Cryptomundo » New Mystery Cat Photo

New Mystery Cat Photo

Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 3rd, 2009

A new Chicago area “mystery cat” image has showed up in the Illinois media. What do you make of it?

Is it a long-wandering cougar, an exotic pet that escaped, or just a house cat photographed from a misleading angle? This kitty was photographed by a motion-activated camera November 23, 2008, in a cornfield in Plato Township [Illinois]. (Photo courtesy of Pat Crawford)

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Alien Big Cats, CryptoZoo News, Mystery Cats, Photos. You can follow responses via our RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is not allowed.

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32 Responses to “New Mystery Cat Photo”

Samson77 responds: January 3rd, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Definetly a house cat. The tail is sitting along the right rear leg (so not a bobcat). Rounded ears, body proportions= house cat
Pasketti responds: January 3rd, 2009 at 3:31 pm
I’m going to go with “house cat photographed from a misleading angle”.
CalebKitson responds: January 3rd, 2009 at 8:55 pm
I don’t even think the angle is misleading. House cat. No doubt.
Alligator responds: January 3rd, 2009 at 9:44 pm
House cat at misleading angle. If it was much larger, the texture of the leaves on the ground would seem grainier (e.g. smaller) in comparison.
thehoch responds: January 3rd, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Positive this time…It’s a pug with mange!
crapple responds: January 3rd, 2009 at 10:17 pm
House cat. Then again, it also looks a bit like a poodle.
kittenz responds: January 4th, 2009 at 12:59 am
It looks like a rear backlit view of a small dog. With a tail that curls over the back like a pug’s or a pom’s tail does. The stance is much more doglike than catlike.
Andrew Minnesota responds: January 4th, 2009 at 1:10 am
a black jaguar photographed at a misleading angle to appear as an ordinary house cat. :p
Sunny responds: January 4th, 2009 at 9:00 am
a really, really BIG housecat, but a housecat nonetheless.

(Think Maine Coon or similar)
jgodsey responds: January 4th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
mixed breed housecats run larger than people think. I rescued one last year larger than my dog. Someone moved away and left him to live in the woods for several years. Moby is 18″ tall, 36″ long, 35 pounds..easy to mistake him for anything other than a housecat.
mystery_man responds: January 4th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
I tend to agree with some of the others here that this is possibly not a photo of a feline. The first thing I thought of was a black pug. The animal appears to be stocky like a pug, and is assuming a pose that is very much like one in my opinion (and I have two pugs). The only thing wrong with that is that I can’t make out a tail curled up where I would expect one on a pug.

It is hard to say. It could just be an odd angle in conjunction with the lighting. Based on what I see, though, it does not seem that we are looking at an animal approaching the size of a cougar, so I’m fairly sure we are looking at a smaller animal shot at a misleading angle.
DWA responds: January 4th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
OK, so we have dog.

And cat.

And the dog comes from somebody I would tend to go with on these things.

Although if I had to guess I’d say cat.

How about “inconclusive, without anything else to go on”?

That is, really, the only answer acceptable to a scientist. Everything else is tea leaves.
mystery_man responds: January 4th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
DWA- Well, scientists can make guesses, and my guess at this point is dog. Granted, it’s only a guess and could be incorrect, but the profile and stance just seem very much like a pug to me.

Hard to say. It could be a cat I suppose, but I would say that I don’t think it is large enough to be a cougar based on what I see here.

At this point, this is likely either a small dog or a large house cat photographed at an odd angle and under certain lighting conditions in my opinion. Wish we had more pics to go on, but that is the direction I’m leaning here without any further information.

Probably not a man in a suit.
DWA responds: January 4th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
mystery_man: see, I was right!

I mean, essentially, your response was: inconclusive, without anything else to go on.

Of course guesses are required. Scientific inquiry is greatly influenced by guesses and where they lead. My point is that the guesses should be just that, and shouldn’t do too much “Photoshop analysis.”

I would say, looking at it, that we shouldn’t get our hopes up for a new or reestablished species here. If I had to go up or down on going into the field there with professionals to confirm, I’d say, personally: save it. The sasquatch is the hot lead, if that’s what you want to do. (I mean, we know for sure that P/G is a bipedal animal, the only question whether it’s one in a suit.)

