Was this paw print left by a big cat?
Woman tells of fears
Published:
IS this paw print the first evidence that a big cat exists in Aberdeenshire?
Heather Ivers, pictured, found the prints after her dog “went ballistic” outside her rural home.
She was woken at 1am by her pet barking.
And the 53-year-old, from Banchory Devenick – just outside Aberdeen – discovered a massive paw print on the ground outside the next day.
Heather said: “I got woken up by my dog barking, which she never does normally.
“She sleeps in the living room and went from the front of the house to the back, so something was moving around the outside of the house.
“I looked out of the window – but wouldn’t have gone out. She doesn’t bark at other dogs or cats. If she was barking, there was something else out there.”
Heather, a potter and sculptor, recognised the print as belonging to a cat because the claws were retracted.
She said: “All kinds of animals pass by at night and there are usually tracks left there in the morning.
“They were definitely made by a very large cat because there are no claw marks.”
Heather said she depended on her Staffordshire Terrier Bailley to keep her safe.
She said: “It can be quite creepy out walking at night.”
Heather believes the beast was one she spotted near her home two years ago.
She said: “It was across two fields – it was pure black and the size of a dog, definitely bigger than a domestic cat.
“It was sleek with a long thin black tail.”
The sighting comes just a week after another report of a panther prowling the North-east.
Frank Logan, 45, claimed to have seen a big cat in a field off the B9001 Inverurie to Rothienorman Road.
In June this year, Kim Munro, 47, of Westhill’s Hilltop Drive, said she saw a similar cat when walking in the area.
Danny Bamping from the British Big Cats Society has visited the North-east to research sightings.
He described the region as “the perfect habitat” for big cats with “plenty of resources and food”.
Have you seen the big cat? Get in touch with us here.
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