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Rumor about big cat in Spain.


Galego

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Hello, everyone. It's been a while since I stopped visiting the forums, but since I'm unemployed again and with too much free time, here I am.

Anyway, I wanted to tell you about a rumor that is growing in popularity in my city.

I am from Galicia, a region located in the northwest of Spain. I currently live in one of the major Galician cities. Not the biggest or the most populated, but one of the most important.

And the thing is, some people claim there is a big cat on the loose in the wooded areas around the city. Some even claim seeing the strange feline in the parks inside the actual city. They blame this "beast" for the disappearance of pets in the last two years.

It is true that in the last few years some dogs, and specially cats, have gone missing. I have some theories about that more plausible than a panther attack, but lately people are blaming the loss of their domestic animals on an unknown large feline.

I don't buy it. It's just not possible.

The forests around the city are too small for a big cat to find refuge. Not to mention the parks. Which, by the way, some of them are in the medieval part of town (where I live right now), fairly close to the Cathedral and other buildings of touristic and historic interest. And I can tell you that this part of the city is full of security cameras. There are four cameras just in the small square outside my apartment. So, unless this kitty has some kind of cloaking device worthy of Bigfoot itself, it should have been recorded by now.

Some people defend the existence of the big cat saying that similar things had happened in Galicia before, with the animals remaining undetected for a year or more. And that it's true. I remember a case in a city called Ourense, ten or fifteen years ago. A black panther, possibly escaped from a circus, roamed the forests near the city attacking livestock and feeding off the local fauna, until it was captured. And there are more cases, specially during the nineties, in all the Iberian Peninsula. But here? No way.

The area where most people claim sighting the "beast" is near a park close to a wooded area, in the outskirts of town. It is a poorly illuminated neighborhood, with old apartment buildings and some houses. It's a miserable part of town, where the rent is cheap and the housings are ****. I lived there for two years, until I moved to my current residence, this month. And in those two years I never saw a ******* lion. I saw a lot of disturbing, creepy and sad things in that neighborhood. A lot of poverty. A lot of misery. A lot of racism. A lot of drugs. But no tigers. Although it is true that most of the missing pets disappeared from places close to that particular area.

During that time, I used to take night walks on the park. Sometimes with my girlfriend, sometimes alone. I know certain wildlife sneaks in at night from the nearby woods, looking for food. Mostly squirrels and the occasional fox. I even saw a boar once, eating from a dumpster. The population of wild boars has grown a lot around this area in the last years, and they are becoming less afraid of humans and venturing into the limits of the city. Maybe some people are mistaken them for a big cat. I told that to a friend that believes in the panther's existence, and she answered me that boars don't eat dogs or cats. Well, that's true. But I noticed that most of the missing dogs in the last years belong to big and medium-sized species. German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, and the like. I think they are being stolen and used for sparring practices. For dog fights. I has happened before. Here in this very same city. Some humans are disgusting pieces of **** like that.

And about the cats, well... I also noticed that the first to disappear were the housecats. The neighborhood, and the ones nearby, were flooded with "missing cat" poster. Then, after a while, the stray cats started to disappear as well, although much more slowly. Because they are harder to catch and less appealing.

You see, I have a cat that I found on the street when he was about a month old, and took him home with us. So when all the cats around my neighborhood went missing, I started to investigate a little.

There is an old Spanish proverb that says "Dar gato por liebre". It figuratively means that someone tries to trick you giving you something worst than what you agreed to. But it literally means "Serve cat instead of hare". And it has it's origin in an old swindle that consisted in precisely that. People are eating cats. And I suspect that some restaurants are serving them as they were rabbit.

They started with the housecats because they are healthier and not feral. I told the police, but nobody ******* listened. Then I told an Animals Protection Society. They did listened, but there is not much they could do.

Now, If somebody tries to eat my cat, he is in deep trouble. But I can understand (not approve) that if you and your family are starving, you will do anything to feed them. Things are bad around here. What I don't ******* understand is how someone could be such a piece of human garbage capable of kidnapping a cat, cook it as it were rabbit, serve it to others, and charge money for it. It makes me wish there was in fact a gigantic feline loose on the city that would do the same to them. But I'm getting away from the point of this post. Forgive me. I haven't slept much lately, and have a lot in my mind these days.

