Young Panther Sighted In Gainesville, Florida

Sharon McNeal called me yesterday and I returned the call. She lives off Millhopper Road in a heavily forested development with one acre or so lots. She also has a five acre plot of swampy woods behind her house. Sharon has numerous deer coming into the corn she puts out, especially does with fawns who are hard put to find enough food safely for their children. Two days ago, Sharon's mother saw a panther from the window and called Sharon. She saw a young panther, dark-brown with black splotches and a striped tail, about the size of a pit bull, trotting along.
A doe deer was only 15 feet behind him, and I suspect the deer was nosing the panther away from her fawns. The young cat screamed, and the doe stopped. He screamed again, and the doe fled. This was Sharon's first panther. Sharon added that neighbors had been reporting that their cats were missing. As I talked to her, a neighbor came in and reminded Sharon that she had seen a dark-brown panther with no splotches about a year ago. Probably this young panther's mother. Sharon told me, as I have heard many times from native Floridians, that she had thought that all Florida panthers were black. I don't know if the tan panthers were introduced. If anyone knows a non-fiction book that discusses that, please let me know.
For the queation of safety, I would do this: continue feeding panthers, particularly young ones as it is very difficult for them to survive. They need a lot of time to develop the strength, quickness, and skill to make kills. Even an adult panther only gets his quarry one out of three tries. You can imagine how hard it is for a youngster. But I would not allow a panther to show no fear of me. It's not fair to other humans, especially to children. If I had a wild panther doing that, I would shoot him softly in the back end with a marble from a slingshot until he started moving out. Or an inexpensive -$20 to $30 - Daisy air rifle or even a paintball gun could be used. Please don't use high-powered air rifles as they will seriously wound a creature. I would insist that a panther keep his wildness. They don't know that it is wrong to attack humans especially children so they must learn to fear humans. Unfortunate, but necessary.
I asked about Bigfoot as Sharon had grown up on the New River off State Road 100 going out of Lake Butler to Starke. She had not, and her mother said that though she had heard lots of stories about Bigfoot there, she had never talked to anyone who claimed to have seen one.
I had to go into Gainesville, so went into Sharon's development on the way out.
I did see a set of triplet spotted fawns with their mother. I also saw a pair of Golden Retrievers who had their voices cut. Sad. I talked with a dog-walker, a field biologist, who asked if I really (did I really, really) believe that people who reported seeing a panther knew what they saw? I said, "Of course!" Such condescension! I talked to a couple walking their Vizla and - according to them -their omnivorous Lab. The couple knew of someone two developments away who had seen a panther there, and of a hairdresser, just a couple of miles up Millhopper Road, who had a panther coming into the cat food. I decided I would try to use Millhopper instead of Interstate 75 when I go into Gainesville. I might finally get a certain sighting of the beautiful Florida panther.
If you have or know of a Panther or Bigfoot sighting, please e-mail or call me at 352-359-0850 peternickerson12@yahoo.com Thanks!