(Original headline: DOG WALKER IS SHOCKED BY A GIANT CAT SIGHTING )
A Huge cat has been spotted prowling in undergrowth in fields in Vobster, near Frome, by a woman walking her Doberman dog. Alison Hynam, of Beacon View, Coleford, could not believe her eyes when she saw the creature she described as having a sleek, black coat, orange eyes and with a tail the length of its body.
Mrs Hynam was with her husband Terry and had just climbed back into her car having walked their dog Rayne in a flat field near the scuba diving centre at Vobster last Thursday afternoon.
Mrs Hynam said: "We had just finished the walk and I was sitting in the car. We were driving off when I looked to my right and saw this black cat walking along the other side of a hedgerow.
"It must have been only about 6ft away from me and was looking quite unperturbed."
She cried out to her husband, who then turned the car around to see if he could get a look.
Unfortunately the creature had disappeared into the undergrowth by the time they turned the car around.
Mrs Hynam said: "It was so close because it was quite a narrow bit of road we were driving along.
"It didn't look as if it had a care in the world and it was so sleek and beautiful."
She described it as about 2ft tall and 2.5ft to 3ft long from its nose to the base of its tail. The tail itself was as long as the cat's body.
She said: "It was as big as my dog Rayne and she is a big dog.
"I cannot imagine the creature would have taken on my dog but anything smaller I am not so sure."
This is the latest in a series of big cat sightings in the area over the past year. Last summer a woman, also walking her dog, saw a big cat in fields in Holcombe.
More recently a worker from Norton Radstock College, Dana Harwood, saw "a big black cat" lurking in a field near the campus.
A creature with a similar description was again seen in fields off Farrington Road in Paulton.
The creature was described as about the size of a large dog but moved with a cat-like motion.
Evidence for the existence of big cats on the loose has increased in recent years. The British Big Cat Society has set up a website for people to report sightings and has so far has 100,000 hits in three years.
In a 15-month survey there were 2,052 sightings a day on average. Of this, 21 per cent of the sightings were in the South West and 69 were reported in Somerset.
Newspaper Letter:
This news story was mentioned on the Steve Wright show on BBC radio 2 who suggested it was puma. Typical ignorant journalist - black pumas do not exist - never been a black puma born in captivity or scientifically verified among wild populations. Exotic Black cats living wild in the British Countryside are melanisitic leopards - sometimes referred to as black panthers.
John Maxwell, Dorset