Going back to the big cat topic. The same friend of mine I talked about earlier says she has a friend that has proof of the existence of a large feline in the woods near the city. Supposedly, she has pictures of this animal's footprints. I asked if I could see them. She told me she will ask her friend. That was last Thursday. And no answer yet. Who knows. Maybe those pictures don't exist. Maybe they do, and the prints are those of a regular cat. Or maybe, and I highly doubt it because they are not common in this particular area, the so called "beast" is nothing more than a wildcat and those prints belong to it. But it's unlikely. And this doesn't look like a lion to me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcat

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Es el diablo de Sud America. Es el chupacabra.

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Perhaps the extremely rare Iberian Lynx? Also I always wonder about escapes from Circuses or even private owners. A leopard, being both stealthy and nocturnal might go unnoticed and survive quite well on pets and livestock.

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Hammerclaw, tenemos diablos de sobra por aquí. No necesitamos robarle los suyos a los sudamericanos :tu:.

Sundew, if it were true, that would be awsome. The Iberian Lynx it's supposed to be extinct in Galicia since the 80's. There are a few of them in southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula, but their numbers are scarce. It is true that some people claim to see them in my land from time to time, but the last confirmed sighting was in the nineties, and it was said that the feline came from Zamora. And about the escaped leopard, it has happened before, as I said. But I don't think that's the case this time. I don't find it possible. People are claiming to see the animal not only in isolated areas, but also in parks with security cameras in it's entrances. And as I said, this beastie was supposed to be lurking the city since 2012. Hard to believe nobody recorded it or took a picture. Not to mention that the area where most alleged sightings have ocurred was the same I lived in back then. And I never saw any evidence that suggested the presence of such a creature.

If I get my hands on those supposed pictures of it's footprints, we will see if there is any truth about our big kitty. But I don't think so. I think Hammerclaw it's right is all mass hyst... errrr.... I mean, the Chupacabras.

Edited by Galego
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Hammerclaw, tenemos diablos de sobra por aquí. No necesitamos robarle los suyos a los sudamericanos :tu:.

Sundew, if it were true, that would be awsome. The Iberian Lynx it's supposed to be extinct in Galicia since the 80's. There are a few of them in southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula, but their numbers are scarce. It is true that some people claim to see them in my land from time to time, but the last confirmed sighting was in the nineties, and it was said that the feline came from Zamora. And about the escaped leopard, it has happened before, as I said. But I don't think that's the case this time. I don't find it possible. People are claiming to see the animal not only in isolated areas, but also in parks with security cameras in it's entrances. And as I said, this beastie was supposed to be lurking the city since 2012. Hard to believe nobody recorded it or took a picture. Not to mention that the area where most alleged sightings have ocurred was the same I lived in back then. And I never saw any evidence that suggested the presence of such a creature.

If I get my hands on those supposed pictures of it's footprints, we will see if there is any truth about our big kitty. But I don't think so. I think Hammerclaw it's right is all mass hyst... errrr.... I mean, the Chupacabras.

A que bueno! Yo entendi. Here we have bears that wander into the city from time to time. Our big cat sightings are of cougars although none have been confirmed. More probable they are of bobcats, the cousin of the lynx. :yes: Edited by hammerclaw
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A que bueno! Yo entendi. Here we have bears that wander into the city from time to time. Our big cat sightings are of cougars although none have been confirmed. More probable they are of bobcats, the cousin of the lynx. :yes:

When I was up in the North Carolina mountains, I had a Bobcat wander through the back yard about twenty feet from the back door, go under a trellis and turn and look at me in the glass doorway. Then it just wandered off unconcerned. Since I was alone in the mountains I went on line to see if Bobcats are known to attack humans and was relieved to find out that typically they leave people alone unless sick or injured. There are lots of rabbits and turkeys up there so I doubt he goes hungry very often. Never saw the cat again.

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Eldorado and Sundew, you almost killed me with "El Felix" Jajajajaja :w00t:

A que bueno! Yo entendi. Here we have bears that wander into the city from time to time. Our big cat sightings are of cougars although none have been confirmed. More probable they are of bobcats, the cousin of the lynx. :yes:

There are not many bears in Galicia, or even in Spain, and they rarely venture into civilized zones. In fact, I've never seen one, although I spend a lot of time in the border between Galicia and Asturias, where they supposedly live.

When I was up in the North Carolina mountains, I had a Bobcat wander through the back yard about twenty feet from the back door, go under a trellis and turn and look at me in the glass doorway. Then it just wandered off unconcerned. Since I was alone in the mountains I went on line to see if Bobcats are known to attack humans and was relieved to find out that typically they leave people alone unless sick or injured. There are lots of rabbits and turkeys up there so I doubt he goes hungry very often. Never saw the cat again.

If they are anything like the lynx, they are rabbit eaters. So don't worry about it.

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