"Baldoni" wrote in message
...
William Graham presented the following explanation :
"Baldoni" wrote in message
...
William Graham formulated on Thursday :
"Baldoni" wrote in message
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William Graham formulated on Thursday :
"Paul M. Cook" wrote in message
news:TUAjj.39255$UX2.31668@trnddc08...

"Baldoni" wrote in message
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I have 3 cats but a few months ago one of them came home with this
creature he had picked up. He did not kill it but the 3 of them
were
chasing it around but neither of them would harm it.

It managed to get under the furniture and so I was able to catch
it.
It had been making a squeaking noise and was about the same size as
a
mouse. But it had no front legs and a sort of bottle nose like a
dolphin.

My first thought was that it was a baby hedgehog but they have
front
legs. Does anyone know what it might be or has anyone had their
cats
bring in something similar ?

I took the creature back out and put him under the fence which
borders
the woodland. He was not hurt and soon took off. I kept my cats
indoors for a while so they would not bring him back.



Gopher or a vole.

Paul


Could be a kangaroo rat.....It depends on where he lives......

The UK.

-- Count Baldoni


Oh.....I think Kangaroo rats are native to the American
Southwest.....but who knows? people who like pets might bring one
anywhere.......

Well we are over run by the American Gray Squirrel which is not a native
of our shores. I believe the Australians have a problem with the fox
and rabbit.

-- Count Baldoni


And the dingo too, if I recall correctly. But once people started sailing
their ships around the globe, it became inevitable that species would
eventually migrate everywhere. I understand that there are even some wild
leopards in GB. Or maybe that's just a wild tale like our
"bigfoot".......

They seem to think there are big cats out on the moors and countryside. I
think a lot of them are feral cats that were living on industrial sites
like steelworks.

I read tonight that a small steelworks employing 300 people that closed
have 100 semi feral cats that a animal refuge are trying to take care of.
There was a bigger place that employed about 11,000 at its peak and a
relative of mine said the cats were a hell of a size that lived there.

There are supposed to be big cats in places like Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor
but a trapper came over from Canada and dismissed the idea in his opinion
as he could find not one shred of evidence, ie scratch marks, that a big
cat was on the loose.

When we approach spring/summer the sightings will increase and anything
from black labradors to old duffel coats will get reported as big cat
sightings.

--
Count Baldoni


Yeah.....We have the same problem here. It's impossible to separate the real
sightings from those of the "kooks", so you never know what to believe. Many
years ago, I used to get the GB publication, "New Scientist" through
Stanford University, where I worked. In one issue back in the 70's or early
80's there was an article about two Brits who were stomping out crop circles
as a joke, and getting their midnight art published in the local newspapers.
When the British government announced that they were going to spend 50
thousand Pounds investigating the phenomenon, these guys turned themselves
in, so their government wouldn't waste the money. "We did it" they said. "It
was just a big joke, so don't waste any money investigating it."
Well, I sure wish I had saved that issue, because I have been hearing
about crop circles ever since. Nobody cares that it was just a hoax
perpetrated by those two Brits, they want to believe in crop circles, and by
God, they are going to believe in them no matter what! Tens of thousands of
acres of corn and wheat fields have been stomped out here in the US since
that article was published, and the cult of people who believe that it was
all done by aliens from outer space is so large that they even have their
own lobbies in congress to get the money appropriated to them to investigate
the phenomenon. The two British guys who started it all were worried about
their government wasting money on it, and there are tens of thousands of
guys here in the AUS who are gleefully laughing at the prospect of their
government spending millions investigating it. - I guess that pretty well
illustrates the difference between the way British subjects and Americans
think.....