There was supposed to be one around Bluewater, on the edge of the London conurbation, but with access to countryside and rabbit. Never saw it when I lived there, not even on night walks in the country park counting glowworms.

There is supposed to be one lurking around the Crystal Palace area in South London, spotted by someone out for a night run. No obvious food sources, and lots of people around at all hours. My friend also runs in the area, and would very much like to see it if it exists. (He was taught what to do if meeting one when he was in California.)

I'm not impressed by the idea that they have been around since prehistoric times, and are the source of the black dog stories. (And one summer I went for night walks around the cliffs near Sheringham - not a woof.) (I didn't know that was where, or maybe I wouldn't have walked there!) Britain has had a managed landscape, at least in the south, time out of mind. People tended to know what was on their patch, and the differences between cats and dogs. I think people now tend to underrate people in the past, and to assume that because they don't have access to places now, there was none in the past. Imagine what gamekeepers would do, and tell, if big cats were about.

If they are round now, it's recent.

Penny