If anybody can add any more details of big cat sightings in the West Dorset area I should be glad to hear from them. Please fill in the report form on the home page or contact me via my addresses at the top of this page. 

Sightings are in chronological order, so scroll down for the latest...

1983 (approximately) Higher Eype. A light brown, puma-like big cat was seen in daylight by a knowledgeable witness. Sally Gale kindly passed on this interesting early sighting:
'A friend of my father's saw a large sandy coloured animal running towards my father's field at Higher Eype, near Bridport.  The friend said that he saw it leap across the hedge and into my father's field. My dad went to investigate and saw massive footprints and where the animal had jumped across the hedge it was totally flattened. Ironically enough another friend of my dad's had recently been abroad studying cougar and pumas and said that the footprints definitely looked very similar to that of a cougar/mountain lion. Needless to say my dad returmed to his field many times, but with a gun! Just in case.' 

1995, 30th April, large feline animal was seen near Lyme Regis, and again in 1997, worrying sheep.

1995, Portland
September, at a quarry in Easton.

1996 Portland
Near Grove Road, on 23rd February.

1996 Burton Bradstock
8th September a large, black, cat-like animal was seen.

1997. Abbotsbury. Large feline animal seen stalking the area.

1997/1998. Shipton Gorge. The witness was driving on the A35, and had taken the turning to Shipton Gorge. At the bottom on the hill she saw a large feline animal cross the road in front of her, from one hedge to another. She was excited and rushed home to tell her husband. Unusually this big cat was black, 'but mottled'. Source: witness's verbatim account.

1998. Weymouth.
Sightings of the 'Beast of Westham'. A large black, cat-like creature was seen running near the swannery at about 2am in October of this year. The two witnesses were going home in a taxi when they spotted it. One of them, Mrs. Helen Jensen said: 'It was definitely too big to be a domestic cat: it looked more like a panther'.

1999. Portland. In June this year many islanders saw a strange feline about the size of a spaniel, and dark tabby in colour. 

2000. Portland
Officers swooped on Church Ope Cove, Portland, on the 9th November, after a call from a worried member of the public. The caller told police he had seen a black cat "about the size of an Alsatian" near a cliff as he walked towards the cove. Acting Sergeant Jamie Clark of Portland Police was called to the scene to investigate. He said: 'We've no doubt about the authenticity of the call. A man who lives in the area rang us after spotting what he described as a large black cat near the cliff. He said it was about fifty yards away from where he stood and was about the size of an Alsatian dog. I checked out the area but was unable to find anything. We certainly haven't had any reports of escaped animals in the area. There is no cause for alarm but any more sightings should be reported to the police.' Scroll to 2004 for latest Portland sighting.

2000 or 2001. Nettlecombe.
Mr. and Mrs. Connaughton were walking along the lane between Marsh Farm and North Eggardon Farm near Nettlecombe and probably about 300 yards beyond the railway bridge, when, Mrs Connaughton writes, 'My husband saw the black cat first, on a track at the side of the field on the left hand side of the road - i.e. he saw the whole animal. I saw it about thirty yards into the field of wheat, and therefore I could see only along the top of its back and its feline tail. However it was obvious what it was  It was the size of a medium-sized Labrador and had apparently been resting in the crop of wheat. It seemed to get up and stretch. We stood and watched it for several minutes and then it appeared to lie down again. My husband then walked into the field towards it to try to get a better view, while I walked into the next field for the same reason because it was only a few yards from the dividing hedge, but to no avail. There was no further sighting of it. 

'The wheat was well grown but not yet fully grown so the time of year must have been early summer. As for our reaction at the time, we were certainly not nervous, just fascinated to actually be watching this elusive creature that we had heard so much about! Other than the fact that it was definitely feline and black, we have no idea what it was.' She was aware of other sightings, because her neighbour, Mrs Bowman, had encountered a big cat in 1998 at Powerstock. She was taking her dogs for a walk when she spotted - unusually - a brown -coloured big cat in a field opposite Powerstock Station. 'It was bigger than my collies, with a long, thick tail. It just stood and looked at me, and I and my dogs looked at it. My lurcher-type who chases anything, made no move towards it. Then it just went - disappeared into the hedge.' They hurried off in the opposite direction. At about the same time Mrs Bowman's son had been sitting inside a field gate, near Beaminster tunnel, and a large, black panther-like feline walked past him.Source: witnesses' written and verbatim accounts.

