Living in fear of Tigers..

[xyzzy@bok]

As far back as 1968., they had sightings of a puma in Surrey - Never caught. Treaclefight said about lost pythons; Then there's ex-private zoos.. How many dangerous animals in UK ? Possibly Spiders etc? not to mention the attacking behaviour of grey squirrels these days e.g. at Knutsford. Feral cats too? who dares go out at night? And minks.. vicious, 10,000 of those were liberated a few years back by animal rights people.

[treaclefight]

i dont think pumas have terribly long life spans, that one's probably died by now, but i have to concede that ####'s python is still at large in west london somewhere and he cant be the only reptile loving idiot in the country so there must be more. i am more alarmed by stories of squirrel attacks in knutsford tho, i have an elderly relative living there...do you think she's safe? do we have the number for the squirrel police?

[xyzzy@bok]

The squirrel attacks is not a joke though; here are 300 pages about it; So I suspect that your relative is well aware of the havoc in downtown Knutsford. :-]

[xyzzy@bok]

Squirrel Link; http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=30&hl=en&ie=UTF
-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=squirrel+attack+knutsford&btnG=Google+Search&meta= ps. lifespan of a puma is about 18 years.

[rinkytink]

There have been numerous 'sightings' of what people think are big cats (pumas and panthers mainly) living in the British countyside. Unfortunately none of these sightings have ever been substantiated despite the fact that there are some people who now dedicate thier lives to trying to find this proof.

[Squirrel]

Squirrel attacks...in Knutsford?

Where was the snake sighted, Slitheringville?

[Squirrel]

Just to add: there is no need to live in fear of tigers - it's those punk kid squirrels you have to watch out for (in my day, squirrels were well-behaved and courteous...) Plus, even if you were afraid of imminent leopard attack, the chances of it happening are comparable to an elderly pigeon entering a coma in mid-flight, falling to Earth, and hitting you in the head.

[treaclefight]

further research you might find useful, if attacked by a big cat (such as a puma) apparently you stand your ground stare and roar at them, but squirrels operate in gangs (like velociraptors) and your only hope is to run. #####'s escaped snake is reported to quite friendly and didnt need to eat very often so dont worry.

[gazzawazza]

I can honestly say that I believe I have seen one of these big cats.

In about '93 my bro'-in-law hired a cottage for a week to do some fishing at a village near Haydon Bridge in Northumberland and he invited me up for a few days. One evening just before it started to get dark I was standing in the river about 3m from my riverbank when on the far side of the river (about 20-25m) I saw a very large black cat walking along the river bank. The cat was walking along slowly as if it had it's eyes fixed on something further along the bank. Just as it got level with me it turned it's head and then looked straight at me. I estimated it to be about the same size (if not bigger) as a fully grown alsatian. I know cats are not supposed to like water, but believe me, I started to look to the bank for my escape route or something to use as a weapon just in case it suddenly came for me. After about fifteen seconds it turned and continued walking, then it stopped behind some bushes before retracing it's steps back up the riverbank.

I told my bro'-in-law the story in the pub later to much scoffing and ridicule, however about 18 months after this there were reports on the local evening news magazine about a large black cat in that area...

[treaclefight]

dont fishermen always exagerate? for what its worth tho, i think theres been too many sightings of these things for them not to be true.