Will Sabre Cat ever respawn for Aela's quest?
Solution 1:
It seems that the Sabre Cat will never respawn, at least on the current version of Skyrim (1.3), due to a bug. The current changelog for version 1.4 states, under the bug fix section:
- Fixed issue with ash piles not cleaning up properly
I had previously waited over 31 days in multiple locations away from the Sabre Cat's ash pile to no avail, hopefully when 1.4 lands I'll be able to complete the quest.