Man Spots Shark In Garden While Making A Cup Of Tea

We've all heard about it raining cats and dogs, but who ever heard of it raining sharks?

Well, if you're James Hill, a 26-year-old from Whitstable in Kent, then you have. James was making himself a cuppa when he his dad alerted him to the presence of a scaly visitor to his back garden.

Quite how the dogfish, which is a member of the shark family, managed to find its way to his garden remains a mystery, though they think it might have been fumbled by a passing bird, who was carrying it in its claws.

SWNS

"I had been making a cup of tea when my dad came in looking a bit perplexed;" said James, who works part-time as a coast guard and might well know a thing or two about fish.

"He (his father) said to me: 'What's the British shark commonly found in the UK - the shark that is two foot long and has a sloped nose? Because there's one in the back garden'. I was really shocked. My feet are size ten, so this beast is a good two feet long."

"The fella was still in pretty good condition, but had been dead for a couple of days. I prodded it before carrying on with the day. It's just the silliest thing to try and explain to someone: 'Oh yeah, I was making a cup of tea and a shark fell from the sky into my garden'.

"Luckily it's only a smaller species. I think it had been picked up by an ambitious cormorant, which dropped it. The bird's neck probably hurt or it has been hassled by gulls and let go."

The shark in question is common around the shores of Great Britain and generally come to around two feet in length.

While it's unlikely that the shark was rained into James' back garden, there have been plenty of real-life examples of animals falling from the sky.

Fish rained on SIngapore in 1861 after a tornado picked them up at sea and deposited them on the city, while in 1974, the town of Albury, New South Wales, reported a rain of spiders.

As for cats and dogs - it is less likely that this has actually taken place. The phrase is supposed to derive from the dirty city streets of the 17th century, when heavy rain could displace the dead bodies of animals from the cutters, or from the thatched roofs of homes, which provided a comfy sleeping place for animals who could fall out in inclement weather.

Topics: Fish, UK, Animals, shark

Mike Wood

Mike Meehall Wood is a freelance journalist and translator. He writes for LADbible, VICE and countless sports publications, focusing on rugby league, football and boxing. He is a graduate of Leeds University and maintains a fizzy pop obsession. Contact Mike at [email protected]