There may be more to this than appears. People tend to dismiss these reports but I had an experience just before I moved to Sanquhar. I went out for a walk one morning, it was a glorious day and I was looking round to see if I wanted to move there. I went down the lane which ran to the river Nith and as I passed a dry stone wall, I saw something brown and bushy disappear over it. I looked over but couldn't see anything in a piece of scrubby land. I had my walk and on the return had to cross an old bridge over the river Nith. I could see something standing in the middle of the bridge and as I approached it saw it was a wildcat. It was a beautiful creature and I didn't know what to do, should I cross the bridge? In the end I decided to go over it and imagined the cat would run off. Not so, it stood there as I walked over and didn't move. I stopped as I drew alongside it, said hello puss and asked him how he was (as you do). We both stood there looking at each other for a few minutes. It was a wonderful few moments. I saw the markings it had and wonderful eyes. I had only taken my keys out with me so I had nothing to take a photo. The cat didn't move so I decided to carry on with my walk. After I had crossed the bridge, I looked back and it had gone.
I didn't think that Scottish wildcats existed that far south. I found a site which wanted details of wildcat sightings and reported it to them. They said it wouldn't have been a pure wildcat but a hybrid. That meant it would have been bred with domestic cats somewhere along the line. The markings it had supported that. They told me that someone in Moniaive, a village over the hills from there, had a collection of wildcats and there had been problems with them so he released them into the wild. I think it must have originated from there as the area was wild country with hills for miles after crossing the river.
I told some of the locals who dismissed it all. Fortunately a lady I knew who worked for the council told me she had seen it in her garden a few days later. She had two cats and was worried about them being out when she saw it there.
I think there are people who get exotic pets and cannot cope with them after a while. They may release them into the wild as the chap in Moniaive had done. It was a wonderful experience which I am sure will never be repeated. Despite walking in the area for years afterwards, I never saw anything like it again.
