cat, dog, or what?

Hi all

I took this photo in the summer, and forgot all about it until i swapped phones yesterday

I took the pic just because i thought it looked a little strange and i couldn't work out what it was from

I couldnt see claw marks, so I thought it was a cat, a large cat, but now looking at it again, i think I can almost see a claw print in front of the right toe.

but even if it is a dog, I thought the sizing of the toe's was strange, two small in the middle, and the outer toes are considerably larger

I've had a look on the net for common paw prints in the UK and i don't see anything that matches

anyone got any ideas?

I don't think it's a cat or a dog, I think you forgot a picture.



Everyone is getting fast at editing!


OK one more edit. I thought this was a picture of the moon or Mars or something, slowly was bringing my face into the pic I just posted, get about 6 inches away from the monitor and dog let out the mightiest sleep woof I have ever heard. He's right in front of the ottoman the laptop is sitting on. I actually recoiled in horror and made a yelping sound. It was like a strangled 'MERP'.

OP I'm clearly a little bit, uh, thirsty. Raccoon? Lemme look again. I just wanted to share my horror.

didnt forget, just too retarded to get it posted correctly

Badger maybe or a fox ??

Pine Marten even ??

badgers have 5 toes, too wide and not long enough for a fox, and it's too "heavy" for a pine martin I think, they leave a more delicate, for want of a better word, print with more spacing between pads

the 50p is 27.3mm across, so the prints getting on for 1.5 + inches wide

Looks more like a shiny 50p to me.

Seriously though, have you considered that it is a normal dog with a possible swollen toe due to an injury? Also, you say the two outer toes look bigger but I would say just the one on our left appears that way.

Do you have pics of any more of the paw trail to add more info?

Originally posted by maintainright

It looks like something from the Moon... it might just be the Russian Monkey did make it to the Moon afterall and now the clever little tyke has taken a pic and sent the image via satelite?

Where did you get this image from? I am very suspicious now... what do you know about SPUTNIK?

Man, I'm kinda wired after that! Dog hasn't moved, he's on puppy sedatives after his surgery (I think that explains his nutty dreams lately).

So to me it looks like that far left indentation may actually be two 'fingers' rolled in to one. It would make more sense an t

reply to post by maintainright

I couldnt see claw marks, so I thought it was a cat, a large cat...

I think you're on to it... more than likely feline of some description.

Not knowing what the substrate is or how wet it was, I'm still thinking pussy - going by the size, around the 15kg mark.

Can you compare that coin to something, uh, American? Is that like one of our quarters?

yeah your right, might be a dog with an injury, but in the soft mud I'd have expected to see the other claws as well

there was only this one print in the mud, no trail that i could see

and it was taken on a building site on the west coast of scotland on the outskirts of a small town, plenty of deer, pheasants, forestry etc around

Originally posted by Domo1
Can you compare that coin to something, uh, American? Is that like one of our quarters?

a few mm bigger than a quarter I think

reply to post by maintainright
It looks like a house cat's to me. The difference in toe sizes could be from weather erosion or, like the other member said, even a bad toe.

reply to post by Perhaps


now that would be nice, but I doubt it

the thing thats driving my curiosity, is I just cant see anything quite like it online

reply to post by Kandinsky


I thought it was a bit big for a house cat, my own cats pretty big, but his paw prints are just about the size of a 50p ( I just grabbed the poor bugger and checked )

might be a scottish wildcat then, or maybe just a mutant huge housecat

reply to post by maintainright
It is possible that this is the culprit:

CatDog

reply to post by maintainright


Cat, for certain. Under the toes, in the pad, you see where there are two rounded parts? Three of them at the bottom of the pad as well. Those are both feline traits.

You can see here:

link

...what I am talking about more clearly.

Everything in that print points to it being feline.

reply to post by LadyGreenEyes


yeah I think your right, defo leaning towards a cat, and judging by the size a scottish wildcat

which is actually really pretty cool in itself, as they are super rare, apparently there's less than a hundred left in the wild

I emailed the scottish wildcat association to see what they think of it

cheers for the replys people

reply to post by Perhaps


just good old common scottish mud, in the bottom of a dried out puddle, so pretty soft

15kg would be a pretty big cat, well above the scottish wildcats size range anyway

Originally posted by maintainright
reply to post by LadyGreenEyes

 

yeah I think your right, defo leaning towards a cat, and judging by the size a scottish wildcat

which is actually really pretty cool in itself, as they are super rare, apparently there's less than a hundred left in the wild

I emailed the scottish wildcat association to see what they think of it

cheers for the replys people

That would be very cool! Maybe you will get lucky, and catch a picture of it, or at least a sighting. Here, my older son has seen bobcats in the neighborhood, and though they aren't all that rare, he got a kick out of it.