Harrow 'big cat'.

From Harrow Times - 10th October 2007

A mysterious big cat has been spotted in Kings Langley.The large dark cat, with a big head and bushy tail was sighted on Watford Road on Sunday by an Enfield businessman and a local farmer.Jonathan O'Shea, 33, said: "I couldn't believe it. I was taking my partner to Champneys for her birthday on Sunday at around 8.30am and we went the wrong way and then 70 metres ahead of us we saw something."I couldn't figure out what it was we couldn't register the size of it in our heads. It was mad, crazy."Jonathan, director of Rawstorne Construction and his partner Nicola Sayers, also 33, said the cat was dark brown or black, had a big tail and was the size of a small weimaraner dog.Jonathan said: "I lived in Sweden for a few years and it was bigger than a lynx probably the size of a snow leopard."It wasn't wearing a collar and it wasn't a normal cat because of the way it was moving across the road."It was just the most amazing thing and I haven't stopped talking about it, it was awesome."Charlie Wray, of Wayside Farm in Watford Road, said: "I came back down the farm at around 8am on Sunday and saw something run out into the maize."At first I thought it was a fox but it didn't run like a fox, it held it's head up high. It was dark brown and had a big head."

Mystery Mammal

From the Wimbledon Guardian (UK): 3 Oct. 2007
Is mystery squirrel playing possum after un-Common sighting?

Walkers on Wimbledon Common could be forgiven for thinking they are nuts following reports of a mystery mammal. According to an eyewitness a strange animal similar to a squirrel is hiding out on the common leaving people wondering what kind of beast it could be. So far educated guesses on website Wild About Britain have included the Australasian sugar glider, the North American flying squirrel or another species of possum. Rather more tongue-in-cheek suggestions have included a flying womble - on account of the common being home to the fictional TV characters. Wandsworth's Kolin Barnz, who spotted the beast while on the commen, said: "It was squirrel-like but its face looked more mouse-like, with long whiskers, black eyes and small ears. "As it jumped between trees, flaps of skin stretched between its front and back legs and it gilded to the next tree. I couldn't believe my eyes." How the animal got to its new home is anyone's guess, but it is possible it could be someone's escaped pet.

Cheam 'big cat'

From the Sutton Guardian (UK):
16 Sept. 2007

Large cat 'probably a panther',
After reports in last week's Sutton Guardian of a mysterious "big cat" spotted in the borough, other readers have contacted us. A Cheam resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said she saw a large black cat, resembling a panther, dart across her garden in Fieldsend Road two weeks ago. She said: "I knew it wasn't a fox because they stop and sometimes look at you. Also it was much bigger. "I immediately called my son down, but he was too late to see it and didn't believe me." But Neil Arnold who has been studying large cats in England for 18 years said there was every chance a panther was at large. He said: "These cats were popular as pets during the 1960s and many were released into the wild during the 1970s and 1980s after the introduction of the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act. "I am monitoring around Croydon, Wallington and Purley although this cat could be any of the black leopards - and there are several - within a 70 square mile radius."

'Panther' roaming Carshalton

From the SUTTON GUARDIAN:

A Carshalton man is in shock after reportedly seeing a puma race across his back garden last night.
Darren Mason, 37, from Park Avenue, was about to take in some evening hedgehog spotting with his family when the mysterious black cat darted across his lawn at roughly 8.30pm.
"All of a sudden this large dark animal with long legs and a long tail and the size of a Labrador darted across the back of the garden." he said.
"I turned to my partner and said, What the hell was that?', thankfully she saw it too so it wasn't just me.
"The only way I could describe it was like a puma, it was the way it moved, it was so fast, crossing the garden in seconds."
Have you spotted Sutton's big cat? Call the newsdesk on 020 8330 9541.
12:39pm Tuesday 4th September 2007
By Heather Darlington

Metro Interview with cryptozoologist Richard Freeman

London's Metro interviewed cryptozoologist Richard Freeman in 2006 with regards to his ventures looking for real-life dragons, his opinions on ape-men, and his love of zoology...and Doctor Who!

http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/interviews/article.html?in_article_id=11204&in_page_id=11

Things a flutter...

Escaped vultures, out-of-place heron's, and now Eagle owls soaring in the skies above the capital - in the July of 1997 traffic was brought to a standstill around the roads of St. Paul's Cathedral as the London Fire Brigade attempted to rescue a feathery anomaly perched some 130-ft up on the the cathedral's doors. The bird they were attempting to capture was a European Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo) which stood 20 inches tall with a five-feet wingspan.

The bird was all a flutter some five weeks previous but had apparently escaped some five years before, when it was seen near London Zoo, other sightings took place in Camden, Hyde Park and Regent's Park where it attacked a man's dog as he took a stroll!

Unfortunately on the day of 6th July the bird was found dead by office staff who work opposite the cathedral. The bird was laying face down on a ledge, it had died of a bacterial wasting disease, something unusual in birds. The bird had leather falconry anklets on, proving it was once held in captivity.

The strange insect in the car.

In aletter posted to Fortean Times magazine (March 1998), a William C. Turner wrote of a peculiar encounter with a mysterious insect.

"While driving on the M4 near Junction 4 (Heathrow) in Mid- December (1997 ?) I noticed an insect buzzing around the car. At 70 mph overtaking on the offside lane, it's obviously dangerous to try and swat an agile bug, but I have an aversion to things flying around my head, so I tried to dispatch it. It was reddish, about one inch long, with a similar wingspan, quite fast in flight, aggressive and seemingly tough as I bashed it a couple of times and it still came back at me.

I am familar with ordinary wasps, hornets and horseflies, but this was unlike anything I have seen before. I finally got a good hit in but, when pulling up at traffic lights, I couldn't find a corpse. On getting home I cleared the interiotr of the car hoping to find the body, or some eggs/larvae/chrysalis - in case the car's heater had caused some overwitnering pupae to hatch - but I found nothing. "

Several issues later, a handful of people identified the insect as the Ichneumon Fly (Ophion luteus) also known as the Yellow Ophion, the insect normally appearing as reddish-orange.