It walked into a cleared area across the hollow below me, about 80 yards away and at first I thought it was a deer from the color, but its movement quickly informed me that it was a cat. What struck me was that it appeared to be a solid color, with no spots at all, though when it turned its head away, I could clearly see the white and black patches of a bobcat on the backs of its ears. It was too far away for me to see tufts at the tips.

What struck me the most was that its tail was unusually long for a bobcat – about 12 – 18″ long from the look of him – with dark specks or perhaps spots nearer the tip which were the only dark, aside from the backs of the ears, on his whole body. My companion and I stopped on the trail and waited to see where the cat was going and watched as he moved into the taller vegetation beside the creek. I could see he was crossing the creek because the plants on the banks were moving.

Me came into the clear about 50 yards closer to me and continued ambling even closer, clearly not aware my companion and I were there. I got a really good look at him then. There were no spots on his body or legs. It appeared his whole body was an even dun color though both the cat and my companion and I were in the shadow of the trees by that point and faint spots might not have been visible.

He came as close as about 50 feet before I decided to speak up from my whispering and alert him to our presence (my companion was getting nervous!). Instantly, he froze and locked eyes on us. His face gave me the distinct impression of a lion; solid, square, dun colored, no markings at all, and seemingly lacking the cheek fur I associate with a bobcat, though if he had ear tufts, I probably still wasn’t close enough to see them. He was still enough long enough for me to snap some shots of him with my cell phone camera, but then he started to twitch and wiggle his butt in a move instantly recognizable to anyone who’s ever seen a housecat getting ready to pounce on a mouse. My companion was getting very nervous by this point and I figured it might be better if I ended the encounter. I didn’t really think he was going to come bounding up the hill to the tram road we were walking on, but he looked so lion-like that the thought did occur to me. Of course my shout sent him bounding up the hollow exactly as common sense would have suggested it would.

He was a big animal – from shoulder to butt about 3 feet long – and his face had none of the strips of black I would associate with a puma nor any of the spots and stripping I would associate with a bobcat. I’m still fairly certain he was just an unusual bobcat, but I’d really be interested in seeing this thing more closely if anyone ever caught it.

I myself finally saw this animal since I posted my last comment. It was black with a long tail (maybe 15″) but not as bushy as the others described and the tail didn’t stand up but the animal kept it straight out parallel to the ground. It was about the size of a 50lb dog It has pointed ears, a feline type face, long muscular body and was not easily spooked like say a fox would be, I didn’t notice a hump in the body but it might have been in a different pose when the others saw it like maybe stalking something. I would describe it as a cross between a bobcat with a long tail and a cougar but black in color. For years I have probably spent as much time in the NC woods as I have indoors and have never before seen anything like it. I hope this gives you more to go on. I am trying to borrow a infrared camera so I can get a good pic of it since it mostly seems to be active after dark.

“…a feline type appearence with pointed ears, a long bushy tail that stands up and a humped rear section of its body and dark in color.”

What size animal do these folks report? Without knowing that, this could possibly describe the American Mink, Mustela vison. According to the web site of the American Society of Mammologists, these are uncommon, but distributed throughout the state of North Carolina.

Then again, most – but not all – of the images I can find of the American Mink do not show it with its tail standing up. Nor is the tail particularly “bushy,” although it is covered with fur and not naked like the tails of beavers or possums, etc.

Interesting.

Well, there’s the Jaguarundi, which can still be found in Texas and New Mexico, although it is rare nowadays. Apparently, like the Jaguar, it was once more widely distributed in North America. I see the genus listed, variously, as Felis, Puma, and Herpailurus. One source identifies the subspecies found in North America as Puma Yaguarondi Cacomitli. Having personally seen live individuals of this species in captivity, I can’t imagine that they could be mistaken for a long-tailed bobcat. They don’t look anything like a bobcat to me, and probably not to most people. I could easily imagine one being mistaken for a feral domestic kitty though.