl Gulledge, I am 61 years young, and married (for 42 years) with five grown children, self employed and I love pigeons. I own this www.pigeon-life.net web site.

When I was a boy of about 10, one day I was walking down some railroad tracks in California with some friends and we spotted a very small cage, nailed to a fence, next to the railroad tracks. The owners must have lived in the house which was about 50 yards from the tracks. Inside the cage I saw one lonely pigeon with no food or water. The bird was very thin. I took it upon myself to “steel” the pigeon away from its lonely existence.
The bird immediately took a liking to me, following me everywhere I went on my bicycle. My friends were all taken with this show of affection and wished they too had a pet pigeon. My pet pigeon was so friendly and tame that it was not long before it was killed by a neighbor’s cat. I was devastated. 

From that one experience I became “hooked” on pigeons. I raised pigeons in my back yard thru grade school and high school. When I joined the army at 19 I forgot about pigeons, got married, got a job, raised children, and it was not until age 50 that I returned to raising pigeons. 

Today I raise pigeons in my loft on 10 acres in Washington State. I live on an island about 30 minutes by ferry boat from Seattle Washington. I belong to a few pigeon clubs but I do not show pigeons, I do not race pigeons and I do not fly my rollers outside any more because of the Cooper hawks in my area. What I do is raise pigeons because I love them. I am especially interested in hand raising pigeons as personal pets. I have three hand raised pigeons currently, and plan to have more in the future. I hope to write a book about “pet pigeons” in the future. 

I am also very interested in digital art and spend much of my spare time working on “pigeon art”. I think that if more people can see the beauty our world of pigeons then perhaps more people will begin to enjoy the excitement of owning them.

That’s it for now….if you want to talk to me directly I can be reached at [email protected] 

I hope some of you will now write to Pigeon-Talk with your information. It will be nice to see who is out there. 

Regards,
Carl Gulledge


----------



## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Hello Carl & Everyone,

Carl, thanks for your most interesting post about yourself and how your interest in and love for pigeons came to be. Here's a little bit about me:

My name is Teresa Whatley but have gone by Terry since my college days. I am 53 years old and live in Lake Forest CA where I am a self-employed computer programmer. My husband and I own a small company that develops vertical market software for small businesses, and thanks to working out of our home, I am able to operate a small bird and animal rescue and rehabilitation organization "on the side" (some days the business seems to be the "on the side" activity!).

Since I was a child, I brought every stray dog or cat I found home. I still do this though am fortunate to have many friends that are dog and cat rescue people, so it is not necessary for me to keep them ALL any longer.

Four years ago, I happened across a white domestic goose in a city park that had a huge tumor near one eye. After days of frustration in trying to find someone to be responsible for this goose and get it the veterinary attention it needed, I just took care of it myself. Well, that was the "beginning of the end". Soon I was so involved in the rescue and rehab of abandoned domestic waterfowl, it wasn't even funny. 

Once word of this rescue work got out, people started calling about pigeons, doves, and every kind of avian creature known to man. My first pigeon rescue was Traveler who is now 14 years old. I have had him for about 3 years. Traveler and all the doves and pigeons that followed have truly stolen my heart. They are such beautiful and gentle creatures that I can't imagine how anyone could dislike them.

I hope to obtain my state and federal permits for rehabilitation of migratory birds before the end of the year so I can expand my rescue and rehab work to include all the protected wild avian species.

I very much enjoy reading the posts here and pigeons.com, and thank Carl and those who have helped him make this such a great site!

Terry Whatley


----------



## DaveD (Jul 9, 2001)

Hello all, this seems like a good idea, and I like knowing who I'm talking to as well, so I'll contribute as well.

My name is David Dittmaier, and I live in Staunton, Illinois. I'm 20 years old and have been married for about three months, to my sweetheart of 3 1/2 years. 

I got into pigeons when I was seven, my neighbor raised them. He only had birmingham rollers, and I started cleaning the loft for him. The first time I saw his kit, around 60 birds or so, take to the sky I was hooked. When I was 9, we moved half an hour away, and the first thing I did when we got to our new house was build a loft. My old nieghbor and a few other area fanciers gave me 20 or so birds to get started, and we had a nice sized kit in about a year. I kept them for about 5 years, then it happened. I was living with my father at the time, and my mom and step-father had to leave town for a family emergency. The neighbor was supposed to look after them, but did not. When they got back a week later, they told me the entire group, over 80, had died. 

By this time, they were spending the winters in texas, and my dad wouldn't let me keep any. I moved here to staunton right after I graduated, and have since decided to buy this house. Once that decision was made, I started on the loft. Our old garage is very large, as the man who built it built furniture and only had them put in one door, because he didn't park his car in there. A few months ago, we cleaned out the garage and began building nesting boxes, perches, and a 10X20X8 flight pen. The inside pens are about 40 foot long, 50 foot wide, and 9 foot tall. This allows me more room than I'd ever dreamed of!! I tracked down a lady I'd gotten started, and she repaid the favor by giving me several of her birds, who are decendants of my orginal stock. I guess I'll never own a champion kit of rollers, as I don't cull and never liked the idea of watching a youngster grow up, let it get a year old, then killing it because it's a poor spinner. Instead, I take in "culls" from the few area lofts. We did allow a kit to go out, but took heavy losses. Many of the birds here were given to me because they didn't fly well, or had crashed or whatever. We live on the edge of town, and hunters take shots at them when they're bored. The stray cat population here is also way out of control. But, they're content to lay in the flight pen for hours at a time. So, I guess they'll stay penned up, they don't seem to mind. We've still got a lot of rollers, but have also purchased jakes, frillbacks, fantails, doves, over a dozen species in all. Gotta love the internet, the few lofts in the area are either rollers or homers, so finding diffrent breeds without it would be impossible. Gotta give a big thank you to ludus54, without him, we'd still be searching desprately for diffrent breeds. I'm disabled, and cannot work, so my wife's income is all that gets us by. Many of the members here have given me great deals, and made this possible, and I thank them all. I spend several hours a day watching them go about thier lives. It's also great to be able to talk with other pigeon lovers, as there sure aren't many close to us here. Thanks all!! 

