I have to be the messenger for yet more bad news (good grief, what a week )

Sadly, the Old Dogfox is no longer with us He had to be put to sleep this afternoon after suffering acute kidney failure. He was spotted in the garden next door, around lunchtime, in an obviously poorly state and we were able to catch him and hand him over to the Fox Project for assessment, which is just as well, as he would have died miserably in a day or so; his body had almost completely stopped functioning.

It's possible that it was caused by an infection, but he was old for a wild fox and that could also have been a causal factor.

It's been a breezy July weekend, and reflections seem more successful than photo walks I've been musing over a cat topic recently...but first, a couple of photos:

Today's Old Dogfox portrait



Mane-style of the summer


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Right, cats

England is awash with cat stories. Not pet cats stowing away and ending up in France but something rather more intangible: a seemingly eternal rumour which finds it way into the press on quiet newsdays, startles the police, and has even led to a couple of futile government investigations.

It's said to be feline, it's usually black, it's fairly big, and it's almost inevitably dubbed a puma, or "panther" (by which I assume is meant melanistic leopard). Officially England has no wild felids left. But the official version is constantly disputed by journalists, hikers and farmers. Some of the stories are just ridiculous, like the hilarious one I've uploaded here

Escapee cats from zoos - mostly Eurasian lynx - have been known, but that is a different matter to what is frequently claimed: that there is a self-sustaining big cat population here. On the evidence to date, I just don't feel happy with that idea. This isn't exactly South Luangwa, or even Ontario (which is also having a big cat debate). Habitat is so badly fragmented in south-east England that there is simply no way that a self-sustaining big cat population could go about its existence without losing at least a few members to cars each year. At least, that is what I think. In some ways, I would be pleased to be proven wrong...

But, phantom panthers aside, what really did happen to Surrey's native cats? This week, I've been reading up on local lore, trying to place the wildlife I see here today in the context of Surrey's long and complex history. This little snippet caught my eye

Originally posted by William Cobbett, AD1830:

I showed him an old elm tree, which was hollow even then, into which I, when a very little boy, once saw a cat go, that was as big as a spaniel dog, for relating to which I got a great scolding, for standing to which I, at last, got a beating, but stand to I still did. I have since many times repeated it; and I would take my oath of it to this day. When in New Brunswick I saw the great wild grey cat, which is there called a Lucifee [Canadian lynx] and it seemed to me to be just such a cat as I had seen [in Surrey].

I've been unable to find an official date for the extinction of the forest wildcat in Surrey, but I suspect that is what William Cobbett saw - or possibly, as frequently is the case now up north, a wildcat-domestic cat hybrid. The forest wildcat is a close relation of our pets but not a direct ancestor. It's decidedly larger, tougher, and with a thicker coat and a spectacular banded tail. Its hybrid form, which is often black and rather other-worldly looking, is now dubbed a Kellas cat.

Sometimes I walk in Surrey's hillscapes and try, in my mind's eye, to superimpose the big cats I've seen elsewhere upon the familiar fields and hedgerows. It's not easy. Something is missing. The alarm calls are silent, the subtle signs of a land controlled by an apex predator are absent.

At least we all know one thing for sure: cats are truly elusive. Can you see two lions in this picture? (Tanzania, 1996)

The cubs in the pen remain elusive. They scatter when I enter, if they are not already in (or under) the hutch, but sometimes the best attempt at hiding goes amiss!



Whom the brush belongs to, I wouldn't like to say; however, this muzzle is that of Tina, the runt, who seems to have a strong preference for being underneath the hutch.



They are a shy litter though, which is not altogether a bad thing, so I will experiment with the webcam more over the weekend in hope of getting some footage of them at play.



The SV could give some hiding lessons of her own, although in truth she is more inclined to defend herself by bolting at the first hint of trouble.



As for the Old Dogfox, he cannot even hide what he's been up to: judging from the dirt on his nose, he has either been caching or digging up a cache



Meanwhile, the wild flowers are reaching their peak.

Kelly surrounded by bird-foot trefoil



There's a great diversity of flowers around here, some harbouring more secrets than others. Yellow rattle is parasitic upon grasses and can benefit the natural competitors of grass - namely, wild flowers that easily get overwhelmed in meadows. And yes, the seed pods really do rattle!



And this, of course, is an orchid - a common spotted orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii to be precise.





We have many other orchids locally but they will take some searching for