ABC's. Alien Big Cats show up all over Britain, as well as all over the world, stealthily avoiding clear photography, leaving DNA samples, or heaven forbid being captured. Sadly, the chances I will witness a large black feline in the early hours of the morning in the English wild woods or hedgerows (as I imagine from Wind in the Willows) are vanishingly slim. There is a whole field for the unknown and out of place creatures, Cryptozoology. A rich vein these days, as new species are found, most notably in the DMZ between North and South Korea. The shadow leopard of Sumatra is a recent discovery. Yeti and lake monsters, chupacabras and mothmen all inhabit the liminal space between reality and myth. The big cats seem to me the most plausible as real.
Cats are elusive and mysterious when they live in one's home, able to vanish into a crack in the wall of reality for hours at a time. Panthers out of place could have more elusive skills. Domestic cats find their way across country to the humans they claim, even in new places. Or away to their own territory when the humans that claim them move away. Large cats could well be following ancestral paths, if they exist factually. Apart from people, but aware of us.
There are stories of cats who take busses, or who round neighborhoods, waiting miles away to be picked up by their humans every day. Cats who survive in moving vans and shipping containers. There was a cat who lived at the Mt. Washington Observatory, a spot in the White Mountains renowned for it's severe weather, at the weather station. Cats appear everywhere but the Antarctic. Where humans go, cats hitch a lift, to see what's there. They don't really need us, but we seem to fascinate them.
Then there are the cats in the walls of old homes, mummified. Put there, presumably intentionally - as magical protection, I wonder if the idea started when a cat just got stuck of it's own accord. Because for all their grace and speed, they do wind up in untenable positions at times. Up trees, in cactus, down sewers, possessing a certain whathehellgiveitago attitude.
And there is a part of us as humans that feels a fierce protectiveness for the young of our own predators. Apes have been eaten by lions, yet Koko had a kitten. The human psyche, probably from before we were human, has absorbed catness into ourselves. A strange mix of affection and fear, the feline is part of who we are. As we see human faces in rocks and trees, we also see huge cats (& dogs) in the shadows. Large, black, terrifying cats.
4 comments:
Beautiful shots & the description!
That clouded leopard's amazing.
This reminds me of The Cat that Walked by Itself, of course, but it amuses me to think how cats and dogs almost certainly took the initiative about domestication.
These bizarre natural history posts seem like a good distraction from the things that have been dragging at you recently, and are entertaining to read too!
Please note that the photos have credits in them, not mine. I have no better citation, although I will gladly add it if I can locate the original source.
This will be the format for the foreseeable future. There are so many subjects in the strange.
I remember Koko and the kitten. It was named 'all Ball' because it was male. Now, why would I remember that?
Well, because the bond between them was so sweet.
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