The big cat of Rowhedge is - a dog.

Margaret Warren, who lives in the village, exercises Jet, her eight-month-old large black lurcher, every day across the marshes.

"We had hysterics when we read that he had been taken for a black panther. We laughed all night," she said.

But she said the description by a couple from Old Heath of what they thought to be the big cat of Colchester was a very good description of family pet Jet.

"He is very big - we hope he will not grow any bigger - and is about four foot long with a really long tail and flat face.

"The description given by the couple was so accurate, we roared with laughter. He doesn't walk like a dog, he is very elegant."

Jet, she said, loves nothing more than bounding across the marshes.

"The couple said he went behind a hedge - that is where we were. waiting for him," she added.

There have been dozens of sightings of a large, black beast across the county. For several years people have sighted the animal - which most are adamant is some sort of big cat - in locations varying from a garden in Stanway to open fields at Kelvedon.

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