2001 Beaminster. July 
Mr Max Dack is from Seaton in Devon. One fine July day in 2001 he and his wife decided to go for a cycle ride, from Bridport to Beaminster.
They had gone up a lane, through Waytown, and had a drink at Netherbury. They continued through another village where they had a picnic, looked at the church and strolled around the village.  Mark knew Parnham House was between Netherbury and Beaminster, and so when he saw a path leading towards the brow of a hill he thought he'd go up it to see if there was a view of the big house below.
They crossed a stream, and went up the cart track through a field of corn, heading for the brow, hoping to see Parnham House beyond it.  
'All of a sudden this thing walked out across the track forty feet in front of me - and totally ignored me.  It was the size of an Alsatian dog or a Labrador, and as black as the ace of spades. Its tail was enormous - thick and large, and coming right down to the ground. It was absolutely beautiful and in pristine condition - so confident, so healthy.
'It crossed the twelve-foot wide track and went into the corn the other side.  It was funny that it didn't turn to look at us; its complete distain unnerved me.  
'We saw nothing more and continued up the track to the brow of the hill, but couldn't see Parnham House, and so returned the way we had come.
'It did unnerve me, it really did. I rang the police. But it was a beautiful, beautiful thing. I was gobsmacked.'
Source: witness's verbatim account. NB- Scroll down to 2004 for more news of the Netherbury/Melplash/Beaminster cat.

2002 In January this year Ray Toddington was driving on the coast road between Weymouth and Bridport when he saw what he described as a big cat run across the road. He said it was too big to be a domestic cat and had black markings on its nose and paws.  

2002. Eype. Sluice Hill. Sally Gale has had three glimpses of large feline animals in the area over several years. The latest was 18 months ago in Sluice Hill. 'That was a very large, feline animal that was creeping low to the ground as if stalking something. All three of these sightings have left me with hair quite literally standing up on the back of my neck.' Source: witness's account.

2002 Dorchester. November . 
A commuter called police on his mobile phone at 8am after spotting a large, black cat, approximately 200 yards away, running at high speed across fields opposite Dorchester Football Club's ground on Weymouth Avenue. The field was arable, grass about eight inches high, and the cat was about the size of an Alsatian dog. He said: 'It was chasing something – zigzagging about in the middle of the field. It was pure black, cat-like in movement, and its most noticeable feature was its tail which was as long as its body and swept down to the ground and up again in a U-bend'. 
The witness is interested in wildlife, keeps dogs and cats and was adamant that the animal he saw was none of these, stating 'the fact that it was a big cat was as plain as the nose on my face'. The viewing lasted only about fifteen seconds - but it is still etched on his memory because it was a startling sight. 
A squad car was dispatched after the call, but officers were unable to trace the mystery beast. 
Sources: Western Gazette - 05 December 2002, and witness's verbatim account.Source: witness's verbatim account.

2002 Askerswell. July . A woman and her friend spotted 'a sleek, jet-black, cat-like creature about two feet long with a very long tail that curved round'. The beast was spotted nearby at the same time last year. 

2002 Marshwood Vale. In July a sighting took place about seven miles outside Bridport of a differently-coloured cat. The witness, in his own words, 'was driving home on a July evening in 2002, about 9pm, along the Marshwood to Broadwindsor road…. when a yellowy-brown big cat ran out into the road in front of me, between my car and the car in front.
'I have lived in the country all my life and am certain it was not a deer, dog, fox or anything like that. It was definitely a cat, and the long, rounded tail, arched up, distinguished it beyond doubt.  It was about 4-6 feet long and 2-3 feet high. It ran bounding across the road with a fluid movement, and through the hedge. 
'I didn't mention it to anyone at first in case they thought I must be mad, but I have heard subsequently of other people seeing it around. I was talking recently to a gamekeeper who had something similar in his sights, but was too unnerved to shoot.' Source: witness's verbatim account.

