[gushogg-blake]

I was camping and hitchhiking in the Lakes with a friend about 12 years ago. We aimed to get over High Street (a large hill) and to the next bothy within a day but it was harder than we expected, so we ended up setting off down the other side well after nightfall. The moon was out so light wasn't really a problem, but we were both a bit freaked out by not really knowing exactly where we were or what the weather might do (this was in January, and a blizzard did come through the next day - but even in summer you have to be careful there). There was about 6 inches of snow over everything and it was hard going on the way down - with lots of tripping over hidden rocks and worrying about slipping into cracks or over the edges of waterfalls etc - so we were both getting increasingly agitated.

Anyway, about half way down we came upon some large animal footprints and stopped to look at them. They were very clear and we both thought they could have been big cat prints. They looked too big for a dog, and the location and time of year didn't make that much sense for casual dog walking and there were no other human prints around. We still had a few miles to go and camping out in tents or in a sheep shelter for the night was very much on the table, so I think we both decided to just put the idea of a big cat out of our minds, to the extent we took it seriously to begin with. Makes me wonder!

[boomboomsubban]

>They looked too big for a dog

Aren't larger dog breeds about the same size as big cats? Looking it up, a small English mastiff is larger than a big leopard for example.

An escaped dog seems far more likely than an escaped big cat.

[gushogg-blake]

Yeah, could have been a dog. I would say a dog with a human and we just didn't see the person's tracks is more likely than escaped though as we were miles from the nearest house and I think an escaped dog would have had the sense not to walk half way up High Street by itself in that weather. One thing about these prints is they were very clean though. This looked like something that was walking, as opposed to bounding this way and that like a dog sometimes does. All pure speculation of course, but with a dog + human I would expect them to be either walking together, or for the dog to be running around chaotically, still fairly close to the person.

[boomboomsubban]

>as we were miles from the nearest house and I think an escaped dog would have had the sense not to walk half way up High Street by itself in that weather.

They could have escaped a while ago and been living in the area.

Basically any scenario where you can imagine a big cat showing up a dog could do the same thing, probably more likely to as wolves at least were native to Britain.

[gushogg-blake]

Hmm, semi-wild dogs seems less likely to me as they'd have to hang around settlements to get food, in which case they'd get noticed and dealt with. Unless you mean they can hunt in packs and take down sheep?

[boomboomsubban]

Dogs are capable of hunting small game, as well as eating things like berries. Or maybe they hadn't been there that long, just longer than a day.

From my perspective, I'd assume dog until I got overwhelming evidence it was a big cat. There are far more dogs in Britain than big cats for a start.