Report from Reuel Chisholm
I thought big cat sightings were rubbish... Then I saw one
From the Aberdeen Evening Express, 27 th September 2003
Sales rep Mark Slater thought Evening Express reports of big cat sightings
were "a load of rubbish."
That was before he came face-to-face with a "panther".
It happened last Saturday night while Mark, 33, and his wife were driving
home to Bridge of Don after visiting his mother-in-law in Stuartfield.
The sighting was on the B9030 Old Deer to Auchnagatt road.
It was 8.30pm and dark when, about a mile-and-a-half north of Auchnagatt,
Mark's wife spotted something on the other side of the road, its flashing eyes
picked out in the car's headlights.
Mark, of Woodcroft, Bridge of Don, said: "It was running towards us on the
right hand side.
"At first my wife thought it was a big black dog, but I could see it wasn't.
"The way in which it moved was cat-like and as we got closer I hit the brakes
to take a better look."
The "cat" ran past the driver's side of the car about three yards from Mark
and darted into a nearby field.
He turned the car and went to the field entrance with his car headlights on
full beam, just in time to see the cat disappear.
"It was going at some speed," he said.
"I would say that it was close in height to an alsatian but longer. It had
short, sleek, jet black hair and its tail came up in a crook.
"I firmly believe that it was a panther."
He was surprised and curious rather than frightened by his experience.
But Mark added: "There's no way that I was getting out of the car and
following it on foot.
"The ironic thing is that earlier on I had read the story in the Evening
Express about a big cat sighting near Westhill and rubbished it.
"And if I hadn't seen this panther for myself, I would still be saying the
same thing," Mark said.
The last sighting of a big cat in the Auchnagatt area was back in 1997.
A retired care assistant from Torry said she saw a puma just outside the
village while on a bus trip.
There have been a spate of sightings of a "panther" in the Carnie Woods near
Westhill.
The beast, dubbed the Carnie Cat, has been seen at least five times in the
last month-and-a-half.
For the Carnie Cat to be the same one spotted by Mr Slater it would have had
to walk about 25 miles, cross four A roads, and two major rivers - the Don and
the Ythan.
Aberdeen Evening Express, 27 th September 2003
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