Karl,

I reckon they start to stretch pretty much immediatly and that pic of me holding the cat under it's forelegs was taken less than an hour after death but the time it had spent being held like that would probably be less that 20 minutes in total as we had to keep putting the damn thing down......... as you can see from the expression on my face when it's over my shoulders, it was helluva heavy.... so heavy in fact that by the time I'd carried it 5 or 10 minutes down the hill, my knees were threatening to buckle.

I'd actually be reluctant to guesstimate a percentage of possible stretch but it's a significant amount...... probably over 10% if held in that position for about an hour....... whether it varies from cat to cat or depends on age of cat etc, I've no idea though. It could also well be that stretch factor lessens or stops as body heat is lost...... I guess ambient temperature could well also be a factor and I further guess all that'd be logical.

Hey, I'll be happy to buy the first beer or three either way!

Safarihunt

I think you missed my point, or perhaps more than one.

I wasn't for a moment suggesting that Karl had stretched the cat at all and I've no idea where you got that idea from. I might not agree with Karl about everything (esp bullets

) but have never questioned or doubted his professionalism at all. I did also say I think the stretch factor is there for all cats.

I also didn't mention length versus skull measurement as one has bugger all to do with the other and as far as I'm concerned length is as irrelevent as weight. The ONLY relevent measurement on a cat is the skull which is why ALL the record books only take the skull measurement into consideration. My point was I didn't think the client had any cause for complaint at all........ and if it had me, I'd have told him so.

As to ropes and things, you don't need 'em because gravity will cause the stretch........ but why would anyone deliberately stretch it anyway? As I've said more than once, length and weight don't mean anything at all and the only people who think they do, don't know what they're talking about.

The reason those things are discussed so much is that a 200 lb cat sounds more impressive than a cat with a 15 or 16 inch skull but the truth is that the cat might have just eaten or not eaten for several days because of mating or be diseased or riddled with worms and all those things can affect the weight........... but NONE of them can affect the skull measurement.

Hope that helps.