10 replies to this topic

[NiftyWolfie]

While I was working at a nursing home situated at Milford, I was doing a stint of night shifts, at this time I didn't own a car at all so was forced to push bike to work. Now it was a long 7 mile journey for me to get from home to work and it was along the A513 which is unlit for most of the journey.

One night during the week as I was push biking to work i had gone past the Wolselley Arms pub and was just coming up the A513 when I heard a "commotion" in the forest to my left. I thought at the time that maybe I had startled a heard of Deer from grazing and that was what the sound was, so I carried on riding down the road to work.

After a few hundred yards i could hear the sound of something in the forest moving parallel to me as I moved up the road. If I speeded up so did the noise, I thought that maybe someone was having a joke on my behalf. As I came out of the forest and the ground to my left gave way to grassy areas I couldn't hear no see anything there. However once we were back into the trees the noise resumed and carried on till I came to the Dog Boarding Kennels where the noise finally stopped. I do remember the dogs there barking but they did that most nights anyway, so didn't think anything about it.

I was pretty sure I could ride a bike faster then most people can run while being hindered by the trees/bushes. I must say that this was more scary then anything else that had happened to me. But apart from the noise there was nothing else that happened, which I think looking back at it made it all the worst cause if something had happened. As the imagination can think of lots of bad things due to lack of evidence.

A few weeks later as I was leaving work to ride home I used a short-cut through the forest to save myself time in the daylight. As I was taking the short-cut down towards the main road I came across a tree that had pieces of bark missing and claw marks on it. The highest claw marks stood at about 5 - 6 ft high. You couldn't miss the marks as you travelled down the path they was that evident. The spread of the claws was about as big as a mans hands and a good centimetre deep, unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me at the time as I was at work!

So I thought about getting some pictures the next down however by the time I had been to work and checked the area again the bark had been "cleaned", this was the last straw for me and I decided that push biking to work was no longer safe and invested in getting myself a small motorbike instead.

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[Mrs Rat in Law]

I don't disagree with the fact that there might be big cats out there but as most people in the know say they could only be there from being set loose from private zoos - how many zoos were out there? and unless they were all released in the same area so they could mate how could they multiply?????

[avenging angel]

Another possibility is the importing of "exotic pets" which then grow too big too handle and so get dumped in the woods

[NiftyWolfie]

In the wild big cats will roam hundreds of miles in order to feed. Not to mention if they are attracted to the best feeding areas that would increase the chances of meeting a mate

[Mrs Rat in Law]

Nifty - you could just have had a stalker lol

[NiftyWolfie]

yep your right I could have had lol

[avenging angel]

Damn it Nifty, you will never know now. lol

[Mrs Rat in Law]

I would have been scared if I heard rustling as I went past the woods

[NiftyWolfie]

I was scared but nothing I could do as was halfway to work!

[Mrs Rat in Law]

My little legs would have gone twice as fast............................

[NiftyWolfie]

I couldn't have gone much faster it was dark and my light hardly illuminated the road!