Sorry, this video asset has been removed.

Mystic Mog, the
predicting cat

by Alex Claridge

He's Leon the Euro 2012 football championship predicting
cat – and so far he’s got an 88% success rate, winning his owner
more than £100.

The beige pedigree Tonkinese – already nicknamed Mystic Mog –
has been making his predictions by choosing from a bowl of food
with win, lose or draw written on them.

Owner Ted Phillips from Canterbury has then gambled £5 on each
forecast.

And with seven out of eight results right so far, including
England’s 1-0 victory over the Ukraine on Tuesday, the 45-year-old
self-employed caterer of Upper Chantry Lane is £102 up.

Ted said: “Leon is doing very well this morning and is bathing
in his success of getting it right again in the England versus
Ukraine match.

Leon the cat, Canterbury
correctly predicts scores from the Euro 2012 football

“It only started as a bit of a laugh. My friend and I wanted to
put some money on the England versus France game so, under the
influence of a bit of alcohol, we let Leon decide and he picked the
bowl of food for a draw.”

As Leon had said, England drew with their great rivals from
across the Channel, while Ted carried on letting his pet pick the
results.

Pretty soon we were three from three and £40 up,” Ted went on,
“it’s only been the Holland v Germany game that he has got
wrong.”

The bowls two-year-old Leon chooses to eat from contain a
simple cat food, a mix of chicken and carrot.

He often makes his call after rolling around on the floor in
some kind of pre-forecast ritual and then goes on to devour the
bowl containing the right result.

Ted is now inundated with friends wanting to know what Leon’s
next prediction is – a win for Portugal in tonight’s quarter-final
against the Czech Republic.

But Ted, who is best known around Canterbury for being in the
Unicorn pub quiz team and running the catering at the city’s rugby
club, describes Leon as “not the brightest”.

“He prefers to be indoors and doesn’t even spend that much time
outside on the balcony next to my flat,” Ted added.

Ted plans to donate all the winnings from Leon’s predictions to
the British Heart Foundation and has a friend who rode the London
to Brighton cycle ride on Sunday in aid of the charity.

Watch this space for Mystic Mog's next prediction - for
England v Italy on Sunday.

So far Leon has correctly forecast seven out of eight results. Those he has got right are:

Greece 1 Czech Republic 2

Poland 1 Russia 1

Denmark 2 Portugal 3

France 1 England 1

Sweden 2 England 3

Italy 1 Croatia 1

England 1 Ukraine 0

The only game he has got wrong is the Holland versus Germany game when he predicted a draw. Germany went on to win 2-1.