SKIDBY COUPLE'S ENCOUNTER WITH THE WILDCAT OF THE WOLDS
Over the years numerous people claim to have caught a glimpse of the mysterious creature that has become popularly known as the Wildcat of the Wolds. One particular couple, describing themselves as 'sceptics', reported to the Hull Daily Mail in 2001 that they encountered  the animal as they drove towards Skidby on the A164. the creature they reported seeing was 'Bigger than a Great Dane with a long tail and a muscular movement'. They claimed that there was  no mistaking that the creature they caught sight of was some kind of  big cat.
        Commenting on the Skidby couple's sighting Ernie Teal, a well known local wildflife expert, said that the pair were 'very excited' after their sighting and convinced that they had come face to face with something unusual. He added that the couple's description of the big cat matched the evidence given by other witnesses. 'Lambs and chickens have been attacked and people have made plaster casts of massive paw prints found on thier land,' he added.
        Police were reported to have been logging sightings of the Wildcat of the Wolds, with around 30 encounters reported to them over the past few years.

HEDON WILDCAT SIGHTING, 1999
An unnamed couple driving along the back road from Paull, heading towards Thorngumbald, claim to have encountered a pair of 'orange eyes' looking straight towards them from the roadside. At first the couple thought that the eyes probably belonged to some creature like a deer or a fox. However, as they drew closer, the couple realised that the 'eyes' actually belonged to a big cat, described as around 22 inches high and with a body three and a half feet long.
      The shocked couple said the animal they saw had a 'Small leopard-like head, tawny brown in colour' with a 'a brindle-like patterning on its underside' . They also cliam that it had a 'huge powerful tail, as long as its body'.
      According to the couple the police were not very interested when they reported their unusual sighting. This could possibly be, though, because  sightings of big cats in the area go back as far as the late 1970s.
      Returning to the same spot of their big cat encounter a couple of days later, the couple claim to have found tracks along the path they believe the animal to have travelled.

s an interesting postscript to this story, I was contacted by David Bliss who informed me that the back road from Paull leading  to Thorngumbold is, to say the least, extremely atmospheric. He told me that he has travelled the same road several times during the evening and often been struck by the darkness and emptiness of the surrounding countryside. Furthermore, he tells me that it is local knowledge that there are, in fact, many ferrel cats and even wild deer in the vicinity. This said,  could a ferrel cat explain this particular Big Cat encounter?