The average size of a Pixie-Cat is about the size of a golf ball, but some can be as tiny as a flower.
For centuries Pixie-Cats were said to be a myth.
Tails of miniature sized cats can be traced back to as early as the 1600s with the most common location of them supposedly being found in the county of Cornwall, Southern England. Apparently these tiny creatures were said to be the pets of the Pixies. A mythical race of small human-like people known in Cornish folklore, hence the name Pixie-Cats.
Creatures of minuscule nature have fascinated mankind ever since history began but they have never really been taken seriously.
However, during the Victorian era, images of small people as well as, small creatures, began to creep into the work of artists. One of the first known examples of this can be seen in this work (below) painted in 1860 by an unknown artist. A cat no bigger than a child shoe can clearly be seen in the right of the picture. It has been argued that this was simply a failure of the artist to get the scale right and that it was merely a kitten. However, it seems rather more than a small error
Victorian times were indeed a period of strange phenomenon with tales of fairies and ghosts and so on. But it must be stated that in those days it was somewhat a dangerous to even mention that you had seen something of the paranormal for you risked serious ridicule, or even worse.
The Victorian genius Richard Daad, openly spoke of seeing small people living in the grass and began painting them in extreme detail. This lead to the poor fellow to be placed in a mental asylum for the rest of his life. After careful study of the artist´s work an art historian discovered that Daad had painted a tiny cat in one of his later masterpieces (see below)
Again this was seen as merely the hallucinations of an insane man.
It was not until a one of these tiny cat had been caught on camera that scientists began to wonder if such creatures might actually exist.
In this now famous photograph (below), taken in 1920, we can clearly see a cat-pile creature sat besides a young girl.
Opinion is divided if the picture is a fake or that the cat is nearly a model. However, when we blow up the photograph it is pretty obvious that this was no toy.
The photograph underwent a careful scientific analysis in 1952, and was shown to have had “no signs of obvious tampering”
For the next 50 or so years, talk of “Pixie-cats” faded into the background of history and there they would have stayed if it was not for the invention of the mobile phone.
Indeed, it is largely thanks to the mobile phone - and its built-in camera technology, that today we are beginning to get evidence of phenomenon that was previously thought of as merely myth. For never before in history has mankind had a gadget/camera kept on their person 24 hours a day.
And this is exactly how proof of the existence of Pixie-Cats were first brought to public attention in the spring of 2007 when the first known Pixie-Cat was featured in the ""ForteanTimes" magazine of which I am a proud owner of this very edition (see below)
Mr Timothy McCloughan, aged 48, a local golfer at Prailloof Golf club in West Cornwall, usually never brought his mobile phone with him when he played his practice round preferring to be away from the world for some hours. During the spring of 2005, he had spotted a tiny creature running onto the putting green of the 1st hole and thought at first it was a mouse of a squirrel.
A week later he saw the creature again due to it running after his golf ball. This time he got a better look, and what he saw seemed to be an impossibility. For this was certainly no mouse nor squirrel but had the form of a cat, but the size of a mouse.
The next time Mr McCloughan, a carpenter by profession, went to play his favorite game, he decided to bring along his phone in the hope of getting a picture of this unusual feline creature.
However, this proved to be rather more difficult than he first thought.
To help is task, Timothy started to bring small pieces of chicken in order to entice the creature to come a little closer. However, this turned out to be a waste of time for as it turned out, Pixie-Cats were in fact vegetarian.
The golf-loving Englishman had discovered this fact by pure chance after he accidentally dropped his salad sandwich on the 9th green. Leaving the sandwich on the ground for the birds, he walked off towards the next hole and when turned around and saw the tiny cat run onto the grass and gobble up the lettuce and sliced tomato.
After this Timothy began bringing extra lettuce with him.
"For the next three games I never saw it at all, but then just as I was putting on the 14th green, it popped its little head out of the golf hole and then ran off into the neighbouring woods. I crouched down, holding a piece of lettuce on my hands, and waited. Little by little the little creature came closer sniffing the air as it took small steps getting ever closer. Eventually it was eating right out of my hand. I dared not breath or not move a muscle, It was a moment I will never forget it” Told Mr McCloughan.
Time went by and this amazing freak of nature came to trust the golf, and cat loving carpenter, and so it became very easy for him to take photographs. After careful deliberation he decided to share his discovery with the world and treat, as they say, is history.
Today, Pixie-cats are an officially protected species and in most counties it is illegal to own one. Sadly however, the cruel practice of capturing and selling them to certain eager millionaire collectors, still goes on with then being a highly prized sort after possession.
If you are interested in seeing a real-life Pixie-cat the best place is still in the South of England in Cornwall where you can hire a local guide specializing in tours in the nature where Pixie-cats are known to live in free and in the wild.
Here are some recent photographs taken from some avid Pixie-cat watchers-
(see below)
Finally...
I hope you have enjoyed our small journey into the tiny world of feline cats and to finish I would just like to remind you that in today´s world of fake news and Photoshop, we should be extra vigilant in being skeptical of what we see and read in the media and the internet. And especially when a story is published on April 1st.
Apart from it being obvious- did you spot the clues?
Prailloof Golf club - Prailloof - an anagram of April Fool)
Mr Timothy McCloughan first saw the Pixie-cat on the 1st hole.
Just a bit of fun.
All pictures are made my me.
Thanks for reading and for visiting my blog and a warm welcome back next time @arthuradamson
