NATCHEZ — The spotting of what they believe to be a black panther will make Tuesday a day Miller Moore, Bertha Jackson and Darlene Toles won’t soon forget.

Moore and Jackson were sitting on Toles’ porch Tuesday afternoon when out of nowhere an animal they described as a black panther walked across Stiers Lane.

“It was a big old cat, I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Moore said. “It just walked across the street like it owned the place. It wasn’t scared of anything.”

In all the excitement, Moore and Jackson weren’t able to get a picture of the cat. They yelled to Toles, and she called the Natchez Police Department.

They described the large cat as a little bit taller than their knees, about three or four feet long and looked well fed. One feature of the feline stuck out in Moore and Jackson’s minds.

“And he had a long black tail,” Jackson said.

Toles worried for the neighborhood.

“There are children in this neighborhood out playing all the time,” she said. “I don’t want this panther around.”

Tiffany Edwards, who lives across Stiers Lane from Toles, and has three children has known about the panther for a couple of years.

“It has been down here for years,” she said. “My cousin saw it two years ago. I hear it sometimes in the early morning next to my house.”

Edwards has been hearing the sounds for more than two years, though. Before her cousin saw the big cat, she thought it was just wild pigs.

“Since she saw it, I don’t let my kids play outside,” she said. “That thing could easily carry off (my youngest son).”