NATCHEZ — When Gary Stewart stepped out of the office at Oak Ridge Apartments Wednesday, something caught his eye.

Stewart, part of the complex’s maintenance crew, said he has no doubts about what he saw.

“I saw its figure,” Stewart said. “And I went inside to get the binoculars. But right away I knew what it was.”

Stewart, and several others, believe they saw a cougar behind the complex.

“It was looking right at me,” Stewart said. “I could see her face.”

The cat was spotted in a clearing at the top of a gully approximately 100 yards from the rear fence of the complex.

Robert Woods also works at the complex and said the cat didn’t appear to be doing much.

“It was just laid out just looking around,” Woods said.

Both Stewart and Woods said they often see deer in the same clearing were the cougar was spotted — but in the last week they haven’t seen any.

Unlike other recent, but brief, cougar sightings, Wednesday’s was unique in more than one regard.

First, witnesses said the cat did not appear to be doing anything and was resting for at least 30 minutes before it walked off into the bushes.

Secondly, Wednesday’s sighting was the first in which more than two people had seen the cat at the same time.

At least six people saw the cougar on Wednesday, including two Natchez Police officers who were called to the scene.

“It was really something to see,” Woods said.

But Wednesday’s sighting was not the first for Stewart and Woods.

The duo said they saw the cat around the same time last year in the same spot.

Woods said in that sighting, the cougar was in the same locale for close to an hour and appeared to be eating.

The Mississippi Department of Wildlife and Fisheries exotic species program leader Richard Rummel said he was notified about Wednesday’s sighting and has been examining its proximity to recent sightings on the Natchez Trace.

Rummel said Wednesday’s sighting is less than two miles from other sightings on the Trace.

He said he’s beginning to think if the animal truly is a cougar, it either escaped or was released from captivity.

“You have to think ‘Where did it come from,’” he said. “But first we have to substantiate what it is.”

To do that, fisheries conservation officer Steven Strader, who was at the scene on Wednesday but missed seeing the animal, will be looking for tracks once he gets permission from the landowner to enter the property where the cat was spotted.