------------------
David and Kellie Dittmaier
Haven's Loft
www.haven-lofts.cityslide.com


----------



## Lee (Jul 28, 2001)

Lee Gilley,
I am a 59 year old retired soldier living here in Kentucky back in the sticks as it is. My wife and i have a 2 acre plot in the woods and we have a pigeon loft with currently 49 pigeons mostly white.My wife of 40 yrs and my two children think i am nuts because i love my pigeons so but you as pigeon lovers understand the attraction . I spend most of my days with my birds i have homing pigeons and run a small release business. I started out just wanting to do funerals for soldiers and grew from there .
My attraction of pigeons started when i was about 8 or 9 yrs old it was then that my father brought home some pigeons in a box . I was hooked there began a love of pigeons. The birds he brought home belonged to a coworker and they were homers. He turned them lose and they were gone like a shot i found out later that they went back to their loft and trapped in . Now me being a little boy in eastern Kentucky knew nothing of pigeons so i sat out to find out all i could and it has been a study for 50 yrs. I was in the army for 21 yrs so i couldnt keep birds but after retirement i started with my first loft .
I told my wife i will build a small loft and i want to be able to keep maybe 10 birds, well you know how that goes in less than a year i had fifty birds and had built onto my exhisting loft and now have two avirys and a 26 foot by 12 loft and am thinking of building more .My release business is more of a hobby than a business (i am retired and want to stay that way).I do mostly funerals and some weddings. My main intrest is the birds i would never do anything to harm them if i have to hold instead of releasing them then so be it in my book the birds come first. Their safety is paramount..
Carl it was so good to see the BIO you sent it is so intresting to see all the people that use the internet also Terry your BIO is very intresting seems that people that like pigeons do so with much gusto there seems to be a connection between the dove and a persons heart. It is so strange sometimes ,I agree with Terry how can people not like pigeons.. Last week i released 10 white birds for a funeral . A man and woman lost their son of 8 yrs old to cancer i let 8 birds go from a cage and mom and dad let one each go by hand 
the 8 birds circled several times and then at the right moment the two birds were released and they flew to the flock and off they flew..there was not a dry eye to be seen ......... it is the connection between the dove and the heart that keeps me going ..... Well i will close for now and go put my babies to bed. The loft is cleaned the lights are low and the rock dove calls on the night wind............... Lee


----------



## Jimmy (May 22, 2001)

Ok, Here's some on me, 
I hate school exept for math and science. I am 13 and was born on may 22 1988. I have been raising pigeons for about 3 months and love the hobby. Currently I have a pair of rollers and I hope to get a pair of homers. I do not have much to say, but ask me again in 50 or so years and I will probably tell you millons of pages of my life. Bye for now.


------------------
--Jimmy--
[email protected]


----------



## cataclsm (Jun 2, 2001)

Jason Bolton, age 30. I live in central New Hampshire. I have 3 wonderful children, Chase who is 7, Victoria who is 5 and Chandler who is 3. I have been keeping pigeons of various breeds for about 17 years and got started when I found a feral pigeon in a field across from my house out in the middle of no ware when I as a kid, from there It just exploded ;-) I have had almost any breed of pigeon available but have finally settled on Giant Homers, American Show Racers and Utility Kings. 

I am a self employed reptile importer but I have to admit I spend more time in my loft then in with my reptiles.

My website is http://www.malystryx.com You can view some of my bird there.

Best to all.


------------------
Malystryx Lofts
http://www.malystryx.com


----------



## indie backroll (Aug 3, 2001)

Brian DeRocher
Age 29 1-31-72
Married :> August 18 2001
18 rollers
Reside in Martinez, California
I am a graphic designer work in Concord, CA
In the pigeon hobby for about 9 months now and have learned a ton from this website and a few others, also read alot of books on the subject.

3 squabs that just hatched a couple of weeks ago, 6 new eggs.

Some have names Scarface, Shadow, King, Pepper, Norbert, Lector, Sketch, still coming up with some more names.


----------



## raynjudy (Aug 22, 2000)

Jason:

Your website rocks!

--Ray

PS. The wonderful pic you sent me was forwarded to Carl for posting--THANKS!


----------



## Minus (Apr 6, 2001)

Hi everyone...
My name is mark.Occupation Bricklayer
Victoria Australia
Age 29 married 
Had pigeons when i was a kid.
Started again about 6 months ago...My uncle is a full on pigeon racer..who i have a lot to do with....he got me loving it agian.Currently i have 12 pigeons 2 are my own squeakers and one sitting on eggs,all very exiting.
Cheers Minus.


----------



## cataclsm (Jun 2, 2001)

Thanks Ray.

------------------
Malystryx Lofts
http://www.malystryx.com


----------



## bigbird (Aug 19, 2000)

Hey, I know there are more of you out there, don't be shy, we want to know you better.
If you love pigeons, tell us why...
Carl


----------

