59. Mother Cat Gone, Black Panther Story

One of our dogs is a rescued part-blue heeler. I have heard they are called that because they are always with you. Certainly, this dog is; when I sit or sleep, she is right next to me. But the other day, she really earned her name. I was sitting on the edge of the bed getting my socks on. As usual, she was lying right by my feet. At one point, I lifted my left heel, and she immediately pushed her head under it.
Some of the canned dog food was eaten at the cat site, so I put out another can. Maybe the kittens are nearby. I must remember to pee around the site to try to keep away predators. The body of the mother cat is gone, and I checked the spot where she had lain to try to make sure vultures hadn't eaten her. I saw no evidence of her body being torn apart. Of course, she was small enough that they or any predator could have carried her off, but I am going for the most positive possibilty: the white-haired gentleman took her home and buried her.
In my black panther story, I stopped where the serious-looking hunter told me of seeing a black panther racing up a tram right on the Gulf of Mexico. Then Wendy assured me that several hunters had reported seeing black panthers in the game management area. We talked until it became dark, and the last diehard hunters had gome out of the gloomy jungle-woods. Two of these hunters confirmed that they had seen black panthers in the area. One of them glanced over at the buck Hawkeye had killed, a spike buck, meaning it had a single antler on each side, and mentioned how long he thought the spike was. I disagreed, so we all walked over to the tailgate of the F-150, and one hunter took out his tape measure. The hunter was exactly right to the inch. I was impressed by his both his eyesight, as it was dark, and his judgement. This man was a skilled woodsman, and if he said he saw a black panther, I believed him. Wendy promised that she would ask "the game commission men," - the game wardens- who were always dropping by to check on her about black panthers. She could see that I was very puzzled about what these animals were and wanted to learn more about them.
I went back to the hunt club the next week and stopped by to talk to Wendy. She had asked the game wardens about the black panthers, and their response made me think there was something big going on here, and they were trying to hush it up. The game wardens told her that there was no such thing as a black panther, and if the hunters kept reporting sightings of "panthers," they would have to close the game management area to hunting to protect the panthers. Of course, you see the lie here: the hunters weren't reporting seeing "panthers" but "black panthers," and if black panthers didn't exist, why should game wardens close the hunting area to protect something that didn't exist? Something big was going on. As Director of Social Services for Williamsburg, Virginia, I had been an officer of the court just as game wardens are officers of the court. I took my duties very seriously and never lied. Officers of the court lying as the game wardens obviously were doing was something very new and disquieting to me, the idealist, as was their threatening innocent, honest hunters with closing their hunting area if they didn't keep quiet about what they were seeing.
Two-Guns at peternickerson12@yahoo.com.