Sighting: Jaguar May Have Really Been Mother of All Cats

There may have been another sighting of the as an exotic cat.

Kevin Cobb, who works for the East Hampton Town Highway Department, told Patch on Thursday afternoon that he saw something big and furry, but it wasn't a jaguar, or even a mangy fox — it was a domestic longhair cat. He thinks it may be what was reported as a 5-foot-long, 2-feet-high jaguar-looking animal on Sunday.

Cobb said he was at his mother's house on Osborne Lane in East Hampton, talking to her in the driveway at about 4:30 p.m., when they both spotted something lurking in the woods.

"We both said, 'What just went behind the bushes?'," Cobb recalls saying to his mom Elizabeth Cobb.

Kevin Cobb went to get a closer look and what he found was "a humongous grey cat" that looked even bigger thanks to unkempt hair.

He got close enough, thanks to some bologna, that he estimates that the cat was 18-inches high to the shoulder. The cat had "the longest tail I've ever seen," at an estimated two feet long, he said.

"I can see how if someone saw it quickly it could be mistaken for five feet long, including the tail, but it's not quite that big."

Also, Cobb said he got close enough that he could see the cat was wearing a tight blue harness. It looked way too small, he said, like the cat was growing out of it. While the cat looked healthy, he said, he is concerned the harness will eventually hurt the cat.

He also thinks the cat was recently pregnant — the cat's nipples seemed engorged and were hanging. The cat had a hanging sack, too, he said.

"With all the puffed up hair and it was pregnant on Sunday, it's could have looked even bigger," he said.

On Wednesday, someone reported to the DEC that they saw something they initially thought was a jaguar, but was , in Hither Hills. The DEC believes that's most likely what the jaguar-sighting really was.

Have you ever seen this cat? What do you think? Is it possible this cat could have been mistaken for something else?