2004. Morngate caravan park, Bridport road, Dorchester. 
Debbie Sparks is in the habit of popping outside for a cigarette. One night in February her attention was drawn to a caravan about thirty feet away, whence came the sound of cats. She saw two glowing eyes of a yellowy-green colour. The night was dark, so they were not reflecting some other light source: 'It was as if they were fluorescent. I couldn't take my eyes off them, they were horrible.' She went in to get a torch, and in the light of the beam she saw the animal was under the neighbouring caravan, where there is a space about two feet high. It was about the size of a small Alsatian, but stockier, with a longish tail. She said 'I've never seen anything like it.' It had apparently got hold of a local black and white moggy but had let go because that ran off. She expected the animal to flee from the light too, but instead it started to walk towards her. She went inside hurriedly. The moggy appeared completely unharmed, and the mystery feline has not been seen since. Source: witness's verbatim account.

2002/2003 Bridport and its surrounding villages has been something of a hotspot for big cat sightings throughout 2002 and 2003. Several of the encounters have been reported in the local newspapers, and some witnesses themselves have kindly supplied me with additional details.

1995,  5th September, a large feline animal was reported near West Bay.

1995, Symondsbury, just west of Bridport, near Miles Cross.
On 6th February a farmer, John Turner, of Highway Farm, saw a large 'lynx-like' animal while driving to work at 7.20 that morning. He watched it as it ambled across the road in front of his van. It was 'about the size of a boxer dog, very compact with a short tail and biggish feet. It was very furry, with mottled light brown, dark brown and almost black spots. It also had very pointed ears'. He reported it to the police. A large feline animal was again seen on the 23rd May, at Colmer's Hill, Symondsbury. 

1995. Salway Ash.
Within two days of the previous sightings a woman reported to the police that she had seen a big, cat-like animal along Pineapple Lane.

1998 . Bridport, Allington Hill
On 10th August a big cat was seen, and three days later a similar cat crossing a road at Burton Bradstock.

1998. Symondsbury. On September 26th Mr Joe Tait was walking his dogs at Ryeberry Hill when he saw, not sixty yards away in a field, a large, black cat-like animal crouching over the body of a sheep. When the animal saw Mr Tait it ran off at such a speed that the dogs could not keep pace with it. On examining the carcass of the sheep it was found that the ribs had been crushed and torn out. For the next few weeks livestock in the area were found dead or mutilated, but farmers' patrols failed to spot the animal.

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The following three incidents have been contributed by 'Stuart' who lives in Bridport. He remains sceptical about the presence of big cats in Dorset, but has kindly sent in these exemplary descriptions of fleeting glimpses of feline animals which, in hindsight, he felt might be useful to this site. They are very valuable as accurately observed examples of some of the puzzling anomalies about these animals that many other witnesses have also noted.
1998. Spring. Stuart did not see any animal on this occasion, but reports a slightly eerie experience. 'I was running on Allington Hill, Bridport, in pouring rain and with very low cloud so that visibility was probably no more than twenty metres. Whilst I was at the top of Allington Hill I became aware of movement, just outside the range of visibilty, that seemed to keep pace with me as I ran. There was also a sound of breathing that I could not explain. I was satisfied this was not a person as the route taken would have silhouetted them against the skyline even if features would have been obscured. Something about the experience seemed quite concerning at that, and I left the hill towards the New Hospital as soon as possible. I later rationalised the encounter as being a symptom of over exercise. This would have been approximately 3pm on a Saturday or Sunday.
1999 'I cannot remember the date but it would have been late afternoon with the sun very low in the sky. I was cycling west along Bennetts Hill Lane (nr Burton Bradstock) when I noticed a disturbance in a group of cows further down the the hill. For a moment I thought I saw a black animal moving fast about 20 feet from the cows but I had sweat in my eyes which I wiped away. When I looked again the animal was not visible but the cows were clearly still excited. I assumed this was either a dog or a trick of the light but I have since seen cows confronted by dogs and they do not act the way I saw that day. On that occasion the cows seemed panicky and unsure of where to run.' Stuart adds: 'I am still not convinced I actually saw anything but if I did it was for no more than a second or two at a range of two hundred metres whilst I was out of breath'. Nevertheless the cows obviously saw something.
2000. Spring. 'Near Miles Cross on the outskirts of Bridport (929447), between 8 and 8.30 am. Day was clear with strong sun light, although the sun was still very low in the sky and giving long shadows. I was driving to work and took West Road to the bypass, turning right towards Chideock. As I turned onto the bypass I looked into my rear view mirror and saw a large cat followed by three smaller cats crossing the main road at speed, away from Bridport. The larger cat was about the size of a fox with the smaller ones the size of domestic cats. There is no doubt in my mind that these were not foxes, nor were they dogs. The body shapes and movements were definitely feline although far smaller than what I would call a panther. Each of the cats was jet black but with the sun behind them they could have been any colour'. Source: witness's written account.  