But of course, from this alone, I don’t know.
kittenz responds: January 4th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I edited the photo to increase brightness and enlarged it by 2.5. I also viewed it as black & white.

The lighter colored area on top of the animal’s back looks like a pug’s curled tail. The face is very short in profile, and the ears appear to be drop ears.

The hind legs are very straight in the stifle, like a pug’s legs. That is normal for pugs - but most of a cat’s bulk is in the muscular hind legs. The front end of this anumal is very robust and it looks like the front legs are stiff and straight, not relaxed the way a cat usually stands.

Also, I just don’t see a cat’s tail on this animal. Granted, some cats are tailless, but Manx and other tailless cats tend to be even more robust in the rear than normal-tailed cats. And the face of the animal in this photo looks flat, not catlike.

I think this is a pug. Not a black one, but a fawn-colored one (because a black pug’s tail is black, and it looks like this dog’s tail is pale). It looks darker than it really is because it is in silhouette.

I suppose t could be some other smallish flat-faced dog breed such as a Brussells griffon, but they are very uncommon, and pugs are among the most popular of breeds. The features of this animal, while indistinct in the photo, taken together shout “PUG”. I’m going with pug or pug mix.
mystery_man responds: January 4th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Kittenz- Yes, pug is what this animal looks a lot like to me too. A fawn colored pug didn’t really occur to me, but I suppose you could be right that the lighting makes it just seem black. To me it looked like the light part was just a reflection of light, but if what you are saying is true and the tail is indeed light colored, then that would certainly make sense. Either way, fawn colored or black, the way the animal is carrying its head, the profile of its face, general shape of the body, and what look like they could be the pointed tips of folded over ears certainly smack of a pug to me too. It is standing just like pugs will do as well, and having two of my own, I am quite familiar with how pugs stand.

I suppose there is still a chance that this is a photo of a cat taken in such a way as to give it the impression of a pug, but a pug or pug mix is certainly a distinct possibility in my opinion. I have to say that’s where I’m tending to lean on this one as well.
Samson77 responds: January 5th, 2009 at 1:42 am
No way this is a dog, unless you have been eating mushrooms.

I saw this photo analyzed on another site, and was confirmed to be a house cat. The right rear leg appears to be thicker than it actually is because the tail is laying along the leg in the photo, with the tip protruding just above the foot.
cryptocarolyn responds: January 5th, 2009 at 3:59 am
I was going to go with small dog until I opened the picture in a photo program and enhanced it a bit. It’s grainier enhanced, but the ears and body thickness, unless very distorted by the light, actually do look more like a small wild cat when the picture is blown up. The face is short like a pug, but the ears just don’t seem right for that.
kittenz responds: January 5th, 2009 at 9:36 am
I still think it’s a dog. I’ve enhanced it from here to Georgia and what I see does not look like a cat.
Shane Durgee responds: January 5th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
It’s a photo of a massive cat. What kind of cat and how big is impossible to say.

I’m leaning towards a small cougar or panther based entirely on the thickness of its body and the shape of the head (though when you look at the leaves it diminishes the size of the animal a bit.)

No way is it a canine. Have you guys really zoomed into it? I’d considered a black bear (since we’re only assuming the tail is there on top of the outstretched back leg) but I think it’s too small.
cryptidsrus responds: January 5th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I’ll agree with Sunny. House Cat. BIG one, but house cat anyway.
mystery_man responds: January 5th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I appreciate the fact that this could be a cat. It very well could be. But how is it that people can say there no way that this could be a pug? I’m curious as to what there is about the details of this photo that completely rules out the possibility to the point where some here are saying it is impossible?

Many details that I can see match quite well with a pug. I have a lot of experience with pugs and I know Kittenz here has a great amount of experience with cats and dogs, so I don’t think our opinions on the matter should be brushed off so lightly as they seem to have been here. Kittenz gave a very good analysis on the features that point to a pug and I tend to agree with her.

I’m not saying that this isn’t a cat. According to some, detailed analysis has been done that points that way and granted I am not an expert at in depth photo analysis. Perhaps it is a cat. However with the lack of detail we have here and the features that match quite well with a pug, I think it is interesting how some are saying there is no way at all this could be one or that we are somehow out of our minds to entertain the possibility. At this point I disagree.

