Winged Cats

The winged cat – a feline with wings like a bird, bat or other flying creature – is a theme in artwork and legend going back to prehistory, especially mythological depictions of big cats with eagle wings in Eurasia and North Africa. They are also a type of cryptid animal and reports of sightings of them are one genre of Forteana. Belief in domestic cats with wings persists to the present day. Sightings of cats with supposed wings are occasionally explained by medical conditions that can result in matted hair, loose skin, or supernumerary limbs on or near the shoulders, that flap about in a wing-like manner as the cat runs; however, other reports remain unsolved and enigmatic.

Reports of sightings

 * The earliest currently known report of a winged cat is from Henry David Thoreau: "A few years before I lived in the woods there was what was called a 'winged cat' in one of the farm-houses in Lincoln nearest the pond, Mr. Gillian Baker's. When I called to see her in June, 1842, she was gone a-hunting in the woods, as was her wont ... but her mistress told me that she came into the neighborhood a little more than a year before, in April, and was finally taken into their house; that she was of a dark brownish-grey colour, with a white spot on her throat, and white feet, and had a large bushy tail like a fox; that in the winter the fur grew thick and flattened out along her sides, forming strips ten or twelve inches long by two and a half wide, and under her chin like a muff, the upper side loose, the under matted like felt, and in the spring these appendages dropped off. They gave me a pair of her 'wings,' which I keep still. There is no appearance of a membrane about them. Some thought it was part flying squirrel or some other wild animal, which is not impossible, for, according to naturalists, prolific hybrids have been produced by the union of the marten and the domestic cat."
 * In the 19th century, there was an alleged winged cat at the centre of a custody dispute with one party claiming him to be their cat, Thomas, and the other claiming it to be their feline, Bessy.
 * A "flying cat" was reported in India in 1868. It was shot by Alexander Gibson, and the skin was exhibited at a meeting of the Bombay Asiatic Society. Gibson believed it to be a cat, but others claim it to be a bat or flying fox.
 * In August 1894, a cat said to have wings resembling those of a duckling was being exhibited by David Badcock of Reach, Cambridgeshire, England. It was later stolen and turned up in Liverpool, England, but had shed its wings.
 * In 1897, a tortoiseshell cat with pheasant-like wings projecting from each side of its 4th ribs was reported shot and killed in Matlock, Derbyshire. The story appeared in the High Peak News of Saturday, 26 June 1897. Witnesses claimed the cat used its wings outstretched to help run faster.
 * In 1899, London's Strand Magazine reported a winged cat or kitten belonging to a woman living in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, England. Cat show judge HC Brooke also described it in the weekly magazine Cat Gossip in 1927: "This cat had growing from its back two appendages which reminded the observer irresistibly of the wings of a chicken before the adult feathers appear. These appendages were not flabby, but apparently gristly, about six or eight inches long, and place in exactly the position assumed by the wings of a bird in the act of taking flight. They did not make their appearance until the kitten was several weeks old." Someone attempted to cut off the wings, with fatal consequences for the cat.
 * In 1933 or 1934, a winged black-and-white cat was claimed to have been captured in Oxford, England by Mrs Hughes Griffiths. She claimed it used its six-inch wings to aid in jumping long distances. It was exhibited for a while at Oxford Zoo.
 * In 1936, a winged cat was supposedly found on a farm near Portpatrick, Wigtownshire, Scotland. It was a white long-haired cat, and the wings were flaps 6 in (15 cm) long and 3 in (7.5 cm) wide on its back. They flapped up and down when the cat ran. This is consistent with badly matted fur.
 * In 1939, Sally, a black-and-white cat said to have a 24-inch wingspan, from Attercliffe, Sheffield, England, was sold to a Blackpool museum of freaks.
 * During World War II, an overweight black-and-white cat in Ashford, Middlesex, became a local attraction because of the wings which sprouted from its shoulders. This also seems like a case of matted fur.
 * In June 1949, a 20-pound cat with a 23-inch wingspan was said to have been shot in northern Sweden. A Professor Rendahl of the State Museum of Natural History said the wings were a deformity of the skin which happened to take the shape of wings.
 * In 1950, a tortoiseshell cat called Sandy with "sizable" wings was exhibited at a carnival in Sutton, Nottinghamshire. Sandy had not previously grown wings, so this seems a case of matted fur.
 * In either 1950 or 1959, Madrid papers reported that Juan Priego's grey Angora cat, Angolina, had grown a pair of large fluffy wings.
 * In May 1959, a "winged" Persian cat was caught near Pinesville, West Virginia. The finder, Douglas Shelton, named it Thomas, but, after the cat made headlines, Mrs Charles Hicks claimed it was her lost cat, Mitzi. When the cat was produced in court, her wings had fallen off and turned out to be extensive mats of fur.
 * In 1966, a winged cat from Alfred, Ontario, Canada, was killed and was examined by scientists at Kemptville Agricultural School. The wings were nothing more than matted fur. The cat was also suffering from rabies.
 * In the October/November 1967 issue of the Cats Protection League's periodical The Cat, Cecily Waddon reported a matted Persian whose felted fur resembled wings and flapped when the cat moved.
 * In 1970, J. A. Sandford of Wallingford, Connecticut saw a "winged" cat in a neighbor's garden. The orange-and-white longhaired cat was "positively waddling due to large wing-like growths hanging from its midsection." The owner claimed it was how the cat shed its fur in summer. The fur was matted into rectangular pads about five inches long by four inches wide. Some claim it to be a case of feline cutaneous asthenia, but it is a textbook case of matted fur.
 * In 1975, the Manchester Evening News published a photograph of a winged cat which had lived in the Banister Walton & Co builder's yard at Trafford Park, Manchester, England, during the 1960s. It had a pair of 11-inch-long fluffy wings projecting from its back. The skin of its tail was flattened into a broad flap. Workmen reported that the cat could raise its wings above its body, suggesting the deformity contained muscle as well as skin. This sometimes happens with cutaneous asthenia.
 * In 1986, a winged cat was reported in Anglesey, Britain, and later shed its wings, suggesting they were mats of fur.
 * In April 1995, Martin Millner claimed to have spotted a fluffy winged tabby in Backbarrow, Cumbria, England.
 * In 1998, a black cat was found in Northwood, Middlesex, with supposed wings that were 2-3 inches back from the shoulder blades, 8 inches long, 4 inches wide, 1 inch thick, and flapped as the cat ran.
 * In 2004, at Bukreyevk (near Kursk), Central Russia, a winged, ginger, stray tomcat named Vaska was drowned by superstitious villagers, according to the local Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
 * In 2007, in Xianyang, Shaanxi province, China, it was claimed that a one-year-old tomcat grew ten-centimeter-long wings, with bones, in just one month, starting out as bumps. The owner, Feng, believed it was because the cat had been sexually harassed by other cats. The story appeared in the newspaper "Huashang".
 * In May 2009, another winged cat was reported in China, with the story appearing on MSNBC.
 * In 2011, a "winged" cat was reported in Tatarstan, Russia, becoming famous due to a YouTube video. It was informally called Aq Bars, after the winged snow leopard on Tatarstan's coat of arms.