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2002. Bridport
It was June in 2002 when Mr. B was 'sitting in my lounge, enjoying the landscape, as I do every day', when in a field of sheep on the hillside opposite he spotted a 'pure black', cat-like animal stalking the sheep. He watched it for some time through binoculars as it crawled along, legs crouched, head lowered. It was the comparison with the sheep in the field that enabled him to gauge its length – 1.5 times a sheep. They took no notice though it was only about fifty yards from the nearest one, and it finally disappeared over the brow of the hill. 'The sheep didn't seem concerned. Perhaps they see it regularly?', he speculated. He reported it to the police. Some months later he and his wife thought they saw it again, on the brow of the same hill, but felt it was too far away and its identity therefore too uncertain to call the police again.  His feeling was that they may be native cats to Britain but undiscovered by science.  He commented: 'I don't look at it as that much of a mystery. Two years ago in the populous Philippines they found a tribe which had never had contact with the outside world – and if humans can do that, why not animals?' Source: witness's verbatim account.

2002. Bridport
The cat – or another - then turned up at the other end of town, on Bridport's westerly hill. It was exactly 5:00am on the morning of 25th August 2002 when Mr. D and his wife were awakened by a spine-chilling noise. He said: 'It was like a screech owl, dog, cat all put together. The following early morning – the curious thing was it was at exactly 5am again - we heard it again and got up and looked outside'.  From the window they saw a large, black cat 4-6 ft in length and with a long tail. 'It sat still on a low wall in our garden for about ten minutes, but when we opened the window it bounded off'. He told me: 'I was mostly struck by the teeth'. They were white and showing clearly.
Mr. D had given much thought to the sighting since it happened.  He showed me a 3' green wire fence next to the low wall in question, which they had just put up at the time to keep in their new puppy. He wondered if the cat was yowling because it had found its route impeded.  He also began to ask around for news of other sightings, and found several people who had had encounters with mystery animals. A friend had found a deer killed and gutted on his tennis court; a rider had seen one on the old railway line; someone from Lyme Regis told him: 'We see it every day drinking from our bowser' .  And several times he came across a rumour that '7 or 8 years ago someone saw one dragging a deer under a gate at Highlands End Caravan Park.' That rumour included the idea that this had been hushed up as being bad for tourism. Source: witness's verbatim account.

2003. Bridport
March. Six months later a completely different animal was seen on the outskirts of the town, by Mr. and Mrs. T, who live in a cluster of hillside houses about two miles north of Bridport.  They had lived abroad and in Singapore for many years and had seen a number of big cats in the wild. In March 2003 they were alerted by the sight, from their back window, of a strange, cat-like animal ambling up the field which rises directly behind their house, about forty yards away.  Mr. T ran upstairs to get a better look and saw it from behind as it disappeared over the edge of the rise.  It was 'slightly smaller than an Alsatian but bigger than a retriever. My first thought', he said, 'was that it could be a dog - but it looked wrong. It had a stubby head, similar to a bulldog, but it was not a bulldog. It had a long tail. It was a sandy colour and its coat was mottled – not as with spots, but as if it could be moulting. The head and tail did not go with a dog'. There is an abattoir two fields away, in the direction it was going, and Mrs. T wondered if 'it could have smelt the blood'. The horses in the next field seemed to be oblivious of it. Mr. T went out with binoculars and searched for fifteen minutes, saw nothing more, and then called the police. He also enquired of the workers at the abattoir, but they had seen nothing; neither had some fishermen he asked at the lake nearby. However they heard the animal was seen a week later, a mile away further down the Bride valley. Source: witness's verbatim account.

