A LOCAL woman in the Crosshaven/Fountainstown area has come forward to say she has also seen the large animal reported by other people in the area in recent days.

Aoife Fitzgerald, aged 40, told the Evening Echo she did not believe the rumours that have been circulating about a cougar or puma on the loose until she laid eyes on the big cat close to Hurleys Woods on her way home from work yesterday evening.

“I didn’t believe it until I saw it. It is not a big cat or a dog. I saw it, it was about 100 metres away.”

Aoife said she was driving home from working at a solicitors office in Carrigaline when she saw the animal out of the corner of her eye in a field recently cut for hay.

She said she indicated and backed up to take a look and that is when she saw its head through the bushes. The animal then walked back towards the wooded area, known as Hurley’s Woods.

“It definitely had a cat face, but it was bigger than a labrador. It was a blondie-brown colour and it had a fierce slow stride, like a cat.” Aoife said.

Aoife said she got home and rang her parents and asked them should she report what she saw to the gardaí.

“That’s when it hit me, what I had seen,” Aoife said.

Aoife said there is definitely a cougar/puma-like animal loose in the Fountainstown area and she contacted the Gardaí to report her sighting.

“It is definitely there,” Aoife said.