The mysterious creature that has been on the prowl for several days was finally tracked down by police early yesterday morning.
Officers said the animal, at one point thought to be a mountain lion, was never likely to attack - though it may still nuzzle.
"It was basically a big, overgrown pussycat, about 20 pounds or so," said Fred Harran, the township's deputy director of public safety. Harran said the large but otherwise unremarkable house cat had caused a lot of trouble but would not be detained.
Police had been searching for the animal since last Monday, when residents of the County Downe neighborhood just south of Bensalem High School reported spotting a "40 to 50 pound" catlike creature creeping around their yards.
Throughout the week, at least seven callers reported the animal to police. Some said it was a cougar, others called it a wildcat, and one woman described a monster about five feet long.
Police were baffled and concerned enough about the animal to send digital photographs of its paw prints to the Philadelphia Zoo. Experts there analyzed the prints but could not say what made them.
After a week of eluding police, the beast with dark brown fur was finally spotted at 7:50 a.m. in a field off Arrowood Drive.
According to Harran, Officer Mark Blaszczyk was inside his patrol car when his partner shouted: "There it is! There it is!"
Blaszczyk reached for his shotgun, but seeing the familiar outline of a domestic Felis catus, he grabbed his binoculars instead.
From a distance, Blaszczyk identified the skittish animal. Although the creature wore no ownership tags, the officers allowed it to resume its daily hunt - more a threat to field mice than to men.
Three times this week, frightened residents have reported a large cat - either a mountain lion or an ocelot - slinking through back yards near Bensalem High School.
Local police are hunting the creature, using digital imaging and the expertise of the Philadelphia Zoo, yet remain unsure of what exactly they're looking for.
"No one has been able to give a clear description of it," said Fred Harran, deputy public safety director. "Some say it's 30 pounds and brown, some say it's 50 pounds and black. We just don't know what it is."
Harran said the creature was reclusive, scampering off whenever threatened, and is unlikely to attack or even approach humans.
Nevertheless, animal-control officers were on the hunt again yesterday near the intersection of Blanch Road and Wells Road in Bensalem.
There is one lead: On Monday, police said they discovered what they believed were the animal's tracks.
The tracks were photographed using a digital camera and sent via e-mail to the Philadelphia Zoo, where animal expert Karl Kranz took up the case.
Using a computer database of animal footprints, Kranz was unable to identify Bensalem's mysterious visitor. Baffled, he sent the prints to Montana, the home of nationally known animal tracker James Halfpenny.
Pennsylvania Prowler was Porky Pussycat
Residents of a Bensalem neighborhood need live in fear no longer.
[Original headline: A monster mix-up. Bensalem cat is out of the bag ]
[Source: Philadelphia Inquirer / PA / By Matthew P. Blanchard - March 21 2000 ]
Elusive ABC Remains Unidentified in PA
Something is on the loose in Bensalem [Pennsylvania].
[Original headline: Bensalem officials baffled in case of the furtive feline]
[Source: Philadelphia Inquirer / PA / By Matthew P. Blanchard - March 17 2000 ]
