Could the "Palace Panther" be stalking a Lambeth woman? (From This Is Local London)

Could the "Palace Panther" be stalking a Lambeth woman?

10:10am Saturday 19th September 2009 in Where I Live

When Leia Mazur read about the two recent big cat sightings near Crystal Palace, it reminded of her own brush with the "Palace Panther" last summer in what could be the first attempt by a big cat to adopt a human.

While walking along Estreham Road near Streatham Common station, she said was confronted through a fence by a “thigh-high feline”.

Ms Mazur, 26, said: "It's quiet, quite a wild, overgrown spot." She described the black cat as "huge” adding: “It wasn't a regular cat. Definitely it was bigger than average. If it was a normal cat it would have run away from us."

The big cat saga has gripped the community since financial journalist Helen Barrett first reported seeing the “panther” in woods near Church Road, Crystal Palace, on August 8.

Now with Ms Masuz having moved house from Streatham to Church Road, it has prompted purrs of speculation the cat could be following her and trying to set up a den inside a human's home.

Ms Mazur managed to get a picture of the cat. She described it as "completely still and motionless" and was "aware of me but not bothered by me".

Although she concedes that some people might think her photo looks just like "a normal domestic moggie," she is determined she saw something bigger and wilder.

As well as its overall size, Ms Mazur noticed other physical attributes which set the cat apart from a normal household pet.

“It had a huge head. It wasn't a normal cat's head. The neck made it look less like a regular cat. It had very bulky shoulders. It then ran off at terrifying speed,” she said.

But Ms Mazur had some reassuring words for anyone who might encounter the "Palace Panther", saying it did not seem interested in attacking her: “It didn't even occur to me, to be honest," she said.