Peckham Rye - Mystery with tail

[AllforNun]

Just walking my 2 dogs late this evening in the rye when one of them started acting really strangely near the back of the garden area. Then something came out of the shrubs and started to walk across the path into the picnic area. At first i thought it was a fox then realised that it was actually bigger than my dog, which is a young labrador. It stopped for a few seconds and stared at the 3 of us, i then noticed that its tail was long thin and fairly large curling up over its back and it had sandy colored fur with a leopard patching. It dawned on me that this was some kind of wild cat, then seconds later a 2nd one smaller appeared along side it and they both turned and headed of up the path and towards the wooded area. My dogs refused to follow and turned around. I must say i was pretty freaked out. Unable to blame this on any local quango or liberal executive plot i am at a loss to explain what the hell they were. I stared at them for a good 20 seconds at about 15ft and have no idea what i was looking at..........?

[jimbo1964]

Crikey!

[DeptfordDiva]

oooh, take a camera with you next time so we can see.

[tommy]

?

http://www.britishbigcats.org/images/cms/bodmin%20card%20board%20cut%20out.jpg

[AllforNun]

i know crikey indeed ! it a weird feeling when you can not actually place something and my dogs went all weird as well, how come they just don't think it is just another animal, how would they know it/they were somehow odd ?

(tommy) they were smaller than that, this is going to sound even weirder but they had that hunched up body type of Hyena's, but obviously not as big.

[Louisa]

Allfornun this would be the 'wild cat of peckham rye', not sure if you remember but about 30 years ago there was an article in a local newspaper about sightings of a big cat in the park and eventually it was all forgotten about and put down to exaggeration or just a domestic cat that was now living wild. But the story has popped up a few times over the years and many sightings of this animal/animals have been seen. I have not personally seen it yet but I think I too would be rather freaked out. I wonder if the SLP will jump on this one (yet again).

Louisa

[Andystar]

I'm sleeping with one eye open tonight.. :'(

[????]

Clown or ghost...one of the two

[sweetgirl]

scary shit.....

[JetSetWilly]

Howletts Zoo, near Canterbury, recently had an escape of Dholes, which don,t sound too dissimilar to what you saw, problem is I think they were all either shot or recaptured.

[Michael Palaeologus]

FANTASTIC!

Finally, we have a an ED Mystery Big Cat, we have lacked this and I am so pleased that we have not one but two, maybe a breeding pair? Lets hope so. It might keep the squirrels and parakeets down.

I was in Dulwich Park ther day and I am sure I saw something strange, dark, glossy, muscular (not Dulwichmum's leg) slipping through the waters of the lake ...

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Sure it wasn't the lesser spotted aquacactus?

[macroban]

Friern Farm cat.

Bad portent.

[trinity]

Clouded leopards have very long tails - they have one at London Zoo but lets hope its still there as they have very nasty bites.

[DontForgetTheGoldfis]

This link is from a few years ago but this Panther or Lynx seems to creep up every couple of years. There are big cats out therehttp://www.webhostingtalk.com/archive/index.php/t-387281.html

Some estimates say there could be up to 100 big cats lurking in Britain. Such sightings, dating back to the 1920s, fall into three categories - panther, puma or lynx-type cats.

The most famous, The Beast of Bodmin Moor, was captured on video in Cornwall in 1998.

The 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act forced exotic pet owners to get rid of their animals because it cost too much to keep them, so lots were let loose. You'd think they were dead by now but there are so many similiar sightings and in similiar areas all the time.

Quite exciting really :-)

[bigbadwolf]

Don't worry everyone me and the gang will look into this as I can't have some lost mountain cat wondering around untaxed.

[Brendan]

If, of course you hadn?t just been picking the mushrooms growning on Peckham Rye, it may have been a serval

http://www.brandywinezoo.org/images/serval_cat.jpg

Or an ocelot

http://www.cincinnati.com/postcard/img/photos/ocelot_zoobabyB.jpg

Or a similar type of wild cat as in recent years cat breeders have experimented with interbreeding these cats with moggies to create new breeds of domestic cat.

So maybe a few escaped.

[Ted Max]

I seen several servals

And wot a lot of ocelots

As I walked

Through Peckham Rye Park

I seen moles, rats and polecats

And cougars shooting Lugers

As I walked

Through Peckham Rye Park

But I never seen a beaver yet

Nor even just one marmoset

As I walked through

Peckham Rye Park

No I never seen a beaver yet

Even by the badger set,

So I won't walk through

Peckham Rye Park

[Louisa]

Stunning poetry TM.

Louisa.

[Brendan]

Been out picking mushrooms Ted?

[Moos]

Could explain the daffodil dilution in the Park too, buggers for 'em those wild cats are.

[AllforNun]

their fur was nothing like that brendan, it looked pretty rough and matted. Not that Dholes thing either, slighty too large and dog like.

[Ted Max]

That's one purty cat, right there, Moos. There's a certain regal haughtiness that's familiar, though.

[Huggers]

could it have been the giant rabbit?

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I thought an ocelot was a submarine.