Karla Ball is a young lady who loves spending time with her pigeons. Ever since the day she was born Karla has been around pigeons, as her father Lee was a keen pigeon keeper, and the week after being home from hospital he introduced her to them. As Karla grew older she took on more and more responsibility around the birds, from changing the drinking water, feeding them, and also cleaning them out  – she was always on hand. It has now got to the point where Karla is the main person who cares for the birds, with her father Lee just helping out where he can.

“Karla would spend every minute of the day with her pigeons if she could”, her father said. “She loves watching them go in and out of the loft in the summer, and they help her a lot as she has a few health problems. She suffers from anxiety attacks, but the pigeons are her happy little out time, when she can relax and enjoy herself. They all have names, plus it gets her out the house in the fresh air.”

Karla loves the breeding season and really enjoys the challenge of breeding the nice coloured pigeons – you can see from the image above that she has been doing a great job in previous years. Her favourite coloured pigeons are Pieds, Reds and Silvers. Karla is dedicated to the sport and she has now taken over from her father in the main keeping of the pigeons. She is in the loft from 6.00am to 6.30am every morning, and again as soon as she gets back from school, right up to when her Mom goes mad at her to get changed out of her school uniform – a lot of you will be able to relate to that, we’re sure! Her favourite part of keeping pigeons, apart from the breeding of new babies, is settling the new young pigeons into their new home, and watching them grow and flying around home. The way that Karla feels about her pigeons is really summed up by something she said to her parents one day: “There’s nothing without pigeons” – both her Mom and Dad feel that they have been great for her growing up.

So what is next for Karla? She wants to race and show them when she is older, and at the rate she is going she is not far from doing that. This final quote from her parents sums up this whole story of a young lady and her pigeons: “She loves what she does, and they bring her happiness and peace. She has told us many a time she would rather be with them than playing in the street. As long as she has got her pigeons and dog, she doesn’t care what goes on in the world. That’s our little girl Karla and we are very proud of her.”

If you can relate to this story, or have any other stories, please send a few photos and a little write-up of you with your birds to RPRA Development Officer Richard Chambers. If you have got your friends and family involved, he would love to hear from you.