Black cats?

[Mozza]

I do believe there are BIG cats in this country tho, the whole thing does fascinate me but living in Manchester, I'll not be seeing many haha

[button1803]

I live along the river waveney on the norfolk/suffolk border, and there has been many sightings etc this way, i think i have seen a cat out Rickinghall way in suffolk many years ago but was never sure...

few weeks ago a sheep was found dead with not alot left up here along woodland etc, word spread it was a big cat that was the cause but how long was the sheep dead and what else had had a feed in the time it was found?? but yeah i think there are big cats out there, they do and have escaped from zoo's in the past but you would think there would be more concrete evidence they are about though?

[Christopher Schroeter]

I once saw the ghost of a black cat get abducted by a UFO.

[sussexlad]

That proves precisely f-all mate!

 

The one I saw was about the size of a lab, broad daylight, with a mate sat in the truck with me. Sober!

 

A few have been shot down here in Kent, like the one Garth mentioned, but I think it's usually hushed up. I doubt many people have big cats mentioned on their FAC!

 

do you think any of these could be escapes from port lympe?

[Paulfreebury]

I once saw the ghost of a black cat get abducted by a UFO.

 

Laugh! I nearly wet myself

[Sam Thompson]

Last nights post didn't make a huge amount of sense, naughty whisky

That proves precisely f-all mate!

It means that that one wasn't there, but that doesn't mean that there aren't others, I think he actually tracked three in the end or something. . Until I see one dead, with the queen looking at it, I will continue to believe there might be a couple at most

[Rebel_Commando]

I thought I saw one once, We were working out in a field by the edge of a woodland and one of my work mates shouts "look at the size of that thing watching us!" When we all looked up, we saw a black cat sat on a gate post at the edge of the wood,it looked like a domestic cat but was about 50% bigger than any domestic cat I've seen before and more muscular. Anyway as we were watching and talking about what it might be the old guy who used to farm the land rolls up in his tractor and we point it out to him. He looks at us and says "Dunna be daft that's just my old Fluffy,The old boy has just put on a bit of weight since he went feral!" lol

 

But also where I live was apparently the last known location of the British wildcat in Wales, they used to live on the 3000 acre area of peat bog/scrub land and woodlands surrounding it. Unfortunately one of the local small holders blamed them for taking some of his poultry and shot one of the last surviving pair! According to my grandad this was back in the 50s.

I did read an article recently on the Scottish wildcats where they found that of all the wildcats found dead on roads, only 12% were pure wildcats the rest were all cross bred with feral and domestic cats. So it seems possible that there are "wildcats" out there that have domestic colouration but with the wildcat size?

[Treecreeper1961]

It is amazing how many sightings there are. Could we all be suffering from hallucinations, over active imaginations or the manifestation of spiritual animals trying to show us a message?

 

Don't know, wouldn't be surprised if any or all were true.

 

What I do know is that about 18 years ago I had two sightings that I can't deny a being real.

The first was of a "black" cat bounding out above corn, towards the setting sun. It seemed to be the size of a doberman with a tail almost as long as it's body.

The second came shortly afterwards, a good view of a cat, the same size as the first but a dirty brown, clearer, not like the silhouette in the sunset.

Now, I can question myself about the most obvious, certain things at times, but I had no doubt about this. For years after I was a very nervous figure stood on beaches nightfishing.

Five or six years ago, a friend and colleague told me about seeing one 15 miles from my sighting and this year another colleague saw one just six miles away.

If we are not totally deluded and there is substance to our sightings, how can the time between our sightings be explained, feline longevity, breeding populations or huge home ranges of released individuals.

When I had my sightings I remember reading about how the tightening of the law regarding keeping dangerous animals led to cats, kept as guard dogs, being released in the wild.

Does seem odd that there have never been carcasses found or cats shot or run over, if they are as widespread as anecdotal accounts suggest.

 

Maybe there is a fungi that releases hallucinogenic spores that cause specific visions of spiritual animals?

[Salix Tree & Countryside]

A few years ago back when i was a Countryside Officer I was aked to go and see this bloke who had phoned the office about some cats or something ???

So I goes over, finds the address, just on the outskirts of Skelmersale so relatively built up. I knocks on the door and this chap answers and lets me in. The conversation goes on about him and his wife waking up a day or so ago, he opens the bedroom curtains and WOW !!!!!!!!!! there in his back garden is what looks like a small tiger !!!!!!!!!!!!, at this point I sort off think a few too many whiskys might have passed his lips the night before.........until he says, come outside, its left some prints in the dirt so we go outside and make our way over to the border and They aint no pussy cat tracks !!!!!!!

I studied the tracks in great detail........not domestic cat of any size, not dog, not fox or badger or deer..............very, very feline..........in the end i sort of narrowed it down to a Lynx or Ocelot.

There had been previous sightings of wild cats around the area in the past, but usually explained away by the authorities.........i wasnt entirely convinced until i saw those prints, now im totally convinced they are about........eecking an existance on the fringes...........

 

Mark

[agg221]

I think a lot of people are very unobservant - If you don't notice that your next door neighbour has a cat in 5yrs then you're hardly paying a lot of attention. Wild boar are known to be about, since '87, but how many people have seen them, and they don't have the same agility. There are snakes living in our garden, up to 5ft long, but I've only seen them on four occasions in four years, and I'm actively looking.

 

I therefore think a small population of feral/naturalised/interbred felines could quite feasibly go unacknowledged for a long time. If people on here, who work outside most of the time, are skeptical, imagine what the response is going to be if you report a sighting. The police might wander round if they're bored, the council will write you off as deluded, so why bother reporting it at all? Probably most people who saw something would just note it and that would be it.

 

Alec