SIGHTINGS of small carnivorous cats, often with tabby or ginger fur, are on the increase, it was claimed last night.
Recent evidence includes a blurry photograph of a black-and-white coloured male cat, or ‘tom’, taken in a house, and a masticated vole carcass discovered near Swindon.
Cat experts believe that the creatures escaped from travelling sideshows in the early 1900s and have since formed breeding colonies.
Small cat expert Julian Cook, said: “Travellers would come through rural areas with makeshift circuses. They would have small big tops in which cats wearing waistcoats and trilbies would perform Vaudeville dance numbers with the help of wires attached to their paws.
“However the Queen passed a law known as the Cats Act, which made it illegal for anyone to own a cat without signing onerous forms. The travellers were unable to read or write and thus released their cats into the wild.”
Cat sightings continue to rise around the UK and attract passionate interest among the sort of people who arrive very early at car boot sales and subscribe to Combat magazine.
Tom Logan, a 33-year-old Brighton plumber, claims to have seen a white cat with a bit of black on it on his window sill.
“It was about the size of a small labrador puppy. It stared at me for about three minutes, bold as brass, before jumping silently off of the window ledge.
“The animal then did a little piss on my lawn before retreating towards a neighbouring house, where it disappeared through a small square hole with a sort of plastic flap that had been cut in their door.
“Naturally I rushed over to warn them. But they were out, so I left a note.”
He added: “Everyone says I’m mental, but I know what I saw.”
