Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Original poster

AIBU to think friend was mistaken about seeing a 'black panther' behind my house?

171 replies

HourOrTwo · 15/04/2015 15:57

So last week friend turned up on my doorstep in a right state, saying she'd just seen a 'black panther' run across road and disappear into field behind my house!! I said it must have been a dog or badger but she no it was definitely a big black cat. She was very upset and shaken (left her bike in road and ran to my house on foot, would not tell me what was wrong until we were inside!)

FYI we live in a rural area, only one other house nearby. Our garden backs onto fields with woods nearby. Road is more of a lane, hardly any traffic.

Friend said she'd cycled round bend in road when big black cat about 5ft long with a long tail ran into road about 10m from her, she braked, cat froze and 'snarled' at her then ran rest of way across. She saw it go through hedge then lost sight of it. She said it sort of 'slunk' across moving low to ground and had a strange shaped head. I can't think of anything else to fit this description, any ideas?

I told her it had to be a big black dog but she was having none of it, insists it was a big cat. Apparently it moved like a cat. She doesn't have any vision problems, she wasn't drunk or anything (I did wonder at first). She does get scared easily though and can be bit hysterical e.g. she is scared of wasps and dogs. She wanted to phone police but I talked her out of it and when DH came home he gave her a lift home.

Thing is DH has taken this seriously!!! He won't let DD (7) play in garden unsupervised, has cut back all bushes around house and won't let me walk DD to school (2-mile walk through fields). He also reported it to police though unsurprisingly they declined to investigate. They said there haven't been any other sightings. DH has been examining garden 'for signs'. Last night he thought he heard 'a big cat coughing' (!!!) when he was standing at end of garden. Naturally he didn't see it.

AIBU to think this is all crazy and my friend must have made a mistake?

OP posts:

ShaynePunim · 15/04/2015 16:01

Don't know but I'm quite curious to hear more. :)

OutrageousFlavourLikeFreesias · 15/04/2015 16:09

I once saw a family of what looked exactly like black panthers, in a field by a motorway. A few cubs and a big one, presumably mum.

Of course, "I saw them" isn't the same as "they were there". I might have just misinterpreted what I saw. But it did look like panthers and nothing else. Not dogs, not domestic cats, just panthers.

The thing is, even if there are Alien Big Cats out there, they are clearly not attacking humans. We're too big, too noisy and not meaty enough. So any potential big cats are far more likely to run away.

Your husband is being a bit over cautious I think.

Bogeyface · 15/04/2015 16:15

Big cats do exist in the UK, and sightings are usually in quiet rural areas where they wont be disturbed.

Its perfectly plausible that she saw one, and if it makes your DH happier that you and DD are safe, I dont see it really matters what he does.

CaTsMaMmA · 15/04/2015 16:17

and she didn't have her phone handy to fire off a snap or two?

I guess it depends where about you are in the country really? Have you googled, this sort of thing bubbles under the national news ime, but rumour is rife in local rags

I think your dh is being a little ridiculous over cautious tbh not sure why he thinks you are more likely to be top of Bhageera's lunch now your chum has seen him!

FightingFires · 15/04/2015 16:22

I've seen one. I was driving, about 6pm in the evening and it crossed the very rural road in front of me, I have absolutely no doubt at all at what I saw. Exactly as you describe, big odd shaped head, slinky cat body and a long thick tail. They are out there! I've been teased mercilessly for saying so though...

However your DH is being a bit potty, bless him. They exist secretly so well because they keep well away from humans. Chances of you ever seeing it again are very slim

(Are you in the south west?)

maroonedwithfour · 15/04/2015 16:28

Marking

Branleuse · 15/04/2015 16:29

Maine coon?

kormachameleon · 15/04/2015 16:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 15/04/2015 16:33

There have been sightings of big cats all over the UK. One was shot round here several years ago. There was a picture of it in the paper with the dumbass man that shot it. My sister has seen one. She has cats, is of completely sound mind and has no doubt that she saw a big cat. Thankfully she was in the next county when she saw it.

OutrageousFlavourLikeFreesias · 15/04/2015 16:36

The ones I saw looked nothing like Maine Coones. They were smooth, not fluffy. And they didn't have those fur ruffs Maine Coones seem to go in for. And the adult one was massive, not just "massive for a domestic cat" but properly, objectively massive. And their tails weren't like domestic cat tails. They were very long and thick, with rounded tips.

