Large mystery animal

[jezer]

Dogs aren't so much trouble. They do what you tell them, mostly. I'm reminded of the old country saying, dogs look up to you, cats look down on you, but a pig looks you straight in the eye as an equal, lol.

[Postboxer]

Maybe take the cat to Asda for a lesson in shopping for cat food.

I think a cat caught a squirrel in or near our back garden at some time, all I found was a skinned leg. I'd seen some of the chase and the squirrel seemed injured or ill and wasn't anywhere near as fast as usual.

[661-Pete]

Maybe take the cat to Asda for a lesson in shopping for cat food.

Asda? No self-respecting moggie would be seen dead there! Waitrose at the very least. And it'd jolly well better be top-shelf, top-of-the-range stuff.....

I speak as a former cat-owner, with experience.

[Mick F]

Been out most of today and came home to find that Nellie had been catching squirrels again. This time, she ate most of it and left the residue on the livingroom carpet.

[Mick F]

Nellie just came up the drive carrying a rabbit. Just as I picked up my camera, she put it down and posed.

[661-Pete]

Could we borrow Nellie? We have a bit of a rat problem in our garden and she looks just the part....

[ps I think this is really Tea Shop material...]

[mercalia]

The big animal could be Boris the ex mayor of London - clearly looking for a new job?

[Mick F]

Just to let you all know that Nellie brought in another squirrel earlier. That's three so far in the past week.
She ate it on the livingroom carpet again. All that was left, was the toe end of a back leg, some internal organs, and the tail.

Yes, I've cleaned up after her!

Basically, I'm referring to Nellie as she is just about self sufficient during the spring/summer, but there's not a lot for her to eat from autumn onwards. In order for a "big cat" to be alive and well out there, it has to be quite big to catch prey 12months of the year. Sheep? Deer? Badgers? Foxes?

Nellie - and any domestic cat - couldn't survive in the wild unless she was to enter homes and steal food. Remember, they are carnivores so won't nibble your veg in the back garden!

[al_yrpal]

The big animal could be Boris the ex mayor of London - clearly looking for a new job?

Warning they are farming Boris's somewhere deep in Essex. :-

Al

[iviehoff]

Basically, I'm referring to Nellie as she is just about self sufficient during the spring/summer, but there's not a lot for her to eat from autumn onwards. In order for a "big cat" to be alive and well out there, it has to be quite big to catch prey 12months of the year. Sheep? Deer? Badgers? Foxes?

The wildcat, felix silvestris, the wild ancestor of the domestic cat, is native up to northern Scotland and, on the continent, central Germany. Their main problem in Europe has been occupation of their range by man and his domesticated cats in huge number, and I suspect they ranged further north in continental Europe in the past. There is ample evidence that small wildcats can live in cool temperate areas with cool winters, in places where man has not had so much impact. In southern Chile, there is a very small cat called the kodkod, half the size of a wildcat, which ranges across the cool, wet forests of the far south, though not quite to the southernmost extent. In Argentina, two small cats range to the southernmost point of the mainland, the pampas cat, and, best of all, Geoffroy's cat: the pampas cat is similar in size to a wildcat, the other a notch larger. In the highlands of central Asia, there is a very small wildcat called Pallas's cat.

Large cats can also live in similar habitats. Eurasian lynx are native right to the arctic coast of Scandinavia, and across most of Siberia. They are deer specialists. Canada Lynx are similar in North America. In the Americas, cougars range from roughly 60 degs S to 60 degs N, but they can take prey up to 500kg. The Siberian tiger is today limited to only a very small part of far eastern Siberia, but presumably once ranged much further.

(edited following further research)