The New Forest in Hampshire is just the sort of place in which, if told that big cats were living there, you would believe it. There are large expanses of heathland, teeming with deer, horses and - for a light snack - rabbit; then, of course, there is the cover of the dense forest to slope off to at night. In the particular part of The New Forest in which we were staying, a number of events have occured in the past which could provide evidence for big cats being there:

• Fred the tabby (to whom the Friskies belonged), was so scared by something that he ran, shrieking up the willow tree. Now I know that cats do this on a regular basis just for kicks, but not Fred; Fred was hard as nails and unshakable (or probably just lazy). Plus he was approaching the grand old cat-age of twenty, so something must have really freaked him out for him to behave in such a way

• A large, cat-like paw print found on a muddy bank underneith a road bridge.

• Something large and with a long tail was seen in a nearby tree at the edge of the forest, although due to being slightly alarmed, the witness didn’t stick around for long enough to see exactly what it was.

I’m pretty open minded about the possibility of them being there, although I find it hard to believe that they are successfully breeding without more people spotting and photographing them.