One of them was local runner Dave McRobie, who saw what he thinks was the same animal, or one very like it, about 10 years ago.

"I was running down the hill by Newforres quarry when I saw this animal skirting the field at the fence on my right," he said.

"Then about 50 metres in front of me it just loped across the road."

He said that it was "unmistakable as a large cat" which then disappeared up into the trees by the quarry.

"It was the size of a large Labrador dog, black and muscular, with a long, curved tail," he said.

"It was quite a shock and I stopped running right there – I didn't know whether to try and follow on for a better look or get myself well away from such a beastie."

He said the animal track where it left the road can still be seen opposite the line of the field edge, where deer or foxes still cross the road.

Mr McRobie said he knows, from speaking to people over the years, that there have been similar local sightings of a big black cat, some in recent years.

Forres shop owner Harry Younie told the "Forres Gazette" that he had spotted the animal from his back garden at the top of St Leonards Road, several years ago in fields behind his house near Wrights Hill.

He said he was so "gobsmacked" by what he had seen that he was rooted to the spot while he watched the animal lope across the field, sit down next to a telegraph pole and then just get back up and walk back off again.

"It was unmistakable as a big cat," he said.

"I have two black Labradors and it was probably the same size as the smaller one. But it wasn't pure black, it was a bit lighter."

Mr Younie said that it had a long tail and was definitely a big cat, which was borne out about its movement and gait, and its unhurried movement.

"I was torn between going to get my neighbour to tell him or watching it," he said.

"By the time I moved to go it just turned around and walked back off again, then it bounded off across the bushes."

Mr Younie said that he walks his dogs, as do a lot of other people, on the spot at Wrights Hill where he spotted the cat.

"It is always at the back of my mind," he said.

"I suppose it must exist on rabbits and maybe the odd lamb. I don't suppose a farmer would necessarily notice if a very young one went missing."

He said from speaking to friends, including another Forres businessman, he knows that there have been other sightings of the thing near Rafford and the quarry area.

In last week's edition, "Gazette" receptionist Frances Murray revealed how she had seen a big black cat, which she described as longer and with more muscle than a Labrador, on the edge of a field near Mannachie at least 20 years ago, before there was a housing development there.

There was also a sighting on the Grantown road in October, 2003, and about a month ago, a Forres woman reported seeing the cat at the Dallas turn-off a couple of miles outside Rafford.

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