Hey all. Just thought I'd share this. It was in a local newspaper yesterday. I scanned the article with accompanying photo, which really isn't great quality, but it could be the prinitng. What do you all think?



Article can also be found here. No pic though I'm afraid. Have to makedo with this site for pics.


This is where abouts in Scotland it was, for those who are interested.


lol you can see the nearest town to me top right

What do people think of the photo? Dark tail but fawn colour? Pic looks a little like a dog, but my guess would be a puma if any cat. I like the "Unfortunately the couple were only able to get one photograph as the battery of their digital camera gave up"... And how!


Any takers?

Well, I can tell you what it AIN'T, but what it IS...can't tell. That's a pretty decent pic, which tells me that it's not your typical cryptid-photo ......the battery running-out after one pic is a bit dubious, though.

do you stay near the area where the photo was shot?

Not really. If you look at the arrow, and then go directly up, to near the top of the map, you'll see a small place called Forfar. That's the closest town to me. Actually it's not THAT far away, probably under an hour. Maybe not far off half an hour to 45 minutes. There have been a few sightings around Forfar, and especially around where I live. Seems the east coast of Scotland gets its fair share of sightings.

I cant tell from the pic what type of animal it is. But it is 4 legged animal running away and what ever it is it is big. You can tell this by the distence from the dog to the cat. even wile its 100 feet away the animal almost dwarfs the dog. there dog looks like a large breed i cant see to clearly but i think its some sort of great dame mix. If thats true its not another dog its to big to be another dog. it could be some sort of large cat.

I do believe that there are some big, wild cats living secretly around Britain.....but my reaction to this picture, is that it is a large male Siamese cat that has bristled its tail up...and postured its body in a way to maximise its size...to try and frighten off the dog.

The coloring DOES look alot like a Siamese, but bristled-up or not, that would have to be a pretty large cat either way.

Most definitely a Siamese cat. That breed of dog (I forget the name) is a medium size breed at most. And I think the perspective has a lot to do with the look of the size. Like the pics of the camel spiders that make them look like they are a freakin foot long? Ah yes, even photography can't be trusted now-a-days. What a shame.

Well the first thing that grabbed me about this was the 100 yards away from the dog claim. Looking at the picture it certainly doesn’t look like the dog and cat are 100 yards from each other. Maybe 100 feet at the most. It looks like the cat is trying to make it to the other side of those weeds the dog is beside.

As for the type of cat I agree its either Siamese or a breed of Himalayan. Having what appears to be long fur and the dark color at the bushy tail and face I am leaning towards Himalayan. See here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_(cat)

My mom also had one of these cats as I was growing up. They can survive quite happily outside during the day. They don’t have to be a pampered show cat. Also this male Himalayan she had was a good sized cat. Certainly not 3+ feet long or anything but I believe the size this picture suggests to me is certainly possible. The families cocker spaniel that’s in the picture is a small-medium sized dog. That also gives us a good idea of scale.

It’s a large house cat and not the beastly animal that is being claimed. Thats my take on it.

Kevin

It does look a lot like a puma, but remember Occam's Razor. 'Tis probably a sandy-coloured domestic cat.

Well the dog looks like a spaniel of some sort, so it woun't be that big. The cat could be a Birman. They look like hairy Siameses

Yeah, actually, the cat looks do like siameses, and a VERY hairy one, just like you said, RKD. Is there a possibility that the cat was a breed of a runaway pet cat with um..wild cat? I'm sorry for my ignorance, but is there are any wild cats in Scotland? Could it be just like the liger (lion-tiger) breed that keeps growing on size?

Hey, that's what I said........sort of.
I'm kind of surprised the paper even published it. I'd like to see other photos of the area with 2 people in place of the critters.

Its a dog and a normal cat.

Yes Im pretty much saying the same thing. More or less it seems.

It must have been a slow news day if they resorted to printing this. You would think someone at the paper would have looked at the picture and dismissed the claims being made.

It does look like a cat, But it's hard to say how big it really is.....

Aww that's it! It's just one of those lamb half anteaters... VERY rare indeed.

It's clearly a normal cat and not very far away.
There are big cats in Britain, beyond doubt, there's no need to squint at bad pictures of tiddles.
This is a still from CCTV footage.



The footage is here, along with a documentary where an expert says "Yep, Puma."

http://www.shropshirestar.co.uk/2006/12/is...ystery-big-cat/


There are many websites devoted to the British big cat. Google it.
The question is not if they are in Britain, just where.
Also some people are speculating that we now or will eventually have a hybrid population cos of breeding with domestic, feral or wild cats. Imagine your mum's surprise when Fluffy gives birth to a litter of mini panthers.
Don't know if that's possible or not, but you can have ligers and tigons, so...
Personally I reckon there's a big cat tourist firm running and these animals are on a package tour.
If you look carefully at the footage, you can see the camera around its neck.

it seems to have a very bushy type tail,I know cats,and im not sure it is a cat...but I could not say for sure,whatever it is,its no domestic animal

of course,many cats have bushy tails...but this one looks different

I'm certainly more concerned about the giant black worm in the background. I can imagine why the common siamese cat was startled.

Seriously, what is in the background? If that cat is 100 yards away, whatever is in the background must be HUGE!

Is that link broken?
All I see is a black kitty cat!

I believe those are bales of hay wrapped in black plastic. In my area its a pretty common sight to see lines of these bales all lined up like that. They look like round bales and I found this info about thier approx size.

"Large round balers come in a wide range of sizes. The smallest balers produce a full-sized bale approximately 4 ft wide by 4 ft in diameter. The largest balers make bales nearly 8 ft wide by 6 ft in diameter."

Another piece of evidence this just perspective messing with a house cat. The cat nor the bales are 100 yards away. I wish I would have picked up on this sooner. Nice catch.