#114 "The Black Panther Betrayal" Book cont.

"After I hanged up the phone, I cursed. Wayne tried to calm me by saying, "Now Pete, it's different here. It's Perry."
"A man's word is important in any culture," I responded.
Then Wayne tried to scare me: "Richard is a big man. Once my brother had a refrigerator he didn't want. He had just bought a new one and put the old one outside on the porch. He gave it to Richard and said, 'Let's get the pickup and take it to your house.' Richard replied, 'I'll take care of it.' He put his arms around that refrigerator, picked it up off the porch, and carried it home!"
I was not impressed. I wasn't a refigerator. Wayne and I drove to Aucilla Game Management Area without Richard. After about an hour and alternatively driving and cutting limbs back from the road so my truck wouldn't get scratched, I found the sink hole where Richard had fished the night before. Richard had originally told us that he would take us to where he saw the black panther sitting. He said he would do it either Saturday night or Sunday morning. I had a premonition that if we didn't go to the panther spot Saturday night, he would drink that night and not want to get up Sunday morning. But then when I asked that we get together Saturday evening, Richard changed his tune and replied, 'Well, I really want to go fishing Saturday evening. I had promised my wife fish for dinner. I had promised to take her fishing in the sinks.'
Thus, he had gone back to Aucilla Game Management Area for a night of fishing and drinking, and the next morning wanted nothing to do with Wayne and me. When Wayne and I got to Aucilla Game Management Area, we began looking around for the sink holes because that was the area in which Richard had seen the panther. Richard said he saw the big, black cat near a sinkhole that was so big you could not see the end of it. After finding several smaller ones, we came upon the one he described. I also saw what I was sure was evidence of Richard's carousing from the night before: There was a brand-new cardboard box for 24 Natural Light beers stuck onto the limb of a tree. I stopped the truck, got out, and walked up the trail to the sinkhole. There were new Natural Light beer cans flung into the jungle-woods off the trail as if Richard had blazed the way for me. I then found a campfire with a big sheet of metal in the center of it. Richard had probably fried his catch on it. Near the campfire, right on the edge of the sinkhole, I saw a forked stick that he had probably used to hold his fishing rod. Looking into the water in the sinkhole, I could see foot-long catfish swimming about. Brand-new soft drinks were scattered about too. I theorized those belonged to his wife. I found the worm can for the catfish and the discarded box for his Rapala lure. I looked more closely around the campfire and found the piece de resistance: a condom wrapper. I was pleased that I could read Richard so well." To Be Continued.

Bullets From Two-Guns: We nearly lost Mocha, a chocolate lab, to an infected uterus. Dr. Stephen Shore quickly operated on her and removed the second largest uterus in his life. The other one came from a German shepherd. Mocha is a small lab, no where near the size of a shepherd. Dr. Stephen Shore of Gainesville did a remarkable operation. I urge all panther lovers to keep an eye and ear out for my panther colleague in Charleston, South Carolina, Micas Singleton. He is doing a lot of work on the black panther issue. His perspective is the black leopard. I believe that though there may be released black panthers and they may be reproducing, there influence is not that great. I believe the black panther comes naturally from Florida panthers. Micah is not blogging, and I have encouraged him to do so because what he relates to me verbally is extremely interesting, and I am sure it would be for you too. Two-Guns at peternickerson12@yahoo.com.