Again, I am perfectly prepared to believe I didn't see a family of panthers in a field and it was just my brain misinterpreting something. But I'm also quite willing to believe it was panthers, and there are ABCs living wild in the UK (although if they are out there, I'm sure any threat to humanity is pretty much close to zero).

Theoretician · 15/04/2015 16:40

The word panther means different things in different parts of the world, however I would take the African meaning, in which case it is a black leopard. This is not a separate species, just a colour variation of normal leopards. Anyway, my question is, why are these panthers everyone is seeing black, when in Africa a spotted leopard is far more common?

(Just checked Wikipedia and actually the same question would still apply if is isn't a leopard. An American "black panther" is a colour variation of a normal jaguar.)

Sheitgeist · 15/04/2015 16:42

My DH has seen one, too! We're also in a rural area; he saw it in the field opposite whilst looking out of the window. Large and black.
Of course he may have been mistaken, but he described how the size looked against the fence post, and a domestic moggy would not have looked so big at that distance. DH is an intelligent and sensible sort, honestly.

We haven't stopped the children playing out, though... these large cats seem to be pretty shy and elusive, and stay away from people.

We're in South Wales, by the way... where are you OP?

hackmum · 15/04/2015 16:44

This is what the Fortean Times refers to as ABC - alien big cat - sightings.

There are loads of recordings of people sighting panthers, leopards, tigers and other wild cats around the country - but no evidence that they actually exist. No-one ever seems to get a close-up photograph, and when the authorities have a hunt around, they never manage to find anything.

So it's all a bit of a mystery. George Monbiot did an article about it where he dismissed the whole thing as down to people having overactive imaginations:

www.monbiot.com/2013/05/22/the-never-spotted-leopard/

Marcipex · 15/04/2015 16:45

There are sightings on Dartmoor.
Why couldn't abandoned pets live wild? There's loads of food, rabbits, lambs, roadkill.

Mitzi50 · 15/04/2015 16:48

Are you in Essex? My friend insists that she saw one in the fields behind her house some years ago. They seem to be regularly spotted around here . This is a subsequent sighting in a village not too far away.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2579078/Is-Hallingbury-panther-After-Essex-Lion-couple-spot-big-scary-cat-county.html

IggyStrop · 15/04/2015 16:49

Recent legend has it that after the Dangerous Animal Act in 1976 (or some act like that, don't remember exactly) a lot of people quietly let their big cats go free, and they all bred.

But I don't understand why, if they do exist, we haven't seen remains of mauled cattle etc?

EatingMyWords · 15/04/2015 16:53

My husband reckoned he saw one years ago near Cannock Chase. Our usually unafraid dog was terrified. My MIL saw it once too. The consensus in the local pubs was that it was an alsation in a mask

TheImprobableGirl · 15/04/2015 16:53

I have seen a big cat in Herefordshire, particularly on the lugg flats (near river lugg) I am sane of mind but three or four of us saw it and it was definitely a panther or large Catlike beast and black

Branleuse · 15/04/2015 16:54

I would like it to be true, but i think we'd have more evidence, especially in rural farming areas

Shockers · 15/04/2015 16:55

There have been sightings near to us in Lancashire.

If it stopped and hissed, she must have seen it fully.

sassytheFIRST · 15/04/2015 16:57

My dad saw one in Herefordshire too - late at night driving through Bromyard Downs.

vindscreenviper · 15/04/2015 16:58

Up here in Durham(Durham) we have this

AIBU to think friend was mistaken about seeing a 'black panther' behind my house?

t3rr3gl35 · 15/04/2015 17:05

Just a thought - big cat pee smells terrible, really terrible. Like tom cat pee on steroids, then magnified about ten thousand times. If it's lurking around your garden, coughing, you'll definitely smell it!

StrongAsAnOx · 15/04/2015 17:06

I have also seen one. Rural area. South. On outskirts of village. Slunk off pretty sharpish when my dogs gave chase (which terrified me as I thought they might end up the worse for it). Could barely believe my eyes, but I know what I saw. There are plenty of small mammals to eat in the woods rather than them having to attack cattle or sheep.

PontyGirl · 15/04/2015 17:15

we've had this kind of thing reported a lot over the years around here

as pp said, surely there would be more evidence?

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Swipe left for the next trending thread