2003 Bridport
June. Mrs. Betty Savory, made the Bridport and Lyme News on June 6th, 2003, with an unusually close observation of a frighteningly large animal. It was a few days earlier that she had woken up in the night suddenly, and noticed the security lights were on outside.  She told me: 'Thinking it was probably a fox I looked out of the window and was amazed to see a big, black animal clinging to the small ornamental crab apple tree outside, about 15 feet away'. The tree is only about 8 feet tall, and the branches start at about 5'6", and she described its head as being directly below where the branches start, between the trunk and a small swinging bird box attached to the branch, which would have been about 5' off the ground.  Its haunches were on the ground the other side of the trunk which was about 7" diameter, or conceivably that was its tail resting on the ground – she could just see black body without detail behind the tree. This would have made the cat's body about 4-5 feet in length, excluding the tail. Otherwise the cat was well lit by the security light. It had its paw raised as if about to claw at the bird box. She shone a torch in its face and saw 'a couple of yellowy eyes'. She shooed it and it bounded off in big, loping strides towards the field behind a row of garages. She said, feelingly, 'I hope it never comes back.'  They have a cat, black with white paws but it is old and was inside that night.  The tree is used as a scratching post by local cats judging by the scars about 1 foot up the trunk. There was a fresh scratch about 4' up it, the far side, which could have been made by the cat-like animal she saw.
Mr. and Mrs. Savory's neighbour is a Mrs. B. She is an elderly, vivacious lady and used to live at Conygar Park, the other side of Bridport, about 25 years ago, at which time Mrs. Snooks lived in the big house. A leopard, with spots, was seen for a few weeks, apparently coming for the bread they used to leave out for the badgers. Mrs. Snooks had said to her, 'All sorts of animals do come up, but they don't do any harm'. Mrs.B said the feeling was that 'someone had turned it out'. Source: witness's verbatim account.

2003 Bridport
July. A month after Mrs. Savory's sighting came the closest encounter yet with a large cat-like animal. It happened about half-a-mile as the crow flies from the previous sighting, in Askers Meadow, which is actually several water-meadows on the western outskirts of Bridport. The meadows are bordered by the river and the houses of the town on one side, and on the other by the ring-road. The old railway used to follow the route of the ring-road. Lots of people walk their dogs there. 

Karen Rees is a wife and mother, and an administrator for a boat-building school.  She told me: 'I go for a walk on Askers Meadow every morning with my dog, Sunny, a large, black Labrador lurcher cross (he looks like a large Labrador with a beard) at 5.30am where usually I meet my Mum who also has a black Labrador, Mia. Hers is very, very glossy because my Dad used to be a Metropolitan police dog-handler and buffs Mia up with chamois leather.

'We usually circle a long, thicket-style hedge between two meadows – she goes one way and I go the other and we meet the far side if the thicket. 

'The morning of Friday 11th July 2003 was a beautiful morning and I was marvelling at it – everything was very still - and thinking vaguely about the day's work ahead. 

'Then about 30 yards away, behind the barbed wire fence at the edge of the thicket I saw what I thought was Mum's dog, lying injured – a hind leg with a really glossy, glossy black coat. I went towards it thinking "Oh God – that's Mia" but as I got closer I realised it was much too big to be Mia. It was lying completely motionless, but when I was within a few feet of it and just beginning to call “Mia”, it sprang up. It went from lying down to all four paws in the blink of an eye!  I didn't see it get to its feet – it was lying down one moment and the next it wasn't.

'I was near enough to have touched it. As it sprang up it bared its teeth at me and made a peculiar half hissing, half growling, guttural noise which I took to mean "bugger off and leave me alone".  (I was more than happy to oblige!) 

'The two things that most affected me were its eyes and teeth.  I saw that the canines were about 2 to 3 inches long. Its eyes were a smoky amber colour – as if an orange had a grey veil over it, or, although it sounds clichéd, the same colour as the light vein of a piece of polished Tiger’s Eye gem stone. It made a blood-curdling noise – neither a hiss nor a growl, but a very guttural noise, difficult to describe.

'It then turned and made off into the thicket, and I estimated its size as being three times the size of Sunny, not including the tail - and not including Sunny's tail. The tail was very long and hooked up at the end. Sunny had not seen the cat at he was chasing rabbits some distance away, but when he got back to me he stayed very close beside me, which is most uncharacteristic of him, because he is the kind of dog who runs energetically about.

'When I got to the stile at the other side of the thicket I saw my Mum coming towards me with Mia, and looked about to see if I could see where the cat had gone.  I just caught sight of its backside and tail disappearing into a hedge running at right angles to the original thicket, about fifty yards away.
I told my mother what I had seen, but she had not spotted the animal as she walked round her side of the thicket....'

Karen rang the police when she got home, but their subsequent search failed to find the animal.  

