[HappyHippy]

I'm not normally one to catch the news snippets on AOL, but this one caught my eye. http://travel.aol.co.uk/2011/05/21/forget-the-monster-big-cat-terrorising-loch-ness-locals/
I know there are loads of big cat sightings all round the country and they can't all be faked or imagined  Anybody know anything about this one ? Or anybody on here seen a 'big cat' ? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Karen 

[deepinthewoods]

yep, at night whilst lamping, a pair of big green eyes near the edge of the field and the dogs pooped themselves and did a runner. next day went back to the samearea and found loads of sheep bones hidden deep in the gorse along with prints and spoor. this was last year. i think theyre not uncommon.

[northfifeduckling]

There have been a few sightings  in Fife. I saw one casually walking past my kitchen window - it honestly looked like a black Kellas cat you only see stuffed in the museum (not the size of a panther at all but at least twice the size of a domestic cat)! My own cat just watched him from the window sill equally puzzled! You actually think you must have been dreaming after a sighting like that. A friend saw one once  disappearing into Ladybank forest. 

[CameronS]

We had several sightings around us, and for nights dogs in the wee village were upset, and bins and trees were found with long deep scores in them and a dead sheep was found hanging from a tree 

have also seen foot prints whilst stalking with dad

again we are in fife just south of kerstin

[lazybee]

I think some people are on drugs.
There is no sound evidence of any big cats in the UK. It's all been claimed sighting and hearsay. Can you honestly say, a small over crowded country the size of Britain, with a population of about 70 million has big cats living in just about every county. All counties have some claims. There may be a few in cloud cuckoo land or one or two in La La land, but Britain............no chance.

PS I have fairies at the end of my garden though I've seen them, prove me wrong. Shall I set up a bulls**t website with pseudo proof and pictures

[AengusOg]

 ::)There's always one, isn't there?

I have seen big cats, and evidence of them, and I know others who have too.

[HappyHippy]

Yeah AO 
I do think it's a possibility, after all there's bound to have been break-out's from private collections that someone's not reported for fear of prosecution - so it's definately not imposible.
I remembered the story about the sheep in the tree when I read this and couldn't remember where I'd heard it, thanks Cameron.

It's making interesting reading anyway, whether fact or fiction, anyone else got a story ? (or are you all away smokin' your crack pipes  )

Karen 

[SallyintNorth]

I agree that there are bound to have been some escapes from 'private collections' so try to be open-minded.

Having said which, I know that in dusk or dawn light sizes can appear magnified.  And it's a fact that everywhere I have lived there's been a 'Beast of <here>' story with sightings since I moved in ... since I moved in with my very large domestic black cat Jacob.  Some of the pics I have seen have not looked like domestic moggies - long hooked tail, for instance - and they are more convincing to me.  The pic in the story this topic referred to looks very very like my cat Jacob.  (But we don't live near Loch Ness so it must be a relative  )

Poor Jacob died yesterday so maybe the Beast of Cumbria will go quiet...

[northfifeduckling]

I know what I saw and it was 7 in the morning - no drink or similar for me at this time of the day 
as I said it looked like a very large black wild cat with a different shaped head, not the lovely fluffy and round head of a house cat. I would not compare it to a panther but maybe the original wild cats we see in the museum are not as extinct as we think? 

[mab]

I'm sure a lot of the sightings are spurious - but I seem to remember a documentary thing, years ago, presented by the Tomorrows World presenter Maggie Philbin(?) about the sightings in Scotland where they actually caught one, which turned out to be a domestic cat / scottish wildcat cross, and was larger than either species (german shepherd size?) and black and female - and for some reason didn't live long in captivity.

Does anyone else remember that or am I imagining things?

mab

[Sandy]

We lived in Woodhouse Eaves for a while (posh place) and full of excentrics  Steve was out in our tiny garden that backed onto our allotment and our neighbour (Posh and excentric) leaned out of her bedroom window and shouted to Steve that there was a big cat in the allotment that she could see only from her window!!!, needless to say, when I popped out to look she popped back in and said no more  (come up here and look at the big *ussy cat,  )

[lill]

I believe that these big cats do exist, i have not seen any yet, other than on telly.

[doganjo]

I think some people are on drugs.
There is no sound evidence of any big cats in the UK. It's all been claimed sighting and hearsay. Can you honestly say, a small over crowded country the size of Britain, with a population of about 70 million has big cats living in just about every county. All counties have some claims. There may be a few in cloud cuckoo land or one or two in La La land, but Britain............no chance.

PS I have fairies at the end of my garden though I've seen them, prove me wrong. Shall I set up a bulls**t website with pseudo proof and pictures

And WE have a MONSTER!!!

[shearling]

I do not know about Loch Ness. However, I did see something 'different' when on holiday in Cornwall. It was early morning and we were walking down a country lane when I saw a dog sized animal, first I thought it was a lab but it walked strangely and had a very weird tail. We did not have a 'handy' camera and when it went over a style we were not able to follow. OH saw it too and we were convinced it was not a 'big cat' or the 'beast of Bodmin' but it was strange in the way it walked and moved. Do not take drugs, were not on the way home from the pub and not expecting something strange. And by the way OH is a biologist and we both saw it and then said 'what was that?'

[shearling]

Meant to add we have not reported this anywhere else