'Beast of Shap' sighted in snow

8:26am Friday 4th March 2005

NEARLY a year since its last sighting, the big black cat has been spotted slinking in snow near Shap.

Dubbed the Beast of Shap', the feline was seen by a group of day-trippers from Uttoxeter as they travelled on the M6 towards Orton on Saturday afternoon.

Passenger Joe Alcock had been looking out the window when he saw the animal in a field near the other side of the motorway.

"I could see it clear as day," said an excited Mr Alcock. "It wasn't a normal black cat, it was at least three feet long which is what caught my attention.

"It was sitting in snow near a stone wall about 300 yards away so I turned to the girl behind me and said that's a big cat isn't it'.

"I tried to tell my wife but she didn't take any notice, she probably thought I was joking."

Mr Alcock said he was unaware of the numerous black cat sightings that have been made in the area until the coach stopped at the New Village Tea Rooms, in Orton.

"I went in and I told the woman what I'd seen. It was then that she told me about the black cat."

Mr Alcock's news was not met with surprise from owner Christine Evans who informed him she had also spotted the elusive creature near her Crosby Ravensworth home.

Mr Alcock's sighting is nearly in the exact same spot where Fleetwood veterinary surgeon Elizabeth Ormerod stole a glimpse of a "Labrador-size cat" in March last year.

Last April, Furness man Mike Hodgson caught on camera what he believed to be a black cat roaming in Baycliff, near Ulverston.

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