I HAVE read with great interest the accounts of recent sightings of large black cats. Some seven years ago I?had a similar experience while living in Leicestershire. The cat showed exactly the same appearance and behaviour recently described by Bernadette O'Caroll and Margaret Southam in your newspaper.

My first response on seeing the beautiful animal on a bright summer's day on a little-used narrow, country road was one of total disbelief. However, I had a good 10 seconds to observe the cat before it crossed the road about 30 metres ahead of me and passed through a gap in a hedge. It was easy to assess the size relative to the width of the road and it appeared, in this case, a little larger than a Labrador.

At the time I was on the teaching staff at a local university and I felt it best to recount my experience only to close family. I can only imagine what comments my colleagues and students would have come up with!

Although I am now certain that these black panthers exist in our countryside, and reports seem to indicate a widespread distribution, there are several points which greatly puzzle me. The first is that they seem to have been around for some considerable time yet, as far as I know, no well preserved dead local panther has been found and examined in detail. Where do they go to die?

While a body might well be difficult to find in the Forest, in the open countryside of Leicestershire this should not be the case. Also, why are the animals seen always, apparently, adults? Or is it that smaller panthers are mistaken for a neighbour's black moggy!

– DH, Ross-on-Wye.