Though oft ruled by strict custom, the practice of dueling has been fecund turf for the development and use of ingenious and original weaponry. In spite of custom, many a duelist has been shamed by innuendo of cowardice into accepting an unusual choice of weapons. This was occasionally at the instigation of the opposing duelist, but more often, an ingenious second would conspire with the opponent's second to choose less lethal (and often more entertaining) armament. Most famous of the seventeenth century "professional seconds" were the Hungarian brothers Istvan and Bela Bodnar who established a reputation for being able to guarantee with relative certainty that a challenge recipient who engaged their services would escape physically unscathed from a "Bodnar organized duello". Some of their most inventive scenarios were: hedgehogs at 20 feet, pigs bladders at arms length, bicycles and parasols, and all manner of fresh fruit and potted meat in combination. Eventually the incidence of dueling lessened as the avid duelist with no fear for life or limb was often petrified of the loss of dignity that could result from issuing a challenge to one to whom life was more important than dignity. When master swordsman Henri de la Frusteau with sixteen bloody victories to his credit was faced with choosing herring in wine sauce at 6 paces or the label of cowardice so adroitly affixed by the Bodnar team, he opted for cowardice and retired to Alsace to study the French horn. He later distinguished himself as the originator of pozzle, an early precursor of Spam.
The use of cats in duelling was by no means omitted by the Bodnars or other seconds of the period, but the simultaneous fling so often resulted only in stunning the cats that the cat as choice of weapons was limited [illustration].