Sources: The Dorset Echo, and witness's verbatim account.

1994 In September came reports of the creature the press dubbed the 'Beast of Broadwindsor'.

Vincent Gavigan saw the cat-like animal one morning while delivering newspapers. He described it as 'as large as an Alsatian dog, with a puma-like head and green eyes'. It was within forty yards of his car. It turned to look at him, jumped into the hedge and disappeared.

A week later the animal was seen again by Frank Smith when he was driving along the B3162, near Lewesdon Hill, Stoke Abbott, at 8.30 on a sunny morning. Mr. Smith was near Buck's Head, and pulled off the road to watch it walking a line between fields of crops and grass. He described it as being 'black, about the size of an Alsatian dog, and resembling a panther, with a small head and small upright ears. It had a deep chest and a long tail which appeared to be tufted at the end. It loped along like a cat'. Source: Mark North.  Click here for a map and photos of this sighting area.

The Lewesdon Hill area has been associated with mystery felines for many years it seems. Mr. Wakely recalls that in his youth, forty or so years ago, they used to trap rabbits on the hill at night using long nets. On three or four occasions, he remembers, they found a large wild cat also entangled in the nets. These animals seemed to be twice the size of a normal domestic cat, were dark tabby in colour, and very fierce.

1997. March. Big cat (no details) spotted in a field near Broadwindsor.

2003. Wolf! A wolf is not a big cat, but I am including this interesting sighting because it comes from the Lewesdon Hill.area where a big cat has appeared on many occasions.  Click on the link three lines up to see the map.

'Pensioner Dudley Tolley of Stoke Knapp Farm, near Stoke Abbott says he isn't crying wolf - he really did see one on Sunday! Mr Tolley, who has lived in the area all his life, said he was walking along the lane towards Lewesdon Hill when he saw a large animal coming towards him.
 
He said: 'When it was fifteen yards away from me I could see it was a wolf. It was dark grey, taller than a large Alsation, with spindly legs, not as thick set as an Alsatian. It looked at me as though it was thinking shall I go back or shall I go through the hedge, it was unhurried.  It was a beautiful animal in very good condition.  I have never seen a wolf in the wild before.' Bridport & Lyme Regis News, Friday, August 29, 2003, and witness's verbatim account.

Margery Hookings, the editor of The Bridport News reported the following sighting:

'At 4.45pm.I was driving on the A3066 road towards Beaminster, past Melplash.  To my left, near the turning on the corner to Netherbury, I was extremely surprised to see a very black, panther-like animal about 400 yards away, sauntering down the hill towards the hedge.  I estimate it was about the size of my dog - an English setter - but leaner, longer and closer to the ground.  What struck me was that it was very black, like a silhouette, and had a very long tail - possibly longer than its body.  I watched it for about twenty seconds. 
'I couldn't pull in because I had a car behind me, but I looked back and saw it was still there, making its way down to the hedge.
'I certainly felt very privileged to see it and have no doubts about what I saw. It was definitely a big cat.' Bridport & Lyme Regis News, February 2004, and witness's written account.  

The map, left, shows the Netherbury turn, north of Melplash. Beaminster is just off the top of the map.

On the 31st January there was another sighting of the mystery big cat following the story in the Bridport and Lyme Regis News the previous week. The newspaper reported: 'Liz Jones, wife of Tote chairman Peter Jones, saw the creature at Melplash on Saturday at about midday . “I was looking out of my mother’s kitchen window towards the garden in our farmyard,” she said. “I was amazed to see a very black animal appear from behind a low privet hedge about 30 yards from the house.”

At first, Mrs Jones thought it was a calf but as it jumped over the hedge she noticed in particular that the creature had a very long, cat-like tail curving upwards. “It jumped down the bank and out of view behind a wall,” she said. “When I turned to look out of a window on the other side of the room I saw it at the bottom of our drive heading towards the road that runs through Melplash, the A3066. “It was fairly close to the ground. It all happened so quickly and briefly that I cannot be sure what it was but the tail was very distinctive. It was much too big to be a domestic cat, and very black.”

