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Big Cat Special Report
Sheerness Times Guardian: 11th September 2008
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PEOPLE regularly contact us at the Times Guardian with sightings of the Sheppey Big Cat - we even had one on Sunday night.
Sean Brown from Halfway was driving along Harty Ferry Road at about 9.30pm when he says he saw the cat near the car park.
Sean, 25, said: "My mate stopped the car really quickly and about five feet away from the fence it was just sitting there in the field.
"It looked at the car and we beeped the horn and it jumped up and ran off.
"It had quite a big, long tail. It was a black cat about the size of a german shepherd dog - I could see the muscles in its back legs and it had yellow eyes.
"My ex-partner worked at Howletts so I know my cats, and this was a panther 100 per cent."
Sean admitted he had been sceptical about the existence of the cat as he had never seen it, but now he definitely believes it is out there, and he will go out looking again.
THE elusive Isle of Sheppey big cat is a regular feature in the Times Guardian.
From Eastchurch to Minster, people say they have spotted it for many years.
It is said that people on Sheppey used to keep big cats in cages in their gardens in the 1980s, but released them as the authorities required they were licensed. Apparently, it is the descendants of those animals people see today.
In a sighting during August a driver heading towards Queenborough said he spotted a large fawn-coloured cat heading across a field towards Brielle Way.
This sighting in particular interested Neil Arnold, as he tells us he had always assumed only one species of cat roams the Island - the black leopard.
He said: "There are certainly two different cats on the Island.
"We knew of the black leopard (panther) which has been sighted since the late 1990s, but I'd always heard vague legends of a puma that is tan coloured and long tailed; and after speaking to several people recently it seems that there most certainly is, but it's sighted less due to its colour.
"Several people recall seeing such an animal more than 20 years ago so the puma out there now must be offspring as they only live for around 16 years in the wild."
When Neil was filming for the documentary, he also found out that a man who lived on the Island in the 1970s had a puma called Kitten which was allegedly put down, but there was no proof of this.
Earlier this year there appeared to be a breakthrough in the search for the big cat when sisters Sally Spencer and Louise Powell came forward with a photo of what they believed to be the cat's paw print.
It was taken at the mud flats in Queenborough and both of them have seen different cats on different occasions.
Louise says she has seen a black cat about the size of a German shepherd with an S-shaped tail, and Sally saw one that was slender like a cheetah.
These are just two of the many sightings the Times Guardian has heard of over the years, so you would have thought there must be something roaming the Island.
Do you have any information on the above reports. Were you the person
involved, or are you aware of any more sightings in this area. We would appreciate any information that you could
give us.
Have your say on the forum.