Lindsay Black is “almost certain” that the creature he faced off with last Tuesday on a wooded byway off Hambledon Road was a panther.
Mr Black was taking his Cocker Spaniel for a dawn walk up Green Lane when the creature emerged from a hedgerow near North Farm.
The pair stared at each other for “three or four minutes” before the big cat scarpered into the undergrowth.
He said: “I was walking up the lane around 5.30am when this thing came out of the hedgerow and just stopped there, a few yards in front of me.
“I think the creature and I were both shocked.
“It definitely wasn’t a fox because it was jet black and its movements were very slinky.
“It was bigger than both a fox or a cat and it certainly wasn’t timid. A fox would have scarpered but this creature immediately stopped, turned its head and just stared at me.
“We must have looked at each other for three or four minutes wondering who was going to make the first move before it ran off.”
Supposed big cat sightings are not uncommon in the south as a swamp cat reportedly roamed Hayling Island for many years.
A big cat was also purportedly sighted on Petersfield Heath by John Searle, a retired engineer, in 2016.
The Cranford Road resident told the press the creature he spotted in the undergrowth was about two feet high, “did not move like a dog and was no tabby”.