Report from Chris Smith
Big Cat seen by taxi driver near Beith
From 'Eyewitness Accounts' in Cat Country, The Quest for the British Big Catby Di Francis, David and Charles, 1983
Still in Scotland, during the summer of 1974 there were a number of reports that puma-like animals had been seen in north Ayrshire, south-west of Glasgow. In June, John Jackson, a taxi driver from Barrmill, was driving with passengers to Beith at about midnight. Suddenly he spotted a large cat-like animal crouched in the road. 'It was sitting on its haunches in the middle of the road and I was forced to stop. I was within a few feet of it and my headlights were full on, but it would not move. I waited for about five minutes, then drove round it. In doing so my car brushed against it and it growled.'
June 1974
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