Anyway, I think we have at least reached a consensus that this is not a cougar we are looking at.
Viergacht responds: January 6th, 2009 at 4:15 am
I’m seeing a fat housecat for this one. I messed with it in photoshop, and from what I can the top of the ear is pointed - cat, not pug. What Kittenz is seeing as the curled top of a pug’s tail is just the sunlight highlighting the top of the cat’s rump. There is also a highlight on the upcurled tip of the cat’s tail, which is down by the heel of the right rear leg. At any rate, from the size of the leaves and grss it’s pretty clear this is a small animal, certainly under 12 lbs and not a cougar.
DWA responds: January 6th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Well, the proof is in.

No one knows what this is. And some are willing to assert with all the authority at their command that they do, before showing they don’t.

This is why photos can’t be proof. The occasional clinic is helpful.

I will say this though. If you “messed with it in Photoshop,” there is no way I can accept your assertion of what it is.
Roy3rd responds: January 6th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I’ve seen enough house cats (and from enough angles) to state with confidence that the animal in this pic is, indeed, a house cat.

It’s time to move on.
Viergacht responds: January 6th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
@ DWA
By “messed with” I mean I tried using changes in contrast, brightness, etc, to make details more clear. What esle can you do with a crappy photo? No need to be a jackass.
DWA responds: January 7th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Viergacht:

Indeed. No need to be a …well, I try not to use words like that here.

So.

Why were you?

I made a simple statement about all this Photoshop “analysis” I see going on, and how it’s no substitute for actual, real, followup. Too many people think that photo editing programs are science. As we have seen all too well on this thread, they don’t cut it. And yet here are people tweedling a few knobs, and saying you’re on ’shrooms if you disagree with them.

The photo is the photo. Doctoring (of any kind) is…well, it’s why nobody trusts photos as proof.

So.

Why were you?

And while we’re on education: you could have said what you did in your second post (absent words I try not to use on a site populated by intelligent people like me) in your first post.

Couldn’t you?
Ann Unknown responds: January 8th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
It looks a lot like the big, black “putty-tat” that wondered out of the national forest down here, to adopt a friend’s 7 year old son. Some common domestic cats can get remarkably large.

My friend’s son named him “Mr. Re”. No one knows exactly how that cat survived all the coyotes out here in this wilderness area, as well as the wolves, pumas, javalinas, eagles, owls, … . But I’m betting that he may have eaten them, before they could eat him.

Mr. Re is almost ridiculously friendly and affectionate. But so huge and brawny for a domestic feline, that he almost knocks the little one over by stocking, pouncing, and playing with him.

No wonder some ancient people thought cats were witches. They can be mysterious, and sometimes just a bit scary. Especially if they decide to tackle you in the dark on your way out to your truck, as that one did to me the first time we met. I let out a sc-r-e-e-a-m that got all the coyotes on the mountain sides started!
cutrer responds: January 9th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
That’s a cat. I’ve got a link to video of what appears to be a black panther here in Alabama.
Ann Unknown responds: January 16th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Wow, cutrer! That is amazing (the still, showing scale). Your link was worth a look. Even if that was only a very small white tail, I did NOT “see a putty-tat” in that picture.

Sure wish someone could get the original footage up for analysis.

How ’bout it Loren? Any chance?
twas brillig responds: February 25th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Woah house cat? people, most of you are waaay too quick to assume, it’s painfully obvious you don’t know much about cats. I’ve had cats all my life, this is NOT an ordinary house cat, it looks far too stalky and the ears too short. Certainly, house cats can be big, but this photo belies even those larger or wild cat breeds. It is most certainly NOT A DOG, the skull shape, ears, and stance are clearly feline.

Don’t assume there aren’t wild cats roaming the country, it’s a foolish notion, there’s been plenty of people who’ve privately owned cats who have let them go in secret, and not to mention jaguars have been known in the US, cougars range from Chile to Alaska, and can migrate. Big cats are OFTEN EXTREMELY secretive, it is an adaptation that has kept them alive, and can even help elude prying eyes for years.

Peace
twas brillig responds: February 25th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
hah! right after i typed the above, I found the following which proves my point…

Search For Puma Finds Jaguar

Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 21st, 2009

http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/find-jag/

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