The series of sightings in the United Kingdom and Australia of big black cats has been making news, but now several witnesses are reporting in a string of sightings in Willow Creek, California. Is this invasion of mysterious cryptids spreading? What is there to the sightings and the ensuing uproar that has been sieging one small school in the area?
A sign posted outside Trinity Valley Elementary School was photographed and circulated around the internet via email and web-forum posts. The image is of a note tacked to a cork-board littered with other school announcements and upcoming events. The note shows a number of facts about the mysterious sightings of black cats around the area and as it stands alone, it pretty well tells the story of the past few incidents around Trinity Valley Elementary School.
The bold font looks as though it was typed by an upset parent who was upset at the lack of attention being paid to the potentially dangerous creatures spotted around the school. It declares that the first few sightings occurred in 2009, but recently there has been a surge of the mysterious creatures. When they contacted the county Fish and Game department, they discovered that the official policy on these sightings was not to attack any game such as big cats unless they were confirmed to have attacked a human being. The note ends with the words, “Who or what does it have to attack!?” Clearly there is a level of frustration portrayed that is not difficult to understand.
The school is on the lookout currently for any future sightings of big cats, though the official story is no big black cats exist in North America naturally. Some suggest such creatures may have escaped or been released from exotic pet owners who irresponsibly grew tired of them and threw them to the mercy of nature. Others suggest the creatures may have been here all along, thriving in secret. And of course there are other theories as well. Some, for example, have followed the parallel between strings of UFO sightings and the big cat phenomenon in the same place suggesting a connection that others have overlooked. And still others suggest the reason big cats are not ever captured and only under very rare circumstances even leave behind evidence is because they are ethereal beings that are perceived by multiple witnesses, but are not tangible. Still others say it’s a worldwide case of mass hysteria. The first officially reported case of a big black cat being sighted in California happened in 1979. Others have been reported all over the world. In the United Kingdom in recent days a young girl was allegedly chased by one of the creatures, but came out of it unharmed. And this brings up another interesting point: there don’t seem to be any cases of this mysterious breed of black cats actually harming people. They stalk, appear out of nowhere, and scare plenty of people and yet there haven’t been any reports of them actually harming anyone. Of course this is a fact that may change with time. Who or what do they have to attack before we take them seriously?