Posted on 12/10/2005 10:00:17 PM PST by Lorianne
Lion sightings that began being reported in May 2004 have been few and far between for nearly a year. But now, one more big cat encounter is being added to the list. And for this one, there is physical proof.
Like the others who have had sightings before him, Rufus Hurst of Granville man says he knows what he saw. But unlike the others, he has the pictures to prove it.
"That is a very, very, big cat,” Hurst said, referring to the photographs.
"The tail, I mean this thing goes all the way back. I think it's just a big, big cat."
That cat was in Rufus Hurst's backyard Saturday around noon. His wife saw it first and urged him to get his camera.
"Finally, when I did see it, I started taking pictures of this rather large cat."
And 30 minutes after it left, Hurst shot pictures of the paw prints it left behind in the snow. While the pictures may not completely relate how large it is, Hurst says trust him. The cat is huge.
"I would say that animal is in the vicinity of 3 plus feet long and stands at least 30 inches to three feet at the shoulders."
Last year there were several sightings of what some people called a lion. Reports came in from Gahanna, east Columbus and Pataskala among other places.
Hurst says then, he never gave the reported sightings much thought.
"At that point, I just thought maybe those people may have seen something," said Hurst, explaining his past cynicism.
Maybe they saw what they said the saw. Hurst says he knows he did.
Several agencies, including the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, went to Hurst’s home Saturday to investigate the report. Some actually saw the cat for themselves.
Authorities also took plaster molds of its paw prints. However, officials say it will be a while before they determine exactly what type of cat it is.
"And 30 minutes after it left, Hurst shot pictures of the paw prints it left behind in the snow. While the pictures may not completely relate how large it is, Hurst says trust him. The cat is huge.
"I would say that animal is in the vicinity of 3 plus feet long and stands at least 30 inches to three feet at the shoulders."
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This is a CAT GIANT!!!!!!
chupacabra
"Every college has a legend ..."
That is a HUGE cat! I remember this story from last year. The cat in the picture looks pure black, almost like a panther. If I remember correctly, sightings from last year claimed the lion was yellow??
The Big Cat? So that's what Andres Gallaraga has been doing since he retired.
I find this difficult to believe. Compare the size of the man's head to that of the cat.
Over the years, there's been big cat sightings in the suburbs of Boston. Last year, a woman saw a big cat drag a deer it had killed across her lawn. The TV news showed pics of the half-eaten carcass.
Where I grew up (in the Adirondacks), we often had tracks in our backyard. Mountain lions, bear, you name it. More common, however, were just deer, coyote, raccoon.
I have wondered about that pic since I first saw it. Is that cat alive, how much does it weight.
Holy cow! I've never seen a housecat that big in my life!
It's probably that lion, Aslan, from Narnia.
It does look a little funky, doesn't it?
Shrugs...
We have cougars here in southern Michigan... Jackson area... with enough sitings to believe we've got more than 1 or 2.
So why not Ohio?
isn't that an urban legend?
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/bigcat.asp
We live in So Cal. One morning my husband was looking out our bedroom window (we abut a greenbelt hill) and there was a coyote at our fence. Our little dog is a beagle. My husband decided that the coyote's wife must have asked him to go get 'beagles for breakfast'. We never let our dog out by herself. Too many pet cats have disappeared recently. It's winter here, too, and the food supply is diminishing.
Appears to be photoshopped after all!
According to the Ottawa Citizen, the picture actually shows an Edmonds, Washington, man named Cordell Hauglie and his cat Jumper, and the photo was manipulated with PhotoShop to create the effect of a feline of much larger-than-ordinary size. According to Mr. Hauglie:
"My daughter wanted to send an electronic photo of her cat to her friend. I got a little carried away. When we sent it to her friend, we never dreamed anyone would believe the photo was real."
He's had many chuckles over the analysis of the photo. Some viewers assert the cat appears stuffed, while others say it's standing, not being held. Still others suggest the man in the photo doesn't look as though he's holding a 40-kilogram object.
Truth is, he isn't. His son held up the cat for one photo, proving you can suspend a cat in that fashion, and Mr. Hauglie stood in the same light for the next shot.
That looks like a nobob cat. Like the fellow said, that tail goes all the way back.
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