Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-11-14
Unique Sport Introduced in New
Jersey Town.
FeIines Are Pitted Against One An
other in Homing Bouts-Notnble
Fents Performed by Some
of the Contestants.

If the National Association of HON.
ing Cat FaheieIs is ever formed Ike
Gilvrey, of Camptown, N. j., can boast
that he made it's existence possible,
for he is the founder of the first HON.
ing Cat club in the world. 1t is the
Camptown Homing Cat club and has
for its emblem cats head in a gar
ter with the motto, "And the cat came
back" says the New York Sun.
The club has seven members. Each
member owns loft of cats, all prop
erly marked with light collars and
tags. The cats are of no particular
breed, but are just plain barnyard
and kitchen tabbies of country rails
ing. The cat fanciers say that they
doubt if city cats will ever be good
homers. owing to the fact that they
are inclined to follow roads and fences,
while the country cat will take the
shortest line home except where his
fight is interrupted by watercourses
SO wide that detour must be made
to find a bridge. The best kind of
homing cat, the clubmen say, is one
that has done his hunting around the
house and barn and has not been led
away by taste for field mice. grass
hoppers, sparrows and young rabbits,
for a game-hunting cat would be sure
to daily on the way home to look
for a toothsome morsel.
The homing cats belonging to the
Camptown club are classified accord
ing to age and sex, but in no other
manner, as there can be no champion
class this year. Since last spring the
members have been training their cats
over short flights. such as 1000 or
1000 yards. Ike Gilvrey says that his
striped tabby julie came home 5000
yards from Short Hills few nights
ago in So minutes. A cat is taken in
an ordinary fishing basket to point
decided upon and released at a speci-
fed time, while the owner sits up.
watch in hand, to note the return of
his favorite. Most of the early train
ing for short distances was done by
dropping the cat from a buggy and
driving rapidly away. This has been
hCPp up pei uHlll Tic CdlS
seem to understand the necessity of
a speedy return, but it must be OBJ
served that this is only one-cat prac-
tice, and until last Sunday night no
body could tell how bunch of cats
might act if loosed together.
The first race was set down for
six o'clock on Sunday night, and nine
cats were entered and sent to a point
on the road in the outskirts of Rah-
way. The distance was 5000 Yards,
or nearly three miles. The cats were
placed in seven baskets and taken to
the starting point by Ira Cole, whose
watch was set to correspond with the
others. Ike Gilvrey and Louis Wei
denbach each had two entries and the
rest one apiece. Each man guarded
his loft in company with companion
to corroborate his record. With one
exception the cats were all good-look-
ing animals. The exception is said
to have been pinched from Hon.
Gleichman's tavern by one of the mem
bers couple of months ago and thor
oughly trained by some secret meth
cd. This was a NANCY, two-year-old
gray tabby that nobody would think
of petting.
The cats were let loose promptly
at six o'clock and Just as promptly
two cat fights started in the road,
while five other cats took to cover
in five different directions. One alone
headed straight for home on the road
she came. 1t was Hon. Gleischman's
gray, entered by Lloyd McKeeley. She
was back on his front stoop at 6:51:13,
and Ike Gelvrey's gray was second,
20 minutes later. HIS other cat came
in the next day badly damaged He
was one of the scrappers. Two cats
have not returned yet, but the others
made fair time and held out encour-
agement for another and longer fight
in the near future. The success of
McKeeley's cat led some of the mem
bers to think that he was using drugs
on the animal. When questioned
about the matter by Il Sun man Nc
Kelley said:
Nonsense! It's just this way.
Gleichman is a great fisherman and
the cat likes fish. Hen hasn't been do
ing much fishing recently, or hasn't
had much luck, and presumed on the
cats. taste. l always showed her a
porgy or a weakfish before taking
her out for training and let her see
where | put it under the front stoop.
On the day before the race | starved
her and when she was going away 1
showed her a big wealofish. let her
smell of it and let her see me put it
under the stoop. You can bet she
had that on her mind when she got
out of the basket. Some of the other
hungry cats stopped to eat grasshop-
pers and they're eating yet"