About a month ago, I was dining at MacDonald's in Starke (Florida, USA) and saw a hunter in camouflage standing in line. I picked up a paper napkin to write notes on and went over to him. His name was Ronnie Fogherty, and he had seen a black panther in the Lochloosa Game Management Area which is about twenty miles southeast of Gainesville and The University Of Florida. The event happened last fall when he was bowhunting, and he saw the big cat from about 100 yards. I asked him what the black panther was doing, and Ronnie Fogherty replied pithily, "He was trying to get out of there as fast as possible."
About three weeks ago, I got gas at the S&S store in Worthington Springs (Florda, USA) and noticed a man in a camouflage shirt pumping gas across from me. A dog was in a dog box in the back of his pickup. I asked him the black panther question, and Tim Corbitt, who runs a tree moving and stump grinding business,replied that he had seen a black panther years before when he was hunting in St. Johns County. The cat was only forty yards away. At church that night, Reverend Eddie Gandy said that Bob MacMillan, another church member, had seen a black panther. Bob is a stocky redheaded man and has a beutiful, petite, blond wife. She is the woman who years ago in Bible Study class found a psalm that said that doves had souls. I had asked Brother Eddie if the Bible said animals had souls, and this woman found a supporting passage immediately. After she read the passage, she lost the place, and can't remember where it is. I haven't found it either. Brother Eddie said he knew of no passages in the Bible saying that animals had souls. After service, I found Bob MacMillan and introduced myself to him. He said, "I was dog-hunting up at Sandhill Hunt Club (between Steinhatchee and Perry (Florida) and was driving down the CC (Civilian Conservation) Grade where the Tide Swamp Unit is on one side of the road, and the Sandhill Hunt Club is on the other side. It came out of the Tide Swamp Unit, saw us, and went back into the Tide Swamp Unit. I saw a long black tail. I immediately stopped and yelled at my son who was in his truck right behind me, 'Did you see that?' 'Yes,' he said. We found his tracks in the sand. They were about that wide (indicating one and a half inches). We saw him from about thirty yards. It was very fast. I'd say he was about forty pounds so he must have been a young panthers. Some say it was something that's not even a panther."
"They must be talking about a jaguarundi. They weigh 28 pounds, top."
Please give me your black panther sightings and any signs or sightings of Bigfoot or the Swamp Ape. Peter Nickerson at peternickerson12@yahoo.com or 352-359-0849. Thank you.
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