Meet Sheldon - the big pussy cat responsible for "puma" sightings in Trelogan

You may recognise him from video footage shot in Trelogan last week believed to be evidence of a big cat stalking that part of Flintshire.

However, in this case, the video is not of a puma, lynx or panther. The star of the footage is Sheldon - and he's just a big pussy cat. A very big pussy cat!

Puma Watch North Wales, the group set up to document and investigate big cat sightings in the region, confirmed that Sheldon is the mystery beast spotted twice in Trelogan this month after speaking to his owner.

Sheldon is a big boy!

Sara Goodenough described Sheldon as “the biggest softy ever” who just loves to spend his time prowling the fields around Trelogan chasing rats, birds and rabbits.

Weighing in at 6kg, he’s too big to fit into a cat carrier, so his Sara h has to use a small dog cage to take him to the vets.

Speaking about the video shared earlier this week, Sara said: “This was filmed behind my house where my big fur baby loves to use as his hunting ground. He is the biggest softy even with his size.”

She added that Sheldon, who turns four in April, likes "to travel far, even to the woods at the bottom near Trelogan. We have two-year-old twins and they love cuddles with him even though he is the same size as them.”

Images from the video shot by Jonathan Terry in Trelogan.

After the sightings were reported to Puma Watch North Wales the story was reported by the Leader and then picked up by national titles such as the Daily Mail and The Telegraph.

But Puma Watch founder Tony Jones said he is happy to consider the Trelogan big cat case closed.

He said: "While multiple local residents were convinced they’d spotted a much larger species, Sheldon is known by many in the Trelogan area. Thanks to the efforts of everyone who shared the video far and wide, we’re happy to be able to get to the bottom of the two sightings at Trelogan. Sara joked on our Facebook post that Sheldon would be after a wage if he found out that he was famous.

"Sheldon has now featured in countless national newspapers including the Daily Mail, The Telegraph and The Sun, in addition to widespread coverage in the local press and on social media.

Jonathan Terry filmed the creature, which he spotted prowling the fields to the rear of his house in Trelogan, we now know to be Sheldon, from his kitchen window, and said it was at least the size of a sheep and possibly even bigger.

On the video voices can be heard saying "that's massive" and "it's stalking something, innit?"

Tony added: "We now know this was likely Sheldon out hunting a rabbit or rat through the grass. And we’ve also been able to confirm Sheldon does visit the woods where the second sighting took place, which was reported to us after sharing the video but took place four days before it was filmed.

The Trelogan encounters, which followed several other sightings in Abergele Corwen, Pontybodkin, Pentre Halkyn, Rhuallt and Talacre that cannot be Sheldon, led to calls in the Senedd for the phenomenon to be investigated.

Clwyd West MS Darren Millar made the call to investigate during a virtual meeting of the Senedd this week.

Due to the spate of sightings in his constituency, prior to the Trelogan reports, MP for Delyn Rob Roberts wrote to the Welsh Government's Environment Minister Lesley Griffiths.

She replied that reports received by the Welsh Government are treated seriously and investigated them.

She said: “The Welsh Government’s policy is to investigate any reports received by the Department for Economy, Skills and Natural Resources of alleged sightings and attacks by big cats on livestock in Wales.”