By Evan Allen, Town Correspondent

A Belmont resident reported seeing a bobcat on Rutledge Road on Monday, marking the third unconfirmed bobcat sighting in a year - and leading some to think that the big cats may be moving into town.

'I'm fairly convinced. I won't be 100 percent sure until I see one myself,' said Belmont Animal Control Officer John Maguranis.

The only wild cat found in Massachusetts, according to the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, bobcats are about twice the size of a house cat, with short bobbed tails and tufted ears. They move quickly and quietly, and usually stay out of sight.

Once rare in Eastern Massachusetts, sightings of bobcats are becoming more common.

'They're making a comeback ' you hear more and more about them lately, anyway,' said Maguranis. 'They're beautiful, beautiful animals' They're gorgeous.'

Early this month, a rabid bobcat attacked a Brookfield man and his nephew before the man was able to pin it down and shoot it twice in the head, but wildlife officials say that healthy bobcats do not pose a threat to humans.

'They're not dangerous for people. Everybody automatically remembers the rabid one,' said Laura Conlee, Furbearer and Black Bear Project Leader for the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. 'That's a really extremely, extremely rare thing to happen.'

In the last 20 years or so, said Conlee, there have been only two bobcat attacks on humans, including the one in Brookfield ' and both of those animals tested positive for rabies. In the same time period, she said, four other bobcats tested positive for rabies, but did not attack humans.