Report from George Markie
Dark grey cat spotted by Loch Ness
From 'Eyewitness Accounts' in Cat Country, The Quest for the British Big Catby Di Francis, David and Charles, 1983
Spring 1967, Loch Ness
Merchant seaman Thomas McMahon was holidaying in Scotland in the spring of 1967, and one evening was hitching along the road between Inverness to Fort Augustus. He said:
It was starting getting dark and I thought to myself that it was time to make camp. It was still lightish and these was a lot of scrub and heather along the road, when suddenly I saw the glint from these eyes. And I can always remember, even to this day, first thing in my mind was, what the heck is that? It clicked, you know how your mind works fast, 'That's no ordinary cat, or no dog or anything!' It was like a puma with its ears laid back, about the size of a Labrador but not as heavily built. It was the height and build of a leopard. I was walking in the centre of the road and it was standing on the verge, it couldn't have been more than a couple of feet away from me. I thought, if that thing goes for me, well I had a small haversack and I thought that I could use it as a shield, as I didn't know if it was aggressive or not. There was dead silence, they eyes followed me as I passed, I looked back once or twice warily and I was till looking at me. There was an awful sense of awareness, you know it was not a thing to be tangling with. That's all I can remember. You couldn't tell the colour in the light, it was a sort of darkish grey.
Spring 1967
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