Out of the ordinary?

16 years ago

Reading about Lydia's visit to see John Edwards, and the mention of UFOs, got me to wondering....have you ever seen anything out of the ordinary?

Several people I know and other local residents that I don't know personally, but have heard about, have seen cougars here.

My husband, for one. My neighbor, my friend (Jodie), several other people I have talked to. I found a huge track, 4 1/2"

across, a few years ago. It didn't look canine to me, because canines don't have retractable claws and you couldn't see the claws. I sent the picture to a cougar website, and I think the guy thought I had fabricated the picture somehow because he wrote back that it looked "canine" to him. That would have to be a heck of a big dog, and I know of no dogs like that around here.

Also, most of the people I know who have seen the cougars...my husband and friend, included, have said they were black.

According to what I have read, no one has ever seen a black cougar in the US, although they have been found in South America.

My friend, Jodie, saw one a couple of days ago...crossed the road right in front of her. It was black and had a tan cub with it.

No one believes there are cougars in these parts...and certainly not black ones...but people swear they have seen them. Also, just last week, a guy we know who was doing bulldozer work about a mile from here, walked back to the edge of the woods...a big cougar (tan, this time) was laying under a pine tree. He said he just backed slowly away.

Several years ago, I saw a big cat walking along the bayou.

I thought it was a bob cat...it had a short tail, but it was

tan in color, slick haired and about the size of a German shepard dog. I have seen a lot of bobcats here...they are a lot bigger than house cats, but smaller than the cat I saw.

They are have thick coats and sort of "ticked" like a tabby cat. I was only about 50' from the big cat, and watched him for about 20 seconds, as he disappeared into the underbrush.

As he walked, he was sort of ambling...paddle footed...throwing his feet out to the side, sort of like a horse that wings it's feet. My neighbor also saw the same cat. He is a hunter, and outdoorsman, and he said he had never seen anything like it. He also saw the cougar...black...and watched him for several minutes with his binoculars.

Sooooo....I dunno. (Insert music from Twilight Zone here).

;)

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Comments (11)

threejs
16 years ago
I read this after looking at google images for cougar tracks...I have seen coyote tracks and scat and looked them up on here to identify....this partial write up was on one site that showed cougar tracks.

Cougar tracks look like those of a house cat, only much larger -the size of a baseball. The tracks have four toes with three distinct lobes present at the base of the pad. Claws usually do not leave imprints. The front paw is always larger than the back paw mark. (note the part about the claws)
mariend
16 years ago
Do you have Lynx in your area? Cougars and/or mountain lions are all over as most have a 100 mile radius. Hard to say what it is. Just be careful
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marlingardener
16 years ago
Marilyn,
We have cougars here in central Texas. In fact, the local winery has a picture of one on their label because one has a den along Tehuacana Creek, and has been spotted by several people over a period of at least two years. We have bobcats who come to drink from our pond, and one brought her kittens along once.
The only other "out of the ordinary" things we see are some folks when we go into town.
Kathsgrdn
16 years ago
When we lived down in S. KY, the ex's family told me they saw black panthers up there before. I didn't believe them. I decided to google "black panthers", though and this is what I found, interesting....

Here is a link that might be useful: black panther sightings
minnie_tx
16 years ago
Actually I have from Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson we were looking at "A" Mountain to the west and noticed a silverish ball hanging in the sky (that's what it looked like) we checked with the weather guys on base and they had no weather balloons or anything like that up at that time. at various other times in Tucson while watching the night sky we see one brilliant bight light just hanging there and then several lights from different directions would zoom across the sky to this light and then disappear. Of course these were all miles high in the sky Thi was many many years ago before we ever heard of Area 51
maryanntx
16 years ago
Cougars and black panthers have been spotted here. A friend made a mold of a track and i was amazed at how large it was.
Of course we have bobcats and coyotes. In fact a couple of days ago my friends dog was attacked by a coyote. It was her second dog to be attacked. He daughter grabbed a rifle and shot the coyote. It seems they are more aggresive than they used to be.
alisande
16 years ago
I saw a cougar once, sitting motionless not too far from the road as I drove by. My son saw one bound across the road right in front of his car. Our newspaper keeps track of cougar sightings in the area, but the Game Commission still insists they're not here.
kim_okla
16 years ago
My granny used to tell me stories of black panthers in Oklahoma.
lydia1959
16 years ago
That sure is a big paw print!

DH, some friends and I did see a Florida Panther one night when we were there visiting (I think we were in the Fort Pierce area). We drove down to a beach area and caught him in our headlights.. he was probably 30 feet away. According to the website in the link there are only about 80 left in the wild.

The UFO was definitely out of the ordinary. I couldn't really tell the shape, but could see colored flashing lights that stayed in the same place for about 20 minutes before it vanished. My Dad says his mom used to see UFO's all the time back in the 1920's.

Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Panther facts
lilliepad
16 years ago
Minnie-Was that by any chance in 1968-69? We had a similar experience around that time."Something" followed beside our car on a lonely road one Sunday night.We lived in the country 25 miles from my hometown and would go to my moms and spend the weekend.We were driving home late at night when it happened.It hovered just above the highline wires along the road.We had citizen band radios in our car and were talking to a friend that was stationed at Webb AFB and every time we would discuss the strange lights they would zoom off.It was spotted in towns 50 or 60 miles away seconds after we saw it zoom away.The local police and county sheriff were watching it and the friend said the base had it on their radar.Nobody could ever explain what it was.Kinda spooky!
minnie_tx
16 years ago
lillipad this was around 1952

Out of the ordinary?

Comments (11)

threejs

mariend

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