| Our
first Cattrysse came by the way of a purchase of 2 pair
of pigeons from Mark Gordon of Canada which were
Deviendt and Cattrysse. By traveling for his business
Mark became good friends with both Oscar Cattrysse and
Oscar Devriendt and they always gave him their best.
Mark was also an excellent writer of pigeon articles and
books. His Widowhood book is a classic and became my
bible. Through my good friend, now deceased, Wally Pope,
now deceased I had the privilege of meeting Mark while we both were
in England and visiting lofts together. Mark referred me
to a vet in England, Henry Frith who he thought had
super Cattrysse and recommended him highly. My very
first importation was 5 Cattrysse from Mr. Frith among
which was 62719 who became "The Goldmine Hen"
at Nettis Family Loft and together with 1217 "The
Goldmine Cock" from the Mark Gordon stock went on
to breed 48-1st place winners. 1217 was 3/4 Cattrysse
and 1/4 Devriendt. 62719 was bred from "De 90"
Cattrysse bloodline of Les Davenport, England, The Pau
National Ace fancier.
"De
90" was a full brother to "De Draaier"
and "De Wittentik" all 3 being National
winners for Cattrysse Loft. "De 90" was sold
to Roger Vereecke at Gerard Cattrysse's sale and became
one of Rogers foundation birds. As is my practice I
wanted to go to the source of these Frith Cattrysse so
my next step was to go to England again, this time to
visit the ACE himself Mr. Les Davenport where Henry
acquired his Cattrysse. We became friends instantly and
over the years I was able to acquire children, brothers
and sisters of his Pau National winners. Finally, when
Les retired from the sport for good he had 8 of his
favorites which he sent to me. This was indeed an honor.
Another English fancier I became friends with who was
flying Les's Cattrysse was Les Varney. I was able to
purchase direct children from his best including
"Blue Metro" the Auto winner. We also imported
some top quality Cattrysse from the Ely Aces Les Newman
now deceased. My dad enjoyed meeting Les on one of our
trips to England and Belgium.
It was
now time to go to Moere, Belgium the home of the famous
Cattrysse Loft then operated by Oscar's son-in-law
Maurits Beuselinck now in charge of this historic family
of pigeons. On my first trip I selected 10 yearlings, 7
of which went on to breed winners with my Goldmine Line.
I might add here that when adding a Cattrysse pigeon to
my stock loft I always preferred "De Draaier",
"De 90" and "De Wittentik"
bloodlines to align with "The Goldmine Pair"
bloodlines.
In 1976
by recommendation of my friend Tony Melucci I became the
U.S. agent for the Cattrysse Loft and a few years after
that Maurits passed away. What a thrill it was having
Maurits show me the breeding records of the brothers and
going upstairs to the original loft and handling
"De Draaier". I felt I had come full circle
with the Cattrysse family from my first Mark Gordons all
the way to the home of this amazing family that helped
numerous famous Lofts such as Norbet Norman, Roger
Vereecke, Emil Denys, Germain Imbrecht and many more.
More
recently we were able to acquire many of the retired
Cattrysse Champions of our friend Keith Arnold, England
many of which are bred down from "De Draaier"
strong also in "De 45" bloodlines Keith is a
great champion flyer and breeder of the Cattrysse
family. I was amazed at the quality of his stock when
visiting his loft. They have become an important part of
the Nettis Family Goldmine Cattrysse. |
