(Original headline: COUPLE SAY BIG CAT VISITED THEIR HOME )
A North-east couple believe their garden has been visited by a prowling big cat after the discovery of large paw marks.
School auxiliary Mary Mitchell found the prints on her garden wall and on patio slabs at her home at Whitehills.
While she did not see the animal responsible, a Macduff man has also reported sighting a mysterious big cat near Macduff Distillery.
The two incidents come after information this week that about 50 big cat sightings have been reported in Grampian over the past five years.
Mrs Mitchell, of Reidhaven Street, Whitehills, found the traces in her garden and she and her husband, John, are convinced they were made by a big cat.
She said: "I had emptied a deep fat fryer in the garden and the next morning saw something had been scrambling about in that area.
"I think whatever it was got into the garden from the front of the house and came up the gable.
"There are marks on the dyke and then it came on to the patio where it left prints as well.
"The paw prints are about the size of a human hand and from the distance between them, it must be a fairly big animal."
Mrs Mitchell, who works at Whitehills Primary, left the marks intact so her husband could see them on his return from a fishing trip.
She said: "I have asked if anybody else round about saw anything, but nobody appears to."
Mrs Mitchell said the sighting came almost exactly 25 years after she and her husband spotted another big cat hear their home and tried unsuccessfully to follow in their car.
She said: "Judging by the marks the latest one has left, I wouldn't like to come face-to-face with it."
The sighting of a large cat near Macduff Distillery was made by Macduff man John Sellar, of Fife Street.
He said: "I parked my car at the distillery and looked up Gaveney Brae and saw a funny-looking beast.
"It was going up the hill and was bigger than my labrador dog.
"It had the slow, padding stride of a cat and it certainly wasn't a dog."
Mr Sellar pursued the beast up the hill but lost it and believes it must have veered off the track.
New evidence has revealed that the big cat population throughout Britain appears to be on the increase and Grampian is one of Scotland's hotspots.
About 50 sightings have been reported already in the north-east at locations including fields, golf courses and roadsides.
The Scottish Big Cat Trust say many reports come from credible witnesses, including farmers and gamekeepers who are in the countryside regularly.
