THE BIG BLACK CATS
Do they really exist?

  Hello again!. This time I thought I would approach a case which really divides public opinion… do big cats really roam our English countryside?. To begin with, I must declare a built-in bias on this subject, since I have come across one of these rather large pussy cats, late one night, as I drove back over Woodbury Common. About seven or so years ago, at 11.30pm approx.  I was driving down towards Exmouth, along Bystock road. Just as I passed a wood on my left, I spotted a large, black shape, just lying in the middle of the road. At first I thought it might be a deer, lying injured in the road, so I slowed down and turned my headlights onto full beam, to establish just what was going on!. As I came to a halt, the shape moved, and this head seemed to rise up from it!. As it stared at me, the headlights caught its eyes..they reflected back with a beautiful orange glow. The unmistakable outline of a big cat’s head surrounded these eyes. The cat was large, very large!, some 4-5 ft long, with a tail almost as long. It stood up, just opened it’s mouth, as if to growl at me, and slowly leap up into the woods on the left!.

Now, yours truly, as a seasoned researcher, with a newly charged camera in my glove box, should have managed to get some really good shots of this creature...did I?..to my shame I have to report that I did not!..I was too busy locking my doors, and nearly peeing myself in fright! Oh!, the shame of it all!.

Now, that is my experience of big cats around us, here in East Devon. But I am, by no means alone!. Big cats have been spotted fairly regularly in places such as Higher Hulham road in Exmouth, Wright lane, on Woodbury Common, and at numerous other locations across our region. The sheer number of good, reliable witnesses, and footprints etc, that have been collected over the years, leads one to assume that these creatures really do exist. If we assume that they do indeed roam over our commons and woodlands, then one has to ask oneself how they came to be here in the first place?. For my money, the answer lies in a mixture of both the results of a piece of legislation, passed in the seventies, called the Dangerous Animal Act, which made it illegal to own such a cat, without having a very expensive cage and license.  Certain reckless owners then released their cats into the wild, rather than pay to conform to the law. I am also of the opinion that certain breeds of large cat have been indigenous to our countryside for a very long time, the lynx being one such animal. Mix the two together and here lies the answer to the mystery.

Until the next time, happy hunting to you all!!!....