Mystery cat in Springdale not a nice kitty: resident

SPRINGDALE - Rumours of a black cat roaming the Springdale region have proven to be true, but exactly what type of feline it is remains a mystery.

Sharon Dove owns and operates Bubbles and Bows, a dog grooming business in Springdale. Her two dogs were raising a ruckus on the morning of Nov. 25 and when she brought them in, they continued to bark.

She said she looked out the window and saw they had been barking at "a little kitty cat."

"I looked over and there it was on the fence, a beautiful black cat," she said.

Wondering if it was hungry, she took it a treat of canned ham flakes, but decided not to get too close to the strange animal. As she tossed the ham in its direction, it reared up and hissed at her.

"I said, 'Oh, my God, it's not a little cat,'" Dove said. "When he saw me he hissed, then I saw his fangs and my heart just stopped."

She said she backed into her house, shut the door, but managed to get three quick snaps through the window. She then called her husband who told her to stay indoors and call the police.

RCMP arrived right away and called the Department of Natural Resources. A wildlife officer quickly followed to investigate.

Prior to this particular sighting, Mark Lawlor, a department officer, told Transcontinental Media in a Nov. 6 report that there had been enough credible reports for them to take the sightings seriously.

"People are saying it's a black cat, there's no doubt, enough people have seen a black cat," Lawlor said. "It's varied, but obviously people are seeing something."

The reports received have the cat's size varying from an overgrown house cat to a much larger cat. What's stymied their attempts have been the lack of physical evidence and the varying distances between reports of sightings.

Officer Len Pollett said they had spent quite a few hours investigating reports and had placed some traps, but it was impractical for them to follow every report without evidence.

Although they check the traps every day, all they could do is wait for something to happen.

In a statement after viewing the photos, officials from Corner Brook said the Department of Natural Resources had received several complaints of an unidentified cat-like animal in the area.

The Nor'wester