Mysterious graffiti is the cat's whiskers

Mysterious silhouettes of black cats are appearing all over a Black Country town centre, leaving residents baffled over where they came from.

The black cat, traditionally the harbinger of both good and bad luck, has been spotted in several nooks and crannies around Stourbridge, either sitting up straight or ready to pounce.

Photographs of the faceless felines in spots such as outside Katie Fitzgerald's pub, Bell Street multi-storey car park and near the snack van on Stourbridge ring road have been posted on social networking site Twitter.

The identity of the artist behind the silhouettes is still unknown.

Resident Russell Eden, who lives just outside the ring road, said that the unusual paintings had been appearing for some time.

"I have noticed them while I've been out and about — it looks like it could be some sort of trail but I don't know who it is by or what it means," he said.

"I think it's quite a nice, quirky feature of Stourbridge. They're not an eyesore like some of the graffiti out there and I don't find it offensive at all.

"One of the most interesting things about these cats is that they're not in particularly obvious places — some of them you have to really go looking for."

The person behind the @RogueLlama Twitter feed, who brought the cats to the attention of the online community, says he thinks the cats should stay as a Stourbridge attraction.

"Given a choice between a depressingly amateurish three-initial scrawl of a 'tag' repeatedly smeared across the underpasses of the town, or a series of 'Where's Wally'-esque witch's cats, I know which ones I would rather see removed.

"The cat trail could be something that draws people into town."

Council spokesman Phil Parker said: "We have not received any complaints about images of cats.

"But if reports of graffiti are made to the council they are followed up and the graffiti is removed by the council's street cleansing team."