Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 25, 1994 TAG: 9412270068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-8 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Some of the smallest victims of the racetrack's closing are the barn cats that roam through Charles Town Races' stables, keeping the rodent population in check - and reproducing in abundance.
"There's hundreds of cats in the barns. Who's going to take care of the cats?" asked trainer Lee Couchenour. "Of course, there's a lot more human suffering going on, and cats are cats, but it's one more thing to worry about."
Many trainers claim a handful of these tame felines as their own and leave food and water for them in the barns they use. Cats curl up in the heated tack rooms and offices and run in and out of stalls, dodging horses in pursuit of mice.
"I'll take them with me when it closes," trainer Kenneth Cross said of the five cats he feeds and has named. "I'll take them home if I have to. I'm not going to leave them here to starve."
You may hear a lot of less-than-flattering things about race people, foreman James Wilhelm of David Walters Racing Stables said, but they're good to animals. Workers take care of at least 10 cats in his barn.
Walters himself has two cats, Paw Paw and Miss Kitty, who live in his office and have been neutered. They'll go wherever he goes.
"People won't leave their cats here," Wilhelm said.
But for the cats no one claims, it may be a different story.
Keywords:
HORSE RACING
by CNB