In message , Christina Websell
writes

"hugh" ] wrote in message
...


From my experience having judged at Crufts

Wow! You did? Fantastic! What breeds did you judge? It is really a
lifetime achievement to do that.

If you see commas where there aren't any then it's not surprising you
can't tell a cat from a dog.

is not necessarily any endorsement for being able to recognise a dog.

I can assure you that anyone who is invited to judge at Crufts knows the
difference between the gait of a cat and a dog that runs across the road in
front of their car.
I don't understand your hostility, is it a perceived class thing?
Eh?

Having been involved in show dogs for over 22 years I have met all
levels of people from all sorts of backgrounds who have judged at
Crufts. "Class" doesn't come into it except perhaps in your mind- it's a
competence thing and many who have judged at crufts have never had the
privilege of going over my dogs because I had no interest in their
opinion.
--
hugh
"Believe nothing. No matter where you read it, Or who said it, Even if
I have said it, Unless it agrees with your own reason And your own
common sense." Buddha

In message , Sacha
writes
On 2010-08-20 22:23:25 +0100, hugh ] said:

In message , Christina Websell
writes
"hugh" ] wrote in message
...


From my experience having judged at Crufts
Wow! You did? Fantastic! What breeds did you judge? It is really
a
lifetime achievement to do that.

If you see commas where there aren't any then it's not surprising you
can't tell a cat from a dog.

is not necessarily any endorsement for being able to recognise a
dog.
I can assure you that anyone who is invited to judge at Crufts
knows the
difference between the gait of a cat and a dog that runs across the road in
front of their car.
I don't understand your hostility, is it a perceived class thing?
Eh?
Having been involved in show dogs for over 22 years I have met all
levels of people from all sorts of backgrounds who have judged at
Crufts. "Class" doesn't come into it except perhaps in your mind- it's
a competence thing and many who have judged at crufts have never had
the privilege of going over my dogs because I had no interest in their opinion.

HOW I wish the Crufts judge who lived just up the lane from us was
still alive. I can imagine her remarks if she saw this sort of
nonsense from someone claiming to have judged at Crufts!

Your reading of sentences is about as accurate as your husbands
observations of small animals.

I think your friend would have readily agreed with my comments. You on
the other hand obviously know nothing about the dog show world.
It's a fact that some people

....claim to....
have seen large cats, including my husband who is not given to an
over-wrought imagination or taking fright in the dark. He's more than
used to walking around in the pitch dark checking the nursery so a
domestic cat is hardly likely to be an object of alarm and amazement.

As somebody else has already explained in great detail the human
cognitive system is very unreliable in certain situations and prone to
exaggeration.

--
hugh
"Believe nothing. No matter where you read it, Or who said it, Even if
I have said it, Unless it agrees with your own reason And your own
common sense." Buddha

From my experience having judged at Crufts, I would have difficulty
in telling a house mouse from a tiger.

Could we drop this inane thread? If anyone is planning on introducing
big cats to the UK, they have my support, though realistically the
best one would be the Eurasian lynx, which we direly need in areas
of high muntjac and roe population.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Sat, 21 Aug 2010 14:50:00 +0100, Janet wrote:

In article , says...

On 2010-08-21 11:02:40 +0100, hugh ] said:
As somebody else has already explained in great detail the human
cognitive system is very unreliable in certain situations and prone to
exaggeration.

Indeed you are - "From my experience having judged at Crufts", for
example. But of course - it's everyone else that's wrong.

In this case, you. Hugh said:

"From my experience having judged at Crufts is not necessarily any
endorsement for being able to recognise a dog."

He is obviously not criticising himself as a Crufts judge (or claiming
to be one). He's expressing an opinion of Crufts judges based on his
experience of them.

Hm, for the want of a comma the sense is lost.


--
(¯`·. ®óñ© © ²°¹° .·´¯)

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2010-08-20 22:23:25 +0100, hugh ] said:

In message , Christina Websell
writes

"hugh" ] wrote in message
...


From my experience having judged at Crufts

Wow! You did? Fantastic! What breeds did you judge? It is really a
lifetime achievement to do that.

If you see commas where there aren't any then it's not surprising you
can't tell a cat from a dog.

is not necessarily any endorsement for being able to recognise a dog.

