I MAY be able to assist Mr Percival's research into the sightings of big cats in the North West (Your Letters, June 11).

I have been interested in the phenomenon since I took up gardening some 50 summers ago and, although never actually sighting "The Beast", evidence of its existence confronts me most mornings.

The amount and volume of feline ordure left among new bedding plants and on the neat lines of seedlings, are proof of quite big specimens of the cat family. While doubting an animal the size of lions or tigers, considering the size of the spoor and the damage to quite large plants and shrubs, it is obvious an animal the size of a lynx or big dog is responsible. Its habit of digging a large hole and scattering newly-dug soil over a wide area points to a large animal with vicious claws. Two things have become obvious in my study of "The Beast". One, it is nocturnal and, two, it is territorial, seemingly following the same route most nights and overcoming any obstacle placed in its way. Two-metre high panel fences are treated with contempt in its search for a newly-planted space in which to defecate.

An inspection at midnight shows a sense of order among the neat borders of busy lizzies and petunias, while at 5am the same border resembles a scene from the battle of the Somme, with huge holes dug and great piles of evil-smelling ordure everywhere.

Certainly, nothing observed by Mr Attenborough fits the habits of this beast. Could it be unique to Holcombe Brook?

In order to help solve the mystery, I have been asked by Professor Crapp, of the Feline Studies Institute, to supply him with a sample of the said ordure in order to establish the animal's diet and the habitat and terrain in which it hunts.

When I receive the results of his findings perhaps I may, through your columns, pass the information on to Mr Percival.

HUGH DUNNIT

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