Mystery Cats

Boy Attacked by Strange Animal

Tipton, Ind., August 26. – His faithful dog was all that prevented Frank Tomlinson, 11-year-old son of Harmon Tomlinson, residing southeast of Tipton on the Rolla L. Hobbs farm, from being torn to pieces by a strange wild animal which attacked the lad when he was driving the cows from pasture to the house for milking Monday evening [August 25]. The boy is suffering from a broken collar bone and numerous bites and scratches as the result of the attack and his clothes were nearly torn from him in the encounter. The strange animal was described by the boy as [...]

Strange Animal at Knobs

August 25 – Residents of the Knobs section, near Union, [West Virginia] report the presence of a strange, bewhiskered animal having short forelegs and a long tail which curls at the end. Garfield Seers, an employee of the George Irons farm, said he saw the animal emerge from a deep undergrowth and vanish into adjoining timber a short time ago. He described it as being considerably larger than an average-sized police dog [German shepherd]. Ernest Bowyer, Knobs resident, and E. E. McGinley, Narrow timber agent, also reported seeing “the beast,” giving a similar description. No loss of stock, however, has [...]

Cryptic Sightings Roundup

Orange-bellied Parrot (Neophema chrysogaster). Photograph courtesy of Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife Service. There’s been nothing new on the Mystery Kangaroos in Mississippi seen along I-90, but that doesn’t mean people haven’t still been sighting them. We just haven’t heard about it. So what else has been going on? Here’s a weekend roundup of other recent appearances and sightings from around the world of cryptic animals and cryptids. Ignoring the more mundane news of big blue whale sightings off the coast of California, shark sightings near Cornwall, UK, and hundreds of Australian jellyfish encounters in the Gulf of Mexico, how about [...]

Cryptid Cat: Maine Mystery Despite Fox Fur

This photograph was not published again with all the articles being run in New England (from Boston to Bangor) today on the results of the DNA sampling. Oakland — A scrap of hair and skin from a rock where an Oakland man reported seeing a mountain lion came from a fox, according to a state biologist. Still, the results of DNA testing on the sample neither prove nor disprove Oakland resident Kelvin Higgins’ assertion that he saw a mountain lion in his yard on a warm day in April, according to Keel Kemper, a state wildlife biologist. “There are a [...]

Fremont Lion Found Dead At School

When I was investigating mountain lion, puma, mystery cat, and black panther reports in the 1970s, many accounts from northern California were not believed. For example, in 1973, from Concord to Danville, California, people reported seeing a black panther. (Source: Vallejo Times-Herald, March 5, 1973.) I guess times have changed in those neck of the woods. A Fremont Unified School District employee received a very unusual greeting at work in Fremont, [California] Monday [August 13, 2007]: a dead 80-100-pound mountain lion sprawled in front of an elementary school parking lot. The animal appeared to have been struck by a vehicle [...]

Beyond Mothman: I-35W Blues

Things fall down. People look up. And when it rains, it pours.Magnolia, 1999. The collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minnesota is a tragedy, some say of epic proportions. Certainly, it is the most significant bridge collapse, not caused by an easily visible external reason like an earthquake or an impact from a barge, since 1967. An Anomaly National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker said it is too early for officials to know if the accident could have been avoided. “They are built not to fall down. This is an anomaly and we’re going to try to find out [...]

Attack Panther “Like a Woolly Mammoth”

The photograph of the “Sidney Mystery Cat” taken in Maine late in June 2007. Articles about incidents in British Columbia, Ontario, and Maine have appeared recently, detailing breaking news and updates about mountain lions, cougars, panthers, puma or whatever you wish to call these great cats (Puma concolor) of North America. Here’s a roundup of panther news, from west to east: A cougar attack has left Colton Reeb with strange memories, but little fear of the big cats that roam rural areas such as the B.C. Interior region where the 12-year-old was scratched and bitten this week. “Colton remembers seeing [...]