More Cats

[Ron Caliburn]

A while ago there was a thread about cat sightings in Britain. I can't find it anymore (does the Agency delete old posts?) but I found this:

Here kitty, kitty, kitty

[Joseph Darkhold]

Geez...Kitty of the Baskervilles...Well, on the plus side of things, I don't think it's a supie. If it was I doubt he would have survived a suprise attack like that. Maybe an escaped panther? Of course I could be mistaken and it could be some kind of lesser creature that just didn't get lucky...

[Ron Caliburn]

Yeah, there have been cat sightings in the islands for years, despite the contention of scientists that the Isles have no indegenous big cats.

[Brother Hotep]

sounds like he has a cougar not a panther, cougars come in all colors.
Panthers are huge, Not labrador sized.
Lynxes are dog sized too.

[Joseph Darkhold]

I think that you got the two of them mixed up. An adult cougar is usually around 7 to 9 feet long including the tail and weigh between 150 and 200 pounds. And, actually, they have tan fur, with black markings around the muzzle, back of the ears and the tip of the tail.
A panther on the other hand, has a wide array of fur colorations, thus the so called 'black panther'. Their size is also dependent on the prey in it's habitat, in areas where game animals are smaller, the panther's size will be small.
Also, a lynx is about the size of a small dog but it has certain very distinctive features. One of which being the lack of a tail, another is the shape of its head and the fact that it has ear tufts.

[Ron Caliburn]

I'm somewhat suspect of any brits tryign to identify a big cat after an overweight tabby triggered a call to the police about an escaped lion a few years back.

[Joseph Darkhold]

well, I don't think I'm going to try and definitively identify whatever it was based on the info in that news clip. there's not enough information to do much except speculate.

[Ron Caliburn]

Here's some more recent cat news, a few fatal maulings in close succession.

Lions devour man at South Africa game farm

Tiger kills 1, injures 2 at zoo

If we get another in the next couple of weeks I'm going to start wondering.

[KonThaak]

There's more to that tiger story... From what I've been hearing, all three victims were there together. The two who were injured were witnessed harassing and teasing the tiger. The one who died did not join in the teasing, but was there with them.

The lawyers of the two survivors is claiming that no teasing took place, but admitting to teasing the tiger is admitting to being stupid and putting potential blame for the death of the tiger on the two survivors...so it'd be a bad choice to just take responsibility, when you can sue the zoo if you deny any wrongdoing.

Gotta love Americans...

[Ron Caliburn]

Interesting article about big cat sightings in Britan.

[Ron Caliburn]

New big cat story that came to us via the Texas Cryptid Hunter.

MARSHALL, TX (KSLA) – Authorities are on search for a lion in Marshall, Texas, tonight.

Marshall Police tell us they started getting phone calls of a lion on the loose near the train depot as early as 9 a.m. Thursday morning.

Marshall Police have been patrolling the area around the depot where witnesses reported seeing the 300 pound cat.

Animal control and police are searching the area of North Washington.

Some even carried high powered rifles in case the animal had to be taken down, and locals were warned by authorities to stay inside.

"They were telling us to stay close to the building, stay indoors because that possible threat really is there," says Shawn Hagerty, Marshall resident.

After several hours of tracking, no sign of the big cat.

Wildlife experts say it was most likely a large bobcat or even a cougar.

So far, no reports of anyone who has "misplaced" an African lion. If you think you see the lion, don't approach it, contact police immediately.

Gotta say I agree with the TCH, nobody could reasonably mistake a bobcat for a lion. A cougar may be mistaken for an immature lion, but there is no way they are close to big enough to stand in for an adult. They also don't have manes, so at best a cougar could be mistaken for a lioness, not a lion.

[Last Moon]

Apparently there are also strange cat sightings in France.

Therianthropes of Paris?

[Athena]

If it is a Therianthrope, it may be fortunate that it's appearance was captured with such a poor quality camera.

Just about everyone in the western world carries a camera with them everywhere they go these days. The quality of those cameras is also improving. It is going to become nigh impossible to hide from the public eye in the future.

This goes for vampires as well, as they can no longer rely on their invisibility to mirrors to keep them out of pictures. Indeed it creates an exploitable detection method by using two camera lenses, one with a mirror and one without.

I wonder if there are were-domestic cats? They would probably have the easiest time hiding.

Also, hello Last Moon. It's been awhile since we've seen you post here.

[Last Moon]

Hello Athena,

I've had better days. It took finding that clip to get me stirred up enough to post.

In regards to Therianthropes of domestic animals, they certainly exist in the mythology and I believe that there are likely what some would call were-dogs and were-cats amount us. Indeed, cases of extremely intelligent and capable pets or those with an unusual ability for training animals may represent disguised creatures.

Regrettably, the only test is likely to remain catching them in the act of transformation.