Big cat gives 'paws' Amy Miller of Wilmington has had cats her whole life. She has four cats now. But she's never seen a feline in the open as large as the cat she believes she saw on Hickory Trail Drive in Wilmington this week.
About 4:15 p.m. on a weekday earlier this week, Miller was driving to her parents' residence in Timber Glen off Truesdell Street (state Route 730) when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye as she neared her destination. It was walking down a wide path of grass that comes down through a woods, a route deer often travel in order to drink from a stormwater retention area nearby.
Miller pulled into her parents' driveway and jumped out of her car while making sure not to shut the car door because she didn't want to scare the animal away. She said she stood and watched it slowly walk down into a ravine. So this sighting was not a mere glimpse, she said, although she acknowledged she was at a distance from the animal.
"Here's what I told my mom. It was bigger than a goat, but it wasn't as big as a St. Bernard," Miller said Friday when contacted.
"It was not a house cat. It was seven house cats in one," said Miller, who pretty much insists it was some member of the cat family. She believes it was a cat because of the way it was walking.
"Not like it was hunting. Kind of like if you see a cat out in the field looking for a mouse. Kind of sneaking along. That's what he was doing," she added.
It had a yellowish color, Miller said. She didn't see any spots and it looked like it had a tail.
"It was like the size of a very big dog. And it was not a dog," she said. "I know how cats act. It was walking like a cat. It was definitely not a dog," she said.
"It was shocking to see it. Obviously, I'm not expecting to see a large cat like that," said Miller, a daughter of Wilmington City Councilman Don Wells and Clinton County Common Pleas Court Assignment Commissioner Barb Wells.
"I knew I saw something I should not be seeing out there," Miller said.
The Thursday edition of The Cincinnati Enquirer published a report of a few sightings in northern Kentucky of a large cat such as a cougar or mountain lion, perhaps from Appalachia.
I live out side of Sabina we were setting in the kitchen of our home which has a patio door and this huge cat the size of our cocker spaniel dog. Saw the face and large paws and was a tiger color. This happened last sring. They are around What ?????
"Ads published on this site are not for republication in print or web media without the expressed written consent of both the advertiser and The Brown Publishing Company."
Election 2010
