The most recent sighting of the animal was on Friday morning, when it was spotted by a resident in a neighbor's backyard. The resident, who asked to be identified in this article by his first name only because he is concerned people would think he was trying to get publicity for his retail business in Greenport, described the animal as about five feet long, with a long tail. It was light brown in color, he said. By the time he could retrieve his cell phone to take a picture of it, the animal had disappeared into the wooded area behind his neighbor's home.
“It was definitely a cat,” John said. “It walked like a cat.”
He called the town, he said, and was connected with animal control, which set a trap on the edge of his property, near the neighbor's yard where he saw the animal.
“It's trapped a couple of raccoons so far,” his wife, Denise, said.
“It's not big enough to trap the animal I saw,” John said of the trap.
John said he believes the cat was a mountain lion. “I'm a hunter,” he said. “Though I've never seen one in person, I saw pictures of it on the Internet.”
The animal, whatever it is, has apparently been roaming the neighborhood for the past couple of months.
Marisa Romeo, a weekend resident of Waterview Drive, said Monday she has seen the big cat near her home twice, the first time in early July. But she didn't say anything about it to anyone at the time.
“I was afraid people would think I was crazy,” Ms. Romeo said outside her home on the quiet, wooded street.
Then early one evening in late August, she saw the large animal again. It was in lying in the road in front of her neighbor's driveway.
“I couldn't believe my eyes,” Ms. Romeo said. She was struck by the fact that there were “several deer eating right near it, so I figured it must be tame,” she said. “The deer were not bothered by it.” She paused, shook her head and said, “But it was a lion.”
Area residents are concerned about the large animal roaming free with Halloween trick-or-treating coming up, said another resident and the mother of two, Stacey Bishop. Ms. Bishop said security cameras on her home recently taped a large animal in her backyard, but she couldn't tell if it was a large dog or the big cat her neighbors have seen.
Employees at the Southold animal shelter acknowledged that the shelter staff had placed a trap in the neighborhood where the animal was seen.
Southold Police Chief Carlisle Cochran said the department had no record of any reports of the large cat, other than the one made this week by Gillian Pultz of the town animal shelter. The chief confirmed that Ms. Pultz had set a trap, which is being watched by neighborhood residents who will alert police if the cat is caught. The chief said he doesn't think there's anything more he can do unless the animal gets caught in the trap.
Chief Cochran speculated that the big cat must be someone's pet and said if and when the animal is caught, he hopes to be able to trace it to its owner. He said he assumes it's illegal to keep such animals on the North Fork.
Anyone with information about the animal should call the police department at 765-2600.