Ray Collier, Former Chief Warden, Highlands. The photographs are excellent and really enhance the very readable text'. He states what the books say and then gives the true version from his own experiences.The book reveals Mike's plans to breed a wildcat family and prepare them for a return to the wild, and it is a fascinating account. His research led to a list of statements on page five of this new book. 'Mike Tomkies name is synonymous with the wildcat and he probably knows more about them in the wild than any other naturalist.Nobody has studied wildcats as much as Mike. This unique story of communion between man and animal is taken from two books that have long been out of print - My Wilderness Wildcats and Liane, A Cat from the Wild - revised and updated by the author and illustrated with many new photographs, all in colour. The runt of Cleo's second litter demolished Mike's last defences by giving him her total trust and affection while fiercely retaining an utterly wild and independent nature, so he became first to 'tame' a wildcat. #ALL TIMELY WILDCAT FULL#Mike's extraordinary adventures in raising and releasing no fewer than three litters, two pure wildcat and one hybrid from a domestic male gone wild, are full of incident, at times hilarious, and deeply moving. #ALL TIMELY WILDCAT UPDATE#An update of the lengthy appendix which discusses wildcat populations, history and research on the breed including issues of genetic purity is included in this new edition. In the years that followed little of the scant scientific theory on wildcat behaviour was borne out by his careful observations. Mike resolved to breed a wildcat family and prepare them for a return to the wild. The kittens were only seven months old when a spitting and snarling ten-year-old tomcat arrived from London Zoo to change all their lives. He named them Cleo and Patra, and built them a sturdy natural pen between his lonely cottage and the west wood. Even before they were fully weaned in his kitchen, they could be approached only with extreme care, usually with thick gauntlets as protection against the ravages of tooth and claw. To begin with, Mike became the custodian of two spitfire kittens, found abandoned in a ditch when only a few weeks old. It may look like a giant domestic tabby, but with its bright red tongue and vicious claws, it is a formidable and fearless opponent of mankind. The true wildcat is now an endangered species and only to be found in inaccessible parts of the Scottish mountains. Some seven years after abandoning the life of an international journalist for a life in the wilds, Mike Tomkies began a remarkable experiment, rearing the most ferocious animal to roam wild in Britain - the Scottish wildcat.
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