To never walk my dog again?

[TerraNotSoFirma]

I took one of my dogs for a late walk last night, between 9 and 10pm.
Got into the woods, she was acting agitated and kept looking behind her.
I turned round a few times, nothing there.

Carried on, listening to my mp3, decided to turn out of the woods as was getting a bit dark for my liking so headed for the footpath that runs between the road and the woods.

Dog still acting strange and looking back into the woods, get towards the end of the path turn round and see a black lab sitting by the fence, ah that's what's been bothering her she hates black labs.
Walk another few yards and my dog starts going properly crazy, up on hind legs, twisting around.

Turn round thinking the lab must be coming closer, NO a massive black cat jumps out of the woods, crosses the footpath, jumps the fence and crosses the road into the woods on the other side.

The thing must have followed us all through the woods, thank god I had my dog on a lead or DH reckons it would have went for her if she had been running around.

I'm not going back, I'm buying treadmills for my dogs.

evidence

Oh! I've seen Felicity! I remember her now from the Inverness museum. I thought it sounded familiar from the wiki link but thought I was confusing it with another museum, forgetting that I've been to the inverness one.

Totes - I travelled in India and remember the sound of leopards at night well - it is, indeed, like the sound no other animal makes.

I'd love for there to be ABCs in the UK - do hope that this turns out to be real! They are so shy, you are very unlikely to be attacked Terra, even at dusk. Having said that, I am sure that I got very close to something in Australia. Was walking in the Blue Mountains, and went ahead of dh and dcs to read a sign post, near some heavy undergrowth. Something growled at me from the middle of the bush - about a meter away from me - which made the hair on my neck stand upright. I froze, and backed away very slowly. I am sooooo sure it was a Big Cat - no dog I have ever met, even a friend's Rotweiler - had a growl anything like that. Additionally there was absolutely no sound from the bush as it moved away. I am pretty sure that it slipped away completely silently (as a cat can, rather than a dog), as dh, of course, refused to believe me, so stomped merrily and cynically past and around the bush. I shook for ages - and later locals confirmed that there have been rumours of escaped panthers around for some time.

this is making me think about something that happened a while back now and feel like a loon for saying it but...

i was sat at the end of a massively overgrown pub garden in a village which backs onto agricultural land and (i feel such a twat) i could hear this panting sound and got a weird chills response that i tried to chase away with must be a dog in there or .... but you know when you know something sounds different to what you've ever heard? i can't really explain the sound but i remember thinking i was going mad and i'm glad i hadn't read anything about hell hounds at the time

now i'm wondering about big cats. deary me, i'll probably start imagining them everywhere now thanks to this thread.