Cutting from Ralph Barnett via George Markie
See Photo Album for photos of this location.
Mystery creature, like a 'puma' on esplanade
From the Dundee Courier 4 th March 1995
A BROUGHTY FERRY couple walking their dog on the esplanade were alarmed yesterday when they had an encounter with the mystery big cat which many people believe is roaming the area.
Frank Donnelly and Elma Lowson were walking with their border collie Mindy near the shell of Buddies night-club when, instead of leading them along. the path, the dog made for a nearby clump of thick undergrowth.
Elma said "The dog went away forward of us and disturbed this animal out of the bushes. It just shot out and I have no doubt it was some sort of thing like a puma. It was certainly- like nothing we've ever seen before."
Elma and Frank said the black animal, which paid no heed to them although they were only 25 yards from it, was both taller at the shoulder and longer in the body than their seven-year-old border collie, slim and with a smallish, rounded head and long tail.
"Mindy, who had obviously been aware of this animal hiding in the undergrowth, was barking. and growling at it and it just ran away,", said, Elma."It shot across the grass on to and across the railway line and then disappeared from sight.
"We were shouting for Mindy to come back because we were worried about her going on to the track but afterwards, when we thought about it we wondered what might have: happened to her if this animal had decided to fight instead of run."
Elma who said she had read of other recent sightings but never thought she would see the creature herself, said, "I still can hardly believe what we saw.
It all happened really quickly after Mindy chased it out of the undergrowth but we got a really good look at it and we know what we saw wasn't a dog or an ordinary cat or anything else that should be on the Broughty Ferry Esplanade.
"All we know is that it was bigger and much faster than a fully-grown border collie and, looking back, its probably just as well for us and the dog that it ran off."
Over the past few years there have been repeated sporadic sightings of unidentified cat-like creatures across Tayside and Scotland mostly in fairly remote rural areas. If it was such a creature Frank and Elma saw, it would probably be the closest one has been to human habitation.
Dundee Courier: 4 th March 1995
 |
 |
 |
|
| Return to index | Return to Scottish Big Cats | Return to Angus and Dundee | Return to 1995 |