Mrs Jones is convinced that what she saw was not a black dog. “It was the way it carried the tail and the way it ‘flowed’ over the hedge and low wall and also left no footprints in the rain-softened low bank, which it would have done had it been any farm animal,” she said. “Wild boar was what I thought when it went down the drive because it was low to the ground and they have recently escaped, but the tail and the blackness just stick in my memory".' Sources: Bridport & Lyme Regis News, 6th February 2004, and witness's written account.  
NB- Scroll down to March 2004 for more news of the Netherbury/Melplash/Beaminster cat.

Mrs W has been lucky enough to see two big cats at different times and places. The distinction she can therefore make between the shape and possible species of each is particularly interesting. 

This was not the first time Steve had seen a big cat in the vicinity. About two years ago, when a neighbouring shoot was in progress, he observed a large, black panther-like animal making its way down the side of a hill and disappearing into cover. He had been reluctant to believe the evidence of his own eyes, but the sighting was later confirmed by several of the guns who had also spotted it. Source: witness's verbatim account.

Alan McNamee of Bothenhampton, near Bridport, reports an alarming experience - he writes:

'On Monday evening of this week, at 11.15pm; I was working in my office, at home, when I heard a very strange sound coming from the side of my house. It was a sound that I had not heard before. At first I thought if was foxes or badgers fighting, but this sound was of some animal in great pain. I went down the stairs, all the time I could hear this awful sound getting louder as I got nearer to the side door. I switched the outside lights on and opened the door to the outside, normally it would go quiet, and that would be the end to it; But it made no differance, some thing behind the hedge was making this noise. First I found a stick just outside the door, so I thew it in the direction of the noise, it still made no impact. By this time I can remember saying to myself, "What the hell is going on !" I walked slowly up the five steps up to the hedge,  which was moving backwards and forwards very quickly. I could still not see anything, so then I lent over. My god - less than 1 metre in front of me was a big cat! 

'In its mouth was a badger, still alive and screaming in pain, the cat was big!  Its tail was banging into the hedge less than 6 inches from my legs, its head was facing away from me, its hindquarters were clearly visible. It was pure black and big!  Just over a metre, with a tail as long again about two inches thick. I estimated its size on the basis of the size of the hedge, path, and walls, and the fact I was so close. Its ears seemed to be pinned back and not visible. 

'When it saw me it gave a growl which sounded deep and heavy, and chilled me to the bone. 

'Within the time it takes to blink, it stood up, turned, and leaped a good 4 ft over a bank. I can't remember how I got back into the house, but I was scared to put it mildly !!!!! 

'I ran back upstairs and rang the police, and reported what I had just witnessed. The cazy thing about all of this, is I'm a photographer, and for the last 2 years I have been trying to film sightings of the Cat - I never thought that it would come and visit me. 

'At 11. 35pm I decided to film the area where I had seen the cat, which took a geat deal of will power! I lent over the hedge and took one shot, then went back into the house, went up stairs, opened the skylight window and took 2 random shots of the woods, hoping I would get something. At first I thought I had got nothing, but on looking greater detail some time later I noticed the red stains on the wall, from the first shot I took from leaning over hedge, it looked like a blood bath, then right in the centre of the picture, 2 of pink objects can be seen, I belive this to be flesh from the badger. I have sent this image to the picture editor at the Western Gazette, for this views on how best to get better detail from the image. 

'On Tuesday moring at 8. 15am the police arrived, we walked up into the garden, and I was telling the officer about the cat, when the officer looked down on some bonfire ash, and noticed a cat print, about the size a closed fist, it was hard to see a detailed impression, because the wind had blown in some of the  sides. I later made up some paste using floor and water, and using a syringe, managed to gently pumb in the paste to the shape, then photographed it, together with a measurement.'  Source: witness's written account

Spencer Allen lives in Oxfordshire and works in Dorset. He reports:
'It was 11.50am on Wednesday 11th August, and I was driving on the A3147 heading towards Dorchester and only about half a mile from the town. There are open fields on the right, divided from a steep hill by a railway track running parallel to the road. I saw a black cat-like animal running diagonally down the hill towards the railway line. It ran like a cat and had a very long tail. I slowed down and watched it for about ten seconds.  At that moment a train came along, going the other way. Its size enabled me to gauge the size of the cat, and I thought 'God, that was big!'. I estimated its size to be just over a metre. Its tail was smooth-looking and about 70 cms long, and curved down and up again in an S shape. The train obscured my view of the cat, and when it had passed the cat had gone. I was surprised to see such an animal so near to the town.'
Source: witness's written account