Wow! Two Black Panthers Running With Cub

Some weeks your panther and Bigfoot questions yield gold. This is the week for panthers. Rick McDonald, who works for Alachua County, Florida and lives only a couple of hundred yards from me saw a black panther on his property, the field where he keeps horses, about 10 years ago. The panther appeared to be simply crossing through. Eight years ago, a young horse displayed claw scratches across his body. Then Rick saw three black panthers, two adults, and their cub, coursing across his field. Rick demonstrated with his hand the way they ran: "Up and then down. Up and then down." The young horse has grown up neurotic from the trauma of the panther attack. Rick said the horse is very "skittish" and is always looking around. The horse obviously has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and so much for the Nietzhian
psycho-blabber that "what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger."
Years ago, my son,who is an excellent hunter and fisherman, showed me an old tree that had beem scratched by a panther, I believe. I have read that a panther claws a tree trunk straight down while a bear slants his scratching. The tree I was shown had vertical claw scratches on it. I would not want to have been that tree. The marks were deep and long. At another time, I found a deer killed on an old railroad bed in the same area. I was not able to find any wounds on the deer. The intestines had been rolled up into a ball several feet from the body. Perhaps I should have looked around carefully to see if anyone was peeking at me from behind a tree or bush. I immediately thought the scene was a panther kill as I had heard panthers will ball up the intestines. But reading has made me think of Bigfoot being a possibility for the kill also. We live in an area that has some woods, and it is full of deer. A neighbor does a kind deed in setting up a feeder on a tripod and stocking it faithfully. The feeder is in the middle of about a two-acre lawn, and I have seen as many as ten deer at the feeder. It is a majestic sight. A doe who has thrown three fawns each spring for the last two years is a frequent habitue of the feeder as she needs all the help she can get in taking care of her triplets. Right next to our property is a cattle and horse ranch, and my son and I have seen panther tracks three inches across on that property. Perhaps one night I will see or hear a panther or even the Wild Man Of The Woods on my property. There is an old Cuban farmer nearby who does some night shooting. If I ever run into him, I'll have to ask him what he's shooting at. Besides vegetables, he has goats, ducks, and chickens.
The pharmacist at Walgreen in Alachua City, Florida, had a panther story to tell me while I got my flu shot. He was born in Florida and saw his panther on Newberry Road in Gainesville, Florida going west past Tower Road and before you get to the Baptist Church.I asked him if the cat was short and stocky like a cocker-spaniel, and he said it was long - measuring off about a yard with his hands- and had a long tail.
Isn't it interesting that everyone but Fish and Wildlife sees panthers? Actually, they do too, but they're being paid not to. There's much taxpayer money to be gained
by not seeing panthers. If people were properly compensated for their property and people were allowed to take tax write-offs for not being allowed by government to use their property as they wished, property-owners would be much more friendly to the panther, the cockaded woodpecker, and the gopher-tortoise.
Recent readings of the Bigfoot Field Organization website has produced a white Bigfoot sighting in Jefferson County in Washington State, a Bigfoot who swatted a super-courageous Springer Spaniel who was trying to chase Bigfoot off his land. The spaniel was unhurt, but he ran for home after the Bigfoot Swat, and finally a story about seeing a Bigfoot jump onto a snake and catch him by his head.
Please call me with your panther or Bigfoot sighting. Thank-you Pete Nickerson at 352-359-0850.