MOTORIST Mrs Lesley Butler could hardly believe her eyes when she saw a huge black cat cross the road as she was driving past Five Acres Garage.

"It must have been a puma," she said. "It was about 8.30 in the morning, and when I first saw it ahead I thought 'there's a fox going home late' but when I was nearer I realised it wasn't at all like a fox and I saw it had a long black cat's tail.

"I saw it go through the hedge and into a field where there were sleeping cattle. It didn't seem to be taking much notice of them at all."

Mrs Butler's sighting followed other August reports of big cats in the Forest area, and a call from a serving police officer who said he didn't want to give his name even though he had reported sighting a puma in 1996.

"I was in a patrol car with a colleague at Worrall Hill in June and we both saw the animal which was as large as an Alsatian dog," he said. "It was jet black. We both submitted a report, but heard nothing more.

"I called really to say that you can take my word for it – there really is a big cat in the Forest

"It was the first and only time I've seen it although I have lived a few yards from the Forest for 40 years, driving round it and walking in it almost every day."

Although both reports are from the North end of the Forest sightings of a big black cat, often described as a puma or panther, have come from various parts of the area, and at one time many sightings were made at Broadoak.