Picture via ITVnew
For a very long time we British have had a peculiar kind of hysteria.
Every now and then,some community spots a great big cat.
And by big, I mean Big. Not just some moggie who as had a few too many cream buns or located its owner’s stilettos, but a full-grown lynxy, pantherish monsterkitty extraordinaire.
In fact it was only August 2012 when all Clacton-on-Sea was a-buzzing with the sighting of a great shaggy monster sighted in a field by holidaymakers Steve and Gill Atkin. For three days police were out and a great search was mounted for what must surely be an escapee from a local zoo?
But no. On closer examination the creature – for whom 25 police officers, a special firearms unit and specialists from Colchester Zoo were all deployed – turned out to be Teddy Bear the local cat.
A police spokesman said: “Extensive searches have been carried out, areas examined and witnesses spoken to – yet nothing has been found to suggest that a lion was in the area.
“The reporting of the animal is not being treated as a hoax, but should such information come to light we will have no hesitation in making arrests..”
Oops.
But there was Felicity the Puma, who was captured in Invernesshire in 1980 after wedon’tknowhowlong in the wild.
This morning a new light has dawned on the whole British Seeing Cats thing. And the discovery has been lying in a basement, secret testament to the Big Cat Theory for more than a century.
The BBC reports this morning that it was a stray scientist on the loose in the basement of Bristol Museum who unearthed the astounding new evidence.
He remains as I write anonymous. But he it was who took a look at the cat’s dusty identification tag which claims that the cat was shot for worrying sheep in Devon in 1903.
And specialists say it’s a Canadian lynx – a dog-sized cat.
The findings have been published in the journal Historical Biology.
Dr Ross Barnett, a molecular biologist from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Durham, is reported by the BBC as saying: “I’ve seen one of these cats in the wild.
“They are pretty impressive cats – they are a reasonable size, and they have lots of fluffy fur which makes them look even bigger. They have sharp claws, teeth and strong muscles.”
The poor soul had lots of plaque and no incisors – indicating that at some point, it had been in captivity.
But its last hours were spent roaming and hunting, as its ancestors had done before it.
So we may fantasize wildly here about big cats.
But just sometimes, it’s the real Meow.
Your can read more about out Bristol Canadian lynx here
Kate Shrewsday 
A dog sizes feline sounds good to me! Imagine huddling up with that little guy, ha! A gentle bite here, an arm ripped off there – bliss!
The perfect pet, Marco….
So true…
We are supposed to have a large black cat roaming around in the valley below where we live – there must be more than one as reports of it stalking the valley woods and pathways have been going on for years!!!
I wonder if it’s real or imagined, Rosemary?
I wonder if Clive is reading this with a mix of amusement or pride?
I expect a bit of both, Rafael 🙂
scary stuff, off for a quiet walk in the woods, and wham! somewhere you thought was pretty well deviod of dangerous creatures?
Not a good place to be a sheep, Sidey.
or a peep
This reminds me of something that happened in Virginia not too long ago. Several people called 911 about a lion on the loose. Turned out to be a labradoodle groomed to look like a lion. In these poor people’s defense, from a distance, the dog DID look like a lion, albeit a miniature one. 🙂 http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/01/labradoodle-mistaken-for-lion-prompts-911-calls/
Fantastic story, Carrie! These sightings are so often exaggerated, yet police still have to take them seriously. For what would happen if there really was a big cat on the loose?
I don’t want to be there to find out…
As Clan McKintosh might say, “Touch Not The Cat Bod A Glove.” 😀
Also the motto of our lot! Quite appropriate, too. A quick-tempered bunch.
I almost heard the accent there, Nancy 😀
Poor cat! Shot for worrying sheep! Whoever shot it probably needed glasses, even if it was dog-size.
Here even Mac would get shot if he was caught worrying sheep or cows, Lame. We have to be quite careful in open countryside.
That’s terrifying. Please don’t walk him anywhere near sheep or cows!
Pumas running around Invernesshire would really be something to report! Occasionally wild animals do appear outside of their natural habitat and we sit up and pay attention. Our neighbors were convinced that at one time a report of a wild animal on the loose (never found) was really their Great Dane. You never know, I guess!
No: sometimes we can get extremely creative in our interpretations of what we see, Debra!
As far as big cats go, I’ve always fancied having a Maine Coon. Wikipedia says that they may have originated from Marie Antoinette’s cats who, unlike her, made good their escape to America. They landed in Maine and got down and dirty with the locals resulting in a handsome beast with great hunting abilities and no fear of water.:)
My mother in law has one. She’s glorious. Bit of a scaredy cat, though.
In my neighborhood, I’ve sighted feral cats dwelling in the storm sewer, seen a snake on the front porch, small lizards, wild rabbits, and a neighbor’s 9-member flock of big guinea hens running around in a gang making lots of noise and getting on our rooftops from time to time. No pumas or lynxes–so far.
Your neighbourhood sounds great fun, Gale. Especially the guinea hens.
So glad that Felicity was captured instead of being a victim of the usual ‘shoot it’ hysteria.
Me too, Col.
btw – If a big cat is seen near our built-up areas, the chances are it is a leopard who has been there all its life. Those ones have learnt to become incredibly good at keeping a low profile with humans, to the extent of leaving human livestock strictly alone.
That’s interesting: they have learnt to choose where they hunt as a survival technique. Ours aren’t so careful…
We haven’t had a cat story in a while and I can live without it. Our coyote and javalina have been active enough.
Yes: big cats do complicate things, don’t they?
” . . . the real Meow”. Always the clever turn of the word, Kate, and it always makes me smile.
All that roams here is Midnight, the cat, who is bold enough to beg at the back door for a bowl of milk. If we don’t respond, he comes up to the deck and looks into the kitchen, meowing.
Midnight sounds wonderful, Penny…
We did have more than one large wild cat roaming in our neighborhood. I think it was a bobcat. Until it was captured, it treated a local duck pond in a retirement community as its personal buffet. They are beautiful, but much better to see safely from a great distance.
Quite. There are reasons why we do not have these creatures roaming around, Judy!