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Elgin Print
Paw prints were found in the snow in a garden near Elgin in February 1995. See Paws for thought in Moray garden for more information on this pictures. We are grateful to Peter Dignan and the Aberdeen Press and Journal for the photograph
I am writing regarding the large paw prints found in the snow on the 10 th February 1995. A listing appears on your web site in the sightings section and I'm sure this is the associated report to go with the listing. The article is from the Press & Journal.
William Bradley the man who found the paw prints is my grandfather and this was not the only run in he had with the cat. On a late summer evening my Grandmother and Grandfather were out for a walk when across the field they witnessed a spaniel-sized cat walking slowly along the brow of a hill. They were able to watch the cat for about 20 seconds but as always there was no camera handy to take that elusive photo.
Farms nearby lost sheep around the time of the sightings and at one point my Grandfather tried to tell me the cat was living in the woods near to his house. As you can imagine I did not go out after dark for a little while.
My interest in the big cats blossomed when my Grandmother took me along to visit Di Francis and her Kellas cats and from that point on I was hooked on finding the elusive feline. My interest in the felines has been put on the back burner lately as most of my time is spent trying to finish course work for University but I have been able to collect newspaper clippings in my spare time.
Peter Dignan.
I am certainly no expert on tracks, so I'm sticking my neck out by making the first comments. This print does look feline to me. However, it also reminds me very much of the tracks recently found by Steven Clark near Aberdeen. As with those tracks, there appears to be five toe marks, caused by the cat putting its rear foot in the track made by the front foot. The cat that made this is certainly much smaller than a leopard or puma. However, I seems likely that it could well correspond to the black "spaniel"-sized cat later seen by the witness. Could this have been made by a "Kellas cat"?
Chris Smith, Scottish Big Cats
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