A Strandfontein woman’s husband has several chicks on the side. He houses them in a loft in their backyard where dramas unfold daily.
After one such drama, the woman, a respected local crime fighter, took one of them into her home. The very young female had been injured in a domestic dispute. Her parents are a middle-aged female who had shacked up with a boisterous adolescent male.
The woman carefully nursed her back to health and the young female became so obsessed with her, that she often laid on her shoulder to nuzzle her hair and kiss her on the lips.
No, this is not a soap opera and the couple are not part of a menage a trois — but rather a menagerie. But if the story above has you hooked, then you will understand why Strandfontein Community Police Forum (CPF) chair, Sandy Schuter, has gained so many new followers on her social media channels — because she uses the same mischievous tone in her social media videos, which are mostly sweet but sometimes naughty.
In the educational videos, she updates her followers about the pigeon loft shenanigans of her fancier husband, Faizel Flowers.
Pigeon porn
“Look at that; daylight pigeon porn,” she says in one video, while narrating a TikTok of pigeons mating to quirky background music.
The videos have become so popular that she can barely keep up with the requests for updates.
“People on Facebook say, ‘Sandy, when are you going to update us again?’” she said. “Even my station commander sends me messages; ‘Hi Sandy, what is Niggie Pearl doing?’”
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Niggie Pearl is the pigeon chick that Schuter rescued. She hand-rears the bird, which has become more of a pet than a racer, said Flowers somewhat lamentfully, since the bird had come from “good racing stock”.
“I don’t think she’ll be able to function again in the loft because she’s used to being here,” Schuter said, “where she has her own napkin, her own blanket, her own cup, her own everything.”
Fancy a pigeon?
Her posts have also created a renewed interest in pigeon fancy — the recognised South African sport of racing homing pigeons.
“Strandfontein, I believe, is one of the best pigeon racing clubs, really, and people don’t know that,” said Flowers, who has been interested in the sport since he was six-years-old.
With decades of experience under his belt he now boasts several large trophies and has bagged some big prizes from races. He also heads up several fancying associations and unions, which facilitates seven Mitchell’s Plain clubs, including his home club, Strandfontein.
Flowers has several methods to get the best out of his birds and he told TygerBurger that he frequently uses the pigeons’ lusty libidos and jealous natures to get winning results.
“I would take a mate, and I’ll keep it aside away from his partner,” Flowers explained, adding that one of the pigeons in the loft is a “casanova” and causes lots of domestic disputes. “Then I take one of those cocky males and I put it with his girl.
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“Now you can see he’s mad because he wants to get in there and start fighting and the minute he goes in there to fight, I take him and put him into the box and take him away to race,” Flowers says, adding that this method is called “widowing”.
“I won’t lie to you, I know already he’s going to be the first one home,” he says laughing adding that after flying hundreds of kilometres, pigeons usually immediately eat or rest when they dive into their home lofts.
“But he comes into the loft — a bird that’s been racing for five to six hours — and the first thing he looks for is, where is she? When he finds her there alone, he kisses her, mates and then he goes to have his feed and water.”
Passions for pigeons and people
Not all of Flower’s pigeons develop such a strong attachment to a mate. In another sordid tale, one particular female fell in love with her husband, Schuter said. The bird, she said, had no interest in the other males in the loft and followed Flowers around like a love-sick puppy, using his head as her preferred loveseat. Flowers adds that she was one of his best flyers because she couldn’t bear to be away from him for too long.
But while the couple find lots of entertainment in the sport, the husband’s passion for pigeons has had a spin off on the wife’s passion for crime fighting.
Flowers says the Strandfontein club uses pigeon racing as a youth development tool by mentoring young people and providing them with birds, eggs and equipment like electronic clocks and guidance from experienced members.
“We take pride in mentoring young people and engaging them in the sport,” said Schuter. “It’s a way to keep youth off the streets and provide them with purpose.”
Flowers proudly declares that the youngsters have done well in picking up the sport and several of them have had racing successes.
You can follow Niggie Pearl’s adventures and Schuter’s narrations on TikTok: @sandy.393.wc
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