This is the third time ive tried to type this i keep getting cut off for some reason.
Can i just say i didn't mention the yellow eyes as a leader into this tale and now i wish i hadn't but i've been asked so i'll tell.
A mate and i used to poach a golf course just outside Dudley, where i used to live. Not often about once a month we'd load up the dogs and the lamp for a bit of sport. I don't mind telling this now as it's been a few years ago and after we were caught and told, none too politely, (by the biggest copper i have ever seen) to go back to Dudley and poach there, we never went back.
After lamping the golf course a few times we noticed the rabbits were getting a bit wise and were off before we could give the dogs a run so we decided to walk down both sides of the fairways, my mate on one side and me on the other (with the lamp), if a rabbit got up and ran towards his side he would slip his dog and if it ran towards my side i would slip mine, to give the dogs a better chance of a run before the rabbit disappeared into the trees.
We were walking up one fairway and i turned on the lamp shining back at me from a distance of around 50-60 yards was a pair of large, bright, yellow eyes. I looked across at my mate to make sure he had seen them. He nodded his head and signalled to walk towards them. We had only gone a few steps when this "thing" got up and ran across the fairway from left to right over to my side. From the side i could obviously see its shape, it was a large black cat, around 3-4 feet in length with a tail almost as long again. I will never forget the way it ran it seemed to glide rather than run across the ground. After it had gone into the trees my mate and i walked towards each other meeting in the middle of the fairway, talking about what we had just seen, thinking that if it came back at least we would have as much notice as possible and also watching the dogs for any reaction. Five minutes or so passed without any noise or sighting so we decided to carry on and finish our usual circuit and get back to the car. At the end of this particular fairway there was a sharp right turn over a small bridge onto the next. Just over the bridge the dogs ears pricked up and the both pulled on their leads towards the left hand side which was a sharp bank, down and away from the fairway.
Now rightly or wrongly, wrongly looking back, we slipped the dogs they ran away and down the bank, there was a loud, deep growl and both dogs came running back not wanting to know whatever it was. At this point i would like to mention that my dog was a daughter of Merab ( Brian Plummers best ever bitch) a brilliant worker with a fantastic nose. My mates dog was a big powerful saluki greyhound cross with alot of guts( if anything a touch too hard for my taste), and even he didnt want anything to do with whatever it was down there.
I said to my mate, "shall we go and have a look" he said "if you want to go, you go, i'll wait here" and to be honest i really didn't fancy going down there on my own so i didn't. How i wish i could turn the clock back. So thats about it, we made our way back to the car and home, talking about it all the way back and for weeks later. I haven't told this tale to try and gain any sort of fame or notoriety, i'm just relating what happened and if anyone doesn't believe me or feels the need to ridicule, carry on i won't lose any sleep over it, i know what i saw.
