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This is Josh Hopkins.
On Friday 25 August 2000, he'd been busily building a camp with friends near his home in the small village of Trelleck, south Wales.
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Josh noticed that his black and white cat, Sylvester, had followed them to
the camp and decided to carry him back through the fields to his house.
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Half way home Sylvester jumped out of Josh's arms and ran off.
As Josh
carried on towards the house he saw something move in the grass. Thinking
it was Sylvester, he approached...
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It was then that the beast attacked, digging its large claws into his neck,
it clamped its jaws around the terrified boys head causing Josh to scream
out in terror.
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Suddenly the beast let go and disappeared without a trace.
Bleeding from
claw and bite wounds, Josh ran back over the fields to his house.
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An absolutely terrifying experience for Josh.
You might have heard stories about big wild cats roaming parts of the UK countryside. Josh believes that it's one such cat that attacked him.
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Josh reckoned that the cat which attacked him looked very similar to this black leopard - but with a few subtle differences.
It was slightly smaller, and the tail was bigger.
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Cat experts measured the scratch marks on Josh's face after the incident, and compared them to those of a leopard - and they matched exactly!
An amazing - and very scary - close encounter.
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