Why Big Cats?

My interest in Big Cats was not awkend until I was about fourteen. I used to spend many hours playing out and about in the countryside of Lincolnshire & was a keen fisherman and hunter. I used to bush-beat with a local shoot and had my own area of land I used to go rabbiting on with my trusty Bedlington Terrier, ‘Blue’. On day whilst near a stream I saw what I thought were huge cat prints. I showed my mates who were altogether impressed. I then let family know…who quite frankly pooh-poohed the notion. Interestingly, near to this stream was a large wood which none of my mates or myself liked to go in for any length of time (we would always shun going in there unless it was a dare). I will come back to this later.

Around this time I became interested in learning to shoot with shotguns and 4/10’s (I had owned an air rifle for years) and palled on with some mates of my dad who had shooting rights at a local wood. A few months later they offered to take me shooting with them and to learn how to shoot a 4/10.  They picked me up mid-afternoon and we headed to the wood, yes you have guessed it was the wood all us kids would not go in. I said nothing to them about this as I felt they would think I was a wimp…which was the case. I said to myself, ‘two adults who can hunt and shoot, two shotguns and a 4/10, no problem’. I began to relax a bit. An hour or so later I’d forgot about the’ ‘scary’ wood and was learning to shoot the 4/10. Suddenly, X stopped and said, ‘its gone quiet’. It had, nothing was moving & nothing was making a noise, the place suddenly felt threatening. Y said it was nothing and carried on teaching me to shoot when suddenly he looked at Y and said, ‘time to go I think’. Y said, ‘we will bring you back another time’. I can’t say I was disappointed, as I just wanted to leave the           god-forsaken place. The thirty-minute walk back to the car was very tense….both X & Y said very little and kept stopping to look around (oddly they had not unloaded or broken their shotguns which is usual when walking through heavy undergrowth). We got back to the car and they both visibly relaxed. I then chirped up and explained that me and my mates very rarely went in the wood, as it was frightening. Y said, ‘I’d keep out if it if I was you, I’ve never been frightened like that before’ and then lapsed into silence.

I never linked that with the cat prints until now. Two experienced adults who knew the countryside. Who often lamped at night (with me in tow) who would spend hours on their own in deserted parts of the country side, getting very worried in a wood they had permission to shoot in and both, ‘tooled’ up to the eyeballs….something had spooked them.  What I did link with Big Cats was a interview on Calendar News with a lorry driver, about a month later, who had pulled up in a lay-by on the A1 for his dinner and had watched a huge, ‘big black cat’ walk near the lay by in the field next to it. I then listened and read any reports of these animal in the press for years telling everyone they were out there (without any evidence to support my claims apart from my cat prints) but I felt smug knowing that I knew.

Then several years ago whilst online I decided to type Big Cats into my search engine………and this website and my active participation and investigations of Big Cats is the result. I hope this story explains why I do what I do?

I suppose now after my experiences investigating Big Cat sightings should have a better explanation on what went off in the woods all those years ago.  To be honest I have never spoken to the chaps about it having lost contact when I moved down here to Bedford (but now its fresh in my mind next time I’m travelling that way I will look them up). All I can say is something frightened them & I don’t know what or why that was!!