I notice most of the reports are around asda/rockcliffe/harker/blackford.

For those that dont know, Brooke Milestone used to live on the A7 and had a population of RED DEER penned in. When he died, somebody cut the fences down & released the deer.

For those that havent seen Deer in the dark, using artificial light - car headlights, infrared, spotlamps etc....

then they have 2 great big shiny eyes that reflect back. these are often confused with eyes of a cat.

If you spot a ROE DEER then, you can be forgiven, if you think its a CAT. but a RED DEER, well your a fool if you think it could be even the biggest of cats.... (unless it is laying down)

so there you go, mystery solved, everyone is seeing DEER, not CATS.

Robert, I've seen deer across the river from there, but these are roe deer, not the much larger red deer. Roe deer, having few natural predators, (other than man) have become more & more common over the last 15/20 years & are spreading out to take advantage of the more urban areas around the outskirts of towns & cities. As Roe are secretive by nature & spend their daytime laying up in woodland or long grass, venturing forth to feed at dusk, they can exist in an area more of less un-noticed except for their distinctive tracks.

Roe deer are about the size of a large dog or as their Latin name (Capreolus capreolus) suggests, about the size of a goat. Red deer are much larger & in Cumbria confined to Grizedale forest & areas in the Lake District, so it's extremely unlikely the deer witnessed at Rickerby were red.

re Mosstrooper,i was walking around the canal on top of the bank,i saw 6 deer feeding.i told a neighbour who laughted at me,3 weeks later that neighbour knocked on my door telling me he saw the herd of deer,there were feeding around the canal outlet next to the waverley viaduct.so if 2 people seen them on 2 different occations there did exit.

...and all along I've been blaming Preston for the mysterious disappearance of the sheep...

I have witnessed the all black or melanistic ,leopards allso known as black panthers ,on three occasions ,the last sighting i witnessed a pair of cats ,all of these in the stainton to rockcliffe,area 2008,2010,2011 please email me at adrian@absportingguns.co.uk i am setting up a data base ,of sightings

notice its never around when we all want to see it ! does it belong to someone !

why has nobody taken a photo of this cat on their mobile phone, nearly everyone has one so there are plenty of cameras around? plus anglers tend to exagerate i know because i am one!!!

why are there so many childish comments that mean nothing? come on folks get a grip and open those minds just a little, you might be surprised and learn something?nothing is impossible...........

Just got back from my hols in spain to find my cat is missing.
Its about 2ft tall, black with a long tail.
If found please contact me

"He nearly dropped his pipe"... what was he smoking in this pipe to have such amazing visions!

Whatever it is, I could do with some of that!