Wild Cat
Wild Cat is a mystery adventure story set in Wales. A strange creature is haunting the mountains above Catrin’s village. She can hear its shivering howls in the night, and soon the English boy Leo who has come to her school can hear it too. Is it a wild animal? The two children overcome their fears and go in search of it. Pearl Band 18.
Available from Amazon.
Illustrated by Zara Slattery. Published by Collins Big Cat, 2012 ISBN 7780-00-742833-5.
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There was something strange happening in the valley where Catrin lived. When she looked out of the window at night, she felt as if something was out there on the dark mountain, moving softly, watching.
The creation of ‘Wild Cat’
My story is loosely based on my children’s opera of the same name, which was commissioned by Welsh National Opera and performed throughout England and Wales. You can read about it in the Music section of my About me page. Wild Cat the opera was a fantasy story, in which magical spirits of the mountains help the children in their search.
My book Wild Cat is different, because here the children use their own courage and cleverness to track the creature down. At first Catrin and Leo don’t like each other and Catrin wants to go on her adventure alone. But Leo is determined to go too, and soon they find that they need each other’s help and strength.
Are wildcats extinct?
They are very rare indeed, and close to extinction in this country. A few have been seen in Scotland and fewer still in Wales. I have only ever seen one once, in a wildlife sanctuary. They are not to be confused with feral cats, who are a kind of roaming domestic cat. Throughout Europe conservationists turned huge areas of land into wild places where wolves, bears wildcats and other creatures now live.
This article in the Independent describes the efforts to re-introduce the wildcat to Scotland, and also features a wonderful shivery photograph of a wildcat.
Perhaps you could write a story about a wild animal that is in danger of becoming extinct. Find out as much as you can about it, where it lives, what it looks like, then imagine yourself going on an expedition to find it. And then what would you do? Would you take it to a zoo, so many people would be able to see it? Would you take it to a sheltered environment, so it could live in the wild and be protected and observed? Or would you leave it exactly where you found it, in its natural environment?