A WOMAN and her son have reported seeing a big, black cat in the South Lakeland countryside - close to where another sighting was made earlier this year.

The woman, who does not wish to be named, and her ten-year-old son, who live in the Hallgarth area of Kendal, were in a field at the back of the Helm, near Oxenholme, when they saw the creature moving from one gorse bush to another stalking rabbits.

"Me and my son were watching the rabbits in the field - clapping our hands to make them jump," said the woman.

"My son saw this dark thing in the bushes and said 'What's that?'"

"I looked closer and could not believe what I was seeing.

It was a big, black cat prowling across the grass as if it was going to pounce on something.

It looked like it was hunting rabbits."

The woman described the cat as being muscular and about three feet high "with a big tail just hanging there." She said that it was not frightening but "stunning to see." "It was as black as black and very muscular looking.

I am absolutely convinced by what I saw.

It was only about 20ft away."

The sighting was made at around 7.50pm on the evening of Wednesday, April 10.

In January, the Gazette reported that Chris Martin, 26, of Oxenholme, came face-to-face with a puma-like creature in bushes at the side of Burton Road, just after the turn off near to Oxenholme.

He described it as being about three-and-a-half feet long and added "it was a big, huge muscular cat." He said that he was "extremely scared" and his first instinct was "to get out of there," run home and bolt all the doors.

Around the same time there was a report that two people travelling in a car through Gatebeck, near Endmoor, saw a big black cat cross the road in front of them and go into a field.

The most recent Oxenholme sighting was reported to Bristol-based Terry Hooper who compiles the exotic animal register logging black cat sightings from around the country.

He said: "The sightings are more frequent than the bits and pieces we used to get in the past.

The people up there seem to know what they have got but I don't think all sightings are being reported to the police."

Mr Hooper said he also received a report a fortnight ago that two holidaymakers saw a large black cat while out walking on the southern edge of Windermere.

"They thought at first it was a black Labrador just sitting there.

But as they got closer they saw that it was a huge cat which turned round and looked at them before casually strolling away."

The Westmorland Gazette has reported numerous sightings of large, black cats from various independent witnesses living in the area over the years.

They have been seen at Sizergh, Farleton, Winster, Shap, Witherslack, Kirkby Lonsdale, Newby, near Ingleton, and Burton-in-Lonsdale.