Ok, here goes…
I originally sent the following account to Mark shortly after the incident, which I’m relating below, happened last week. I did tell him that he was free to post it on my behalf if he wished to do so but that I wished to remain anonymous and Mark very kindly replied and acknowledged it.
I’m not sure if you intended to post it Mark but I have since decided to risk the ridicule and submit the account which is a combination of the original and follow up messages that I sent you along with a slight edit regarding the species of big cat and censoring out the location details plus an additional thought since on personal safety.
Mark is aware of the exact location although I have deliberately left it out of the public domain…
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Following a short evening session on the river I was travelling home at around 9.30pm through what is a fairly vast area of rural farmland interspersed with the occasional village, the road was reasonably quiet and it was the half-light of dusk… neither light nor dark and it was still possible to distinguish different colours etc.
As I travelled through one particular riverside village I eventually came to open road once again and entered the neighbouring countryside and as I did so, right before my very eyes and quick enough as to almost completely deceive them a large, black creature appeared through the overgrown verge bordering some farmland to my left before appearing to pause for a split second and then flashed straight across the road around two to three hundred yards ahead!
It’s size, shape, posture and speed was something with which it seemed totally at ease with yet it looked completely unnatural in relation to any domestic or indigenous wild animal and the best I can do by way of a description would be to say that it was around five feet in length, black in colour and with a kind of low slung “prowling” type of posture which seemed to further exaggerate the length of its body and with an ease and lightning speed of movement in that low slung position that defied explanation.
Whilst the whole incident lasted barely a split second or two I have the outline, posture and startling speed of that creature permanently etched on my memory.
I Immediately felt in little if any doubt as to what I had just witnessed and the feelings ranged from initial disbelief which eventually gave way to elation and now a calm feeling that I’ve been extremely privileged to have witnessed such an incredible thing.
I’ve been through all of the possible alternatives and nothing else gets even close to what I saw… no dog, no large domestic or feral cat, no fox or deer or anything else for that matter could move at the speed with which this creature did and in the posture in which it did.
That outline etched on my memory is the outline of a big cat albeit I am ignorant to the various species and would probably be wrong if I tried to guess.
I phoned my regular fishing mate around 10.30pm that evening which is usually a no no as he gets up early for work and he said he knew straight away from my voice that I was totally serious and says he doesn't doubt me one bit.
Interestingly, the sighting occurred less than a mile from where I took the picture which I posted in the thread a few months ago of the large paw print after the winter floods which I had passed off as a big dog at the time and still probably was but again there was no mistaking the sighting on that particular evening.
The other thing that has since struck me after travelling the same route last night is that the area where it decided to cross the highway was just outside of ------------ beyond the boundary to the grounds of ---------- around the area where ---------- Farm land begins (a very large area of crop land) on a heavily covered part of the road with lots of overhanging trees and consequently darker than the open countryside beyond it where the hedgerows are maintained and much lower and where it gets lighter again at any time of day but particularly at that time of evening for the next mile or so before going back to heavier covered areas beyond.
Not sure if i'm reading too much into that but it seems to stand to reason and also, after spending half an hour on Google since it would appear that credible sightings have occurred at the nearby ------------ area and ----------- around 10 miles away.
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So, there you have it… take it or leave it.
I'm no big cat chaser and haven't really ever given it that much thought if I'm honest but would probably have said I had an open mind on the subject if pushed.
I’m in no doubt myself but would I feel nervous about being in remote farmland beside a river with such a creature on the loose?
No, not for a minute.
There was no doubt whatsoever that whatever I witnessed was a very shy, very highly alert and very nervous creature that would likely bolt in the opposite direction at the snapping of a twig a half a mile away.