Unknown beast spotted in West Berkshire

A bushy-tailed, long necked creature was spotted by West Berkshire businessman, Don Prater, in Curridge at about 4.55pm on October 3. The 67-year-old was walking his two-year-old Border Collie called Bozzy when he spotted the animal he has dubbed the ‘Creature from Curridge’. “I hadn’t been drinking!” stressed Mr Prater. “I was walking the dog along the passageway behind the Women’s Institute Hall in Curridge towards Hermitage.

“After the footpath bends left, about 25 yards ahead of us were two animals. One of the animals looked like a domestic cat but the other one stunned me. It was a dark or grey colour. The height of its head was about two foot but it had the head of a deer. The neck was about eight to ten inches long and thin like a swan’s neck. The body was a cross between a cat and a dog. It had a bushy tail. Everything about it was wrong.



“The cat went off into the undergrowth then the other animal starred at us, took a couple of turns and wandered off into the hedgerows.” Mr Prater said he has canvassed opinion in Curridge but no-one has seen a similar creature lurking in the undergrowth. “I don’t have an explanation, but it was real,” he said. “I have never seen anything like that before.” General consensus is that the creature, depicted in Mr Prater’s sketch, looks like an alpaca or llama.

Both Bucklebury Farm Park and Beale Park, Lower Basildon, said that all their respective animals are accounted for, so the ‘Creature from Curridge’ could not have escaped from those establishments. Spokeswoman for Bucklebury Farm Park, Elizabeth Peplow said: “The closest we have to an alpaca are our two lovely llamas, Twinkle and Buttons, who are grazing happily in their paddock.” Meanwhile spokesman for the British Big Cats Society, Danny Bamping said: “There have been sightings of such a creature around Berkshire, but it does not resemble a cat. To me it looks like a mini, furry Loch Ness Monster.”