If true, and I've no reason to think otherwise I hope, you are my kind of guy Mike. (Other sword crossing/disagreements aside).
Well done and respect for that from me.
Oh yes its very very true, shame I never took any pictures of him whilst he was caged, I knew that cat, it went missing from someone's house 3 streets away, a nice middle age lady who owned 3 other cats, this was her 4th cat. His name was Ollie,
She put wanted posters around the area, including in my street, with his picture, it was then discovered to be living in someone's back garden (corner house) at the bottom of my street, and someone who lived there knew me also, called her number and also told me about this missing cat being found, so his owners came to collect him, but by now he was 3 weeks gone missing, so he got much used to his new freedom that he didn't want to know his owners, he would only go near them to take some cat treats, but he refused to be stroked or grabbed by his owners.
That is how I met his owners, a young nice couple, so I volunteered to help them catch Ollie, as I lived in the street where Ollie now lived in disused garage behind some house.
But Ollie would not fall for anyone's tricks including mine. Whenever anyone saw him roaming around our streets, and if anyone tried approaching him, closing on him, he would simply dodge people, cross the road over, he simply did not want any confrontation with anyone, but yes if you tried cornering him, he knew how to defend himself, he used to live in his owners house rear garden facing the railway tracks and was used to foxes, and they told me how he wouldn't let any fox come near him or their other cats they had. The woman was really heart broken when Ollie left, apparently they rescued another cat and brought him into the house and ollie decided enough was enough! he left!
One day he managed to make his way into my house through my cat flap, and was probably after my cats, and when he saw me he dashed into the cellar, as I always had my cellar door wide open for my cats to roam freely all over my house, so he went in, and wouldn't come out, but it was easy as all I did was locked the cellar door so that my cats do not go in and lifted the coal hatch cast iron cover near the front of my house, so he managed find his way out from this coal hatch, as light rays shine through it, and by next morning he was gone, but he left his tell tale signs everywhere in my cellar, he marked his scent everywhere, my cats were very distraught.
So similarly, he made his way into another household's cellar in my street, about 15 doors away, through their cat flap and entered their cellar, their cats were also badly distraught, and he would not leave their cellar, since they had covered their coal hatch with paving slabs, so there was no way they could use the same method for him to escape, through an open coal hatch. He was stuck there for 3 days and couldn't find his way out so this household knew about me and called me over top help them catch Ollie, funnily the guy works for the Met! and he said no way I am going near this beast!
Luckily the household had a very nice wire mesh cage, in the cellar, I managed to corner him and then shoved him with a stick into the cage, I still have that cage with me now, I have not returned it to them, I have kept it as I had to modify it so that i could trap other stray cats in future,
I came very close to him mounting on my face when he escaped this cage as I left the cage in my small wooden garden shed for RSPCA to come and collect him the next day. But they never turned up, so I had to arrange with Celia Hammond Animal trust to neuter him.
Next day, I had a feeling he may have escaped from the cage, and my fears were right, he managed to escape somehow, I checked him through the shed window, the cage was empty, he had somehow undone the cage latch and got out, but still inside the shed, calmly asleep behind some timber boards and other household shed rubbish.
I slowly opened the door and gently went in closing the the door behind me, its him and me alone in this little 8 x 8 wooden shed, I threw some cat treats near him, he growled at first then calmly started to munch the treats, I slowly managed to pick up the cage and came out locking him in the shed.
I had to take the cage away so as to modify its door so it becomes a trap door, When I revisited him an hour or so later, to feed him more treats, he growled again, and snarled and became very agitated, I looked down at him, he looked up at me, and slowly inching towards me, almost like he was going to leap at me, to launch an attack on my face, I remained calm, and froze, but slowly moved my right hand to pick up a garden broom and slowly nudged him back to his place, I took a sigh of relief!
I have never felt so vulnerable and at his mercy, I really was terribly scared ! and was glad that he retreated slowly back to his place, and I stepped outside the shed and locked him back in, next time I would be very scared to go in unprepared.
in all my life! I was more worried about him going for my eyes, wasn't scared of scratches or claws, I get some unintentional scratches and claws (minor ones) from my cats! But I am sure if a cat intends to really claw you in a real fight, the pain can be unbearable and you would find we are a no match for a real cat fight, you would be smothered in scratches in next to no time all over!
After i got the cage modified, had to adapt its door in such a way so as to attach a string and trap him when he enters it to get to some food I left in the cage, and within minutes he got in and started to eat his food but still had his tail sticking out of the cage, I was a little concerned about his tail getting caught in this trap door as it had a lot of weight and could snap his tail!
Any way he got a little more comfortable and I his tail now cleared the door, I pulled the string and the trap door slammed shut, he was trapped again, but this time he was not going to be able to escape as I made sure the latch would not open easily. I then took him to Celia Hammond for his neutering, later that day I collected him after his neutering, and brought him back and released him in my garden.
But I knew this cat and he looked exactly like that cat in Cornwall that was in news, even after his neutering, when I brought him back, he was still snarling and hissing and pawing the cage, I have never seen such a vicious cat, and he had also grown quite a big cat, weighing around 6kg! that is a big cat for domestic cats!
Since I knew who this cat was, I tried to help him, neuter him, and also called his original owners, but by now they had a new baby in the house, so I advised them not to take him back as he seems to have gone potty and very wild. He was able to look after himself very well without any human intervention or feeding.
