But after his hair-raising close encounter at a local beauty spot, the groundworker is convinced he spotted the beast of Castor.

The puma-like creature has also been seen in Bretton – most recently by prison worker Ian Moody, who stumbled across the animal on Christmas Day.

The story of an exotic feline roaming the region has attained urban legend status – with a sighting in Castor Hanglands in 2005 fuelling the rumours further.

It was in the same patch that Mr Parr (46) saw the mysterious cat on a lonely country track while he was out walking his pet Japanese Akita dog, Mika, last Thursday morning.

Taken aback to see the black cat foraging in the soil, he stood rooted to the spot for several seconds.

But the animal, spooked at being discovered, had bolted in the blink of an eye.

Mr Parr, of Aldermans Drive, Peterborough, said the events unfolded so quickly, there would have been no chance to capture it on camera.

But he insisted he was "100 per cent sure" that what he saw was a genuine big cat.

He said: "I was walking my dog at about 7.30am. I looked round and there was this black cat, but the length of its tail which was curved up at the end convinced me it was a big cat.

"It was 25 yards away in a ditch. It happened so quickly.

"It was just getting light, but I'm 100 per cent sure I saw it.

"The body was at least two and a half feet long, and its tail was nearly as long.

"It was too big to be a domestic cat.

"My dog was off it's lead and I wanted to get it back on. She was chasing and I didn't want them getting together."

He was so stunned after the sighting, he called his wife, Tracey (39), to share the news.

Although he wasn't scared, he admitted feeling apprehensive that he may have another, even closer encounter with the beast, and hurried back home.

He said: "You hear stories about this and I'd like to believe it was possibly the Beast of Castor.

"The chances of my seeing it again are not very good. I did wonder, 'wow, did it happen?' But it did."

Meanwhile, Mary Lord of Mewburn, Bretton also thinks she spotted the animal as she was with her husband and travelling along the A47.

She said: "The road was fairly quiet and looking around me, I saw a black animal sitting motionless on the side of the road.

"At first I thought it was a black labrador, but its ears were not right.

"It sat just like the beast."

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