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Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES:WISCONSIN RIVER MONSTER AND CAT-RABBIT HYBRID

Hi folks!

Today I am looking at two cryptids: one river monster and an alleged hybrid between a cat and a rabbit. The water monster is from 1904 in Wisconsin and the Californian “rabbit-cat” example from 1907 at a show in a place called Chutes Park (in or near Los Angeles?) is the first case I have ever read about. I am not familiar with the literature on the subject of “rabbit-cats.”

New Wisconsin Fish Story

A strange creature resembling a long-haired dog with six webbed feet and fins like a fish was caught in the river near La Crosse, Wis,the other day by Millard (?) a clam fish man. The animal was equiped with the tail of a fish and had a head shaped much like a walrus. The species is unknown to local scientists. Nothing like it has ever been seen before.(1)

Note – La Crosse is an inland town by a river about 200 miles west of Lake Michigan

Freak Graces Show.

A pair of rabbit cats bred by Frank T. Cantara are another freak exhibit of the show. These strange creatures have the haunches of a rabbit and the short stubby tail of that animal, but their bodies and heads are those of a cat. At places on their bodies the cat hair gives place to rabbit fur. These strange quadrupeds hop about like a rabbit and eat grass. Mr Cantara produced them by crossing a male rabbit and a female cat. The original litter contained seven little ones, but Jack and Tootsie are the only ones left.

An accident to one of the exhibitors who was viewing the sights at the Chutes was the occasion for the creating of another class of cats yesterday. While a young man, who desires his name to be kept quiet, was leaning over the railing watching the sea lion disporting in the icy water he noticed some animals swinging around in the pool. Crawling over the rail to get a closer view he fell into the pond. He then observed that the creatures he had seen were also a variety of cats, called cat-fish.
(2)

1. The Richmond Climax June 8th 1904
2. Los Angeles Herald January 18th 1907 p.9

Devo – Beautiful World

It`s a Beautiful World We Live In
A Sweet Romatic Place
Beautiful People Everywhere
The Way They Show They Care
Makes Me Want To Say

It`s A Beautiful World (x3)
For You (x3)

It`s A Wonderful Time To Be Here,
It`s Nice To Be Alive,
Wonderful People Everywhere,
The Way They Comb Their Hair
Makes Me Want To Say,

It`s A Wonderful Place (x3)
For You (x3)……

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a large literature about Cat-rabbits, and it is mostly based on misrepresentations of Manx cats. The folk belief is that such cats derive from crosses of cats with rabbits, which is a baseless superstition.

Christian said...

One of my favourite pages on the subject...well researched:

http://www.messybeast.com/cabbit.htm