Neil Arnold, Kent Big Cat Researcher reviews the recent big cat accounts (below).

"Both accounts are very interesting. The first, regarding the mysterious Sussex footprints, sound very cat-like and it seems quite possible that a large cat, possibly a Black Leopard or Puma, did indeed scratch at the door of the woman's house, especially if had been sniffing around the neighbourhood in the night looking for food, or it may well have been after any pets in the area. Large cats are drawn into built up areas, foxes and domestic cats have been taken as prey on many occasions.

As for the prints which suddenly appeared to stop. The animal may well have simply leapt a great length, onto a fence or over a wall but if this was just an open field that why such prints would suddenly stop in their tracks is very strange.

It may also be worth connecting the legend of the Roman soldiers to cat activity simply because Romans used to have large cats such as Leopards in their arenas so many populations may well have roamed the local forests, escapees from Roman enclosures, this may well be the start of the 'big cat' mystery across the UK.

The attacks on the Hampshire sheep are also very interesting. A large cat like a Leopard wouldn't nip at lambs, it would kill to eat, crushing the wind pipe, a kill would be very clean and certainly not messy. Younger cats in the area could well have been responsible, and whilst large cats exist in the forests of Hampshire I'd need to know more about these kills to be 100% certain even though it's an older case. Foxes and dogs tend to tear, nip and torment such animals and would kill several lambs in a night but a large cat would leave puncture marks to the throat, scratches to the flanks of sheep and with their tongue rasp at the flesh. Young cats may well have been responsible, slightly inexperienced in the kill. Police would not exactly know how to identify a cat-kill. I recall the Hampshire panic with the police scouring the fields, this is quite a common procedure because they like to show a worrying public that they are doing something useful although such a tactic would never flush out such an elusive predator.

Farmers are always losing lambs to large cats and they should be compensated for their losses. Unfortunately, because these animals are not officially recognised, the misunderstandings will continue, police will be unable to deal with such matters and people will continue to take to the fields with guns in the hope of shooting a cat. However, there is more chance of creating a marauding beast by injuring it.

I would be interested to hear of any quirky cat stories or attacks on livestock etc.

Neil Arnold - KENT BIG CAT RESEARCH"

Sussex cat reports from 'Muswell Hill'

"I live in the United States but was born and raised in the London, UK.  A few years ago, my mother, who had moved to a new retirement community in Sussex had a strange experience.  She had returned from a visit to the U.S.  Arriving home late at night, having brought in her luggage and sat down to have a cup of tea, she was so tired that she fell asleep on the couch in the living room.  She awoke to a strange, loud noise in the early hours of the morning.  The noise was a loud, scratching noise at her front door.  It startled her to the point where she decided not to investigate until morning.  After daylight, she opened her front door to find huge claw marks down it.  The front door was inset in a small, open porch.  It had snowed the night before and on the front porch she reported seeing very large cat-like footprints.  The footprints were visible coming up to and onto the porch from one direction and exiting in another direction.  She followed the footprints out across a field when suddenly they just stopped, as if the animal that had made them had disappeared into thin air. 

I should probably also mention that on a hill near the retirement community stood the remains of an old church.  Locals reported psychic phenomenon in the area of the church from time to time, including a legend of ghostly Roman soldiers who would sometimes be seen marching across the land.

My mother died a few years ago and, at this minute, I can not recall the specific town in Sussex she had moved to (previously, she had lived in Norfolk after my father retired).  "

Ashley emailed Yourcounty with a chilling account of attacks on sheep in Hampshire

"Dear sir/madam

I would like to relay to you an Incident that happened exactly 10 year's ago (late october 1994) at the time I was working with my farther who was looking after alot of sheep in different places around the county of Hampshire,We had a large flock of lamb's running three field's on a well known estate in hampshire,these lamb's had been on the estate about 5-6 week's at the time of the incident and had not long been vaccinated,anyway one day my farther went around all the sheep that we had in the county and called in to look at the lamb's which where in the three field's beside a busy main road(I was not with him that day for some reason)he went into the field and found a dead lamb not far from the gate he assumed that it had died from natural causes and continued looking around the flock and found a further two sheep carcasses scattered across the field and some more further on it was clear that something was seriously wrong,he then contacted the police who sent two officer's to the scene obviously they where very sympathtic and understanding and thought that a dog from a nearby traveller's site was responsible,around this time There had been several reported sighting's of a big cat in the county and one of these had made the cover's of a national newspaper(Daily Mail or daily express)there had also been a large hunt to capture or kill the animal by HAMPSHIRE POLICE( which had featured on a regional news programme) but the hunt had ended in failure,as well as the dead sheep we also had 6-7 lamb's that had suffered particually nasty bites to the leg's and body one of which had been mortally injured(had a hole through it's head and out through it's jaw)we where beginning to realise that this was no dog attack because of the severity of the injuries enflicted upon the sheep I myself went with my brother and farther to the scene and saw the sheep that had been injured we where all shocked and shaken by the incident as you can imagine.A couple of day's later my farther went down the police station and returned to tell us that the police strongly suspected that a big cat had been responsible and where very worried and concerned about it.He also told us that he had been told by them to keep quiet and not say anything to anyone for fear of causing public alarm this also included us as well it was annoying at the time but we simply did what we where told.we brought the injured sheep home but could not do anything to save them only one survived,there had also been another similar incident to are's less than half a mile away which confirmed are suspicon's,and although we never saw this big cat we knew it had been responsible for attacking are sheep."

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