Actually, I sent Liberty a PM about this the other day, but my son and I both saw an ENORMOUS black cat when we were in France (picture below). It doesn't look nearly as big in the picture, because by the time I got my camera into play, he had alerted to us watching him, and he walked away from us, so this picture is from perhaps 50-75 yards away. We were at the village of Saint-Germain-de-Confolens, where there are the ruins of an ancient castle on top of a hill overlooking the village. We were in one of the castle towers at the corner of two walls, and there was a vineyard below us. The cat was in the vineyard, and comparing his size to the vines, which were in full growth it being mid-August at the time, that cat was at least the size of a large Labrador retriever. He looked just like a big black leopard. When he noticed us watching him, he walked off down the hill between two rows of vines, under the wood rail fence at the bottom of the hill, and onto this long driveway, about 4 or 5 feet below the wood fence. That put us about 50 or 60 feet above and about 50-75 yards behind him. But he was YUGE, and we both saw it the same way, so my eyes weren't playing tricks on me.Jusme wrote:Wow you actually saw one of these? And managed to get a photo?
Forward your picture immediately to the Smithsonian so they can send a team down to investigate.
I'm just glad you didn't fall victim to this obviously dangerous predator. I would make sure anything smaller than a full grown Hereford bull was safely brought into the house, for the night!
He sauntered on up that driveway, toward where there was a large secluded manor house on top of a hill, semi-hidden in a grove of trees - very spooky.
This Google Maps screen shot shows the topography:
My take on it is that once in a while a domestic cat will grow to enormous size. A buddy of mine who grew up on Worschester, MA told me about a cat they had until after he graduated from college that was big enough to stand on its hind legs and filch food off the kitchen counter. It wasn't any kind of special breed, other than being part Manx and having no tail. He showed me a picture of his mother (whom I have met, so I KNOW it was her) standing at their kitchen counter, with that cat next to her, standing on his hind legs, investigating whatever it was she was doing.