I can assure you that anyone who is invited to judge at Crufts knows the
difference between the gait of a cat and a dog that runs across the road
in
front of their car.
I don't understand your hostility, is it a perceived class thing?
Eh?

Having been involved in show dogs for over 22 years I have met all levels
of people from all sorts of backgrounds who have judged at Crufts.
"Class" doesn't come into it except perhaps in your mind- it's a
competence thing and many who have judged at crufts have never had the
privilege of going over my dogs because I had no interest in their
opinion.

HOW I wish the Crufts judge who lived just up the lane from us was still
alive. I can imagine her remarks if she saw this sort of nonsense from
someone claiming to have judged at Crufts! It's a fact that some people
have seen large cats, including my husband who is not given to an
over-wrought imagination or taking fright in the dark. He's more than
used to walking around in the pitch dark checking the nursery so a
domestic cat is hardly likely to be an object of alarm and amazement.
--

My friend ( who really does know a dog when she sees one even though she has
judged at Crufts!) would agree with you, Sacha.
She is familiar with the gait of both dogs and cats when running and if she
said it was a black cat the size of a leopard she saw, then that's what it
was.
I have no explanation - she never saw it again. I've never had this
experience (fortunately ;-) )
Why is it that just because *we* haven't seen one ourselves, it has to be
ridiculed?

Tina

In article ,
Christina Websell wrote:

She is familiar with the gait of both dogs and cats when running and if she
said it was a black cat the size of a leopard she saw, then that's what it
was.

I have seen an animal that I thought was a cat from its gait and,
when I got closer, it was a dog - but it was about the size of an
average domestic cat and looked much like an overgrown caterpillar.
I doubt that there are any medium to large dogs that have been
bred to that degree of ridiculousness.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2010-08-22 17:12:30 +0100, "Christina Websell"
said:

snip

My friend ( who really does know a dog when she sees one even though she
has
judged at Crufts!) would agree with you, Sacha.
She is familiar with the gait of both dogs and cats when running and if
she
said it was a black cat the size of a leopard she saw, then that's what
it
was.
I have no explanation - she never saw it again. I've never had this
experience (fortunately ;-) )
Why is it that just because *we* haven't seen one ourselves, it has to be
ridiculed?

Tina

By those of that frame of mind we'd be ridiculed whether we saw such a
creature ourselves or not. On the whole, farmers deal with life, birth
and death on an almost daily basis and are not frequently given to
hysterical imaginings, either. Several round here have seen big cats, so
this is not a single experience 'imagined' by Ray! Iwent up there with
him the next night, checked the distance and the torch beam and its colour
register, if those are the right words. I tried it on several plants of
different colours and it didn't bleach them out. As he isn't an
unnecessarily imaginative or hysterical type, I was surprised to see how
shaken he looked when he came back to the house and then he explained it
all to me. It was a nasty moment but there hasn't been a repeat. We'll
see if it reappears on a fine and dark night - even in the interests of
wildlife research, I'm not going out at 11 on a wet dark evening. ;-)

Oh, go on! It's unlikely it will be seen again anyway and even if it was it
will run away like last time. Go together and look. I would (if I had
someone to go with) but a cat 2 ft high sitting up I wouldn't go alone.
It's not a cougar but even so..that it is biggish cat and I'd prefer someone
with me if I wanted to try and see it again.
It's not a lynx either.

Tina

On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:00:46 +0100, Sacha wrote:

Several round here have seen big cats, so this is not a single
experience 'imagined' by Ray! Iwent up there with him the next night,

Not during the next day to check for tracks? Seems odd that these
animals don't leave tracks, though I guess if you get a nasty shock
the last thing on your mind is to go looking for tracks... Having
said that I doubt any panther sized cat is likely to attack a human
unless you corner or startle it. Make some noise as you move to where
it was so it knows you are coming and it will be far to busy moving
away in good time to become cornered.

--
Cheers
Dave.

In article o.uk,
Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:00:46 +0100, Sacha wrote:

Several round here have seen big cats, so this is not a single
experience 'imagined' by Ray! Iwent up there with him the next night,

Not during the next day to check for tracks? Seems odd that these
animals don't leave tracks, though I guess if you get a nasty shock
the last thing on your mind is to go looking for tracks...

It is surprisingly rare for the conditions to be right to find most
animal tracks, and cats are notorious for not leaving them.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.