Missing But Not Lost - Jodee Redmond (freda ebook reader TXT) 📗

of plastic wood placed over the tower of a toy submarine.

In 2003, the discovery of part of a plesiosaur fossil by a senior citizen who slipped and fell into the Loch made the news. While the fossil of four vertebrae, complete with spinal column and blood vessels, is genuine, it is now thought that it was placed there by person or persons unknown.
If you assume that not all eyewitness sightings of the monster can be explained by other means (other animal, boat wake, floating log, or a hoax of some kind), there are still a number of as-yet-unexplained sightings. And what about the mysterious results of the sonar sweep? Given that we now know that not all species thought to be extinct really are, the story of Nessie continues to be a fascinating one.


The Cadborosaurus: Canada's Loch Ness Monster
A large, snake-like animal is said to make its home in the waters off the west coast of North America.

Sightings of the mysterious creature have taken place for 1,000 years or more. Named for Cadboro Bay, near Victoria, British Columbia, the Cadborosaurus appears to have a large range. The sightings have taken place from Alaska to Oregon. This animal appears to prefer colder weather; the prime Caddy-sighting season runs from October to April.

Description

The Cadborosaurus measures between 5-15 meters (16-49 feet) in length. The neck is between one and four meters (3-12 feet) long. Caddy's head has been described as being similar in shape to that of a camel, horse, or giraffe. The presence of flippers has been noted; the tail is described as having a fluke. Witnesses have also described seeing several humps or loops directy behind Caddy's neck. Caddy is also a fast swimmer; its speed has been estimated at 40 knots (46 m.p.h.).

Sightings

In July of 1997, the Mock family (Timothy, Laurice, and Christopher) reported seeing the Cadborosaurus on two separate occasions. They were traveling up the Princess Louisa Inlet in their 24-foot boat. The sea was described as being "glassy". Timothy was at the wheel of the boat. He noticed what he thought was a log in the water. When he changed course to avoid colliding with the "log", it suddenly broke up into three pieces. Whatever they saw in the water disappeared as they went past.

The second sighting took place near Homfray Channel, near Desolation Sound. As in the first instance, the sea was calm. The family noticed a wake moving back and forth in the water. It was unusual in that it was moving parallel to the shore rather than toward it.
Laurice Mock used binoculars to get a good look at the animal. She described it as looking like "someone doing the breast stroke, like a snake."


Big Cats in Britain

Accounts of Sightings Over a 40-Year Period

Accounts of big cat sightings have been reported in the British Isles for over 40 years. What are people seeing?

Accounts of big cat sightings have been reported in the British Isles for over 40 years. What are people seeing? Are these cases of escapees from a zoo or circus or simply mistaken identity? What evidence do we have that these animals exist?

The Sightings

The Surrey Puma: The term “surrey puma” is used to describe big cats sighted in south-east England, of which there have been several.

In July of 1962, an animal described as a “young lion cub” was observed in Hampshire. The witness, a local water board official, stated that the animal was light brown in colour, with large paws and a flat face. It measured 18-24” in height. A second sighting was reported a month later by another water-board official.

Fast-forward to the summer of 1963. A man driving though the south-east part of London on July 18 thought he saw an injured dog lying beside the road. He stopped to investigate and realized that he was observing a large cat instead! The creature bounded off into the night. In the same area, a “large, golden animal” was seen leaping over the hood of a police car.

The ensuing search (involving more than 150 searchers and 20 dogs) found nothing except some 7”-wide tracks. The fact that claw marks were found with the tracks led some to speculate that the animal in question was a cheetah, since other big cats do not have claws that are permanently extruded.

The Nottingham Lion: Two milkmen reported seeing a lion on July 29, 1976. The beast was spotted in a field close to the Nottingham Airport. 65 more sightings were reported over the next eight days. After that point, it appeared that the animal had just disappeared.

The Isle of Wight Puma: 23 reports of a puma on the Isle of Wight were filed during the period from May - October 1983. The colour of the cat's coat was describe by various witnesses as red, golden brown, silver, grey, or black. All in all, the feline was spotted more than 120 times by September 1985.
Images of strange felines in Britain have been caught on tape from time to time as well. In September, 1999, a black cat described by the RSPCA was filmed in Shropshire at a brickmaker's yard. A similar animal was picked up by a security camera at a garden centre in Kettering the year before.

Attacks

In Dyfed in June of 2002, a horse sustained scratches to its neck and back. The attack was attributed to a cat. That same year on August 2, a pony in Bedfordshire was found with bite and claw marks on her belly, legs, and head.

The carcass of a sheep was discovered 18 feet up a tree in Leicestershire. Investigation of the September 2001 incident also revealed claw marks in the bark of the tree. Could this be evidence of leopard in the area, since they are known to drag a kill up into a tree to be consumed over several meals?

While clearing undergrowth in East Sussex in October of 2001, a farm worker was attacked by a large cat, which he described as being three times larger than a house cat. He grabbed the animal by its neck and held it away from his body, so as to avoid being scratched by its back claws. The worker threw the beast away from himself, and it ran off into the woods (after letting off what he described as a “petrifying scream”). A little over 10 days after the attack, a lynx was observed in the area.

Species Discovered

On occasion, specimens of the leopard cat, a golden-brown coloured Asian wild cat, have been discovered and shot dead.

Jungle cats, native to the Middle East, Egypt, and India, have also been found in Britain. These wild felines are about three times the size of a house cat, with tufted ears, striped limbs, and a short tail with a tuft at the tip. Other species either caught or captured include the black panther, clouded leopard, lion, puma, and Northern lynx.

Theories

Now that we know big cats have been discovered in Britain, how do we explain their presence?

Some have suggested that the cats are animals who have escaped from a zoo or a circus, but this can't account for the vast majority of cases. There have been several sightings in areas where local zoos had not reported an escaped animal of any kind.
One of the more fanciful theories put forward is that these cats are somehow being teleported from their native habitat to Britain, but by whom and for what purpose is not known.

One wonders, though, why we have seen cases where a search for the feline in question leads to nothing, even where dogs or heat-sensitive equipment is used.
Still another explanation is that the cats are some sort of a living fossil and that wild felines in the British Isles are not extinct after all. This would seem unlikely, given that Britain is a relatively small island, though.


Black Dogs: Protectors or Bad Omens?

Black dogs have been seen as protectors of women and children and as predictors of imminent death.

Stories of spectral canines have been told for many years. The first such report dates back to the year 856. Worshippers in a small French church must have been shocked to see a dog with "glowing red eyes" suddenly appear. It seemed to be looking for something. Just as suddenly, it disappeared.
Most black dogs are described as a large (sometimes as large as a calf!) hound with glowing red eyes, but some witnesses report seeing a grey, yellow, or white dog. They are usually considered to be a sign of an unusual death. If the dog is seen by a woman or a child, though, the animal is seen as a protector.

England has been home to "Shuck", a ghostly black dog, for centuries. Known by many names (Old Shuck, Black Shuck, Padfoot, Church Grim, Old Scarfe, Skeff, and more), these encounters still take place in our modern times. Here are a few examples:

A man was walking home after an evening with his lady friend. While walking from Halstead to Castle Hedingham, he became aware of a large, black dog walking beside him. The dog accompanied him until he reached the cemetery gates,when the dog jumped over the gate and disappeared. It was only after the fact that he realized the dog had not made any sound at all.

In Tollesbury, the local midwife claimed to have seen Black Shuck several times. He would walk beside her while she cycled home late at night after having delivered a baby. She accepted his presence in a matter-of-fact fashion and described how the dog passed through the spokes of her bicycle and disappeared into a wall.

In 1970, a couple was driving in Cambridge when a large dog resembling a wolf jumped across the front of their car. Despite it being a summer evening, both of them noticed the temperature suddenly dropped as the dog went past them. Shortly after this event, they ran into financial difficulty and the husband became seriously ill. He died two years later.

What are we to make of black dog sightings? Is it a protector of late-night travelers or a warning of impending doom? It would seem that it is both, depending on the circumstances.


In Search of Megalodon

Does this giant predator still exist?
Sharks themselves are an ancient species which still exist. Is it reasonable to think that one species would die out while others continue to thrive

There is something about the ocean's depths that inspires both fascination and a little fear in us. It certainly is possible that some residents of the deep only known to us from the fossil records are not extinct, but very much alive.

Even though dinosaurs living on land were wiped out due to some sort of (as yet) unexplained disaster, life in the sea remained relatively stable. Fishermen and sailors have told stories for generations about mysterious creatures from the deep.

The Megalodon is a large shark that was thought to have become extinct a million years ago. It could grow to a length of 50 feet or more (twice the size of the Great White shark). Megalodon's rasor-sharp teeth grew up to six inches in length.

Polynesian people tell stories about a huge shark that grows to a length of 100 feet or more. It is referred to as the "Lord of the Deep". On two separate occasions in the last century, a large and unknown species of shark was spotted. Shark fishermen reported seeing a large shark (40-50 feet in length) in the waters north