Black Panthers in the smokey mountains????

[laktrash]

I still say it was a black bear on crack "skinny and quick"

[Guest Jamie]

I remember back in the 80's when the local rock musician Joe Savage, had several of his Cougars/Panthers get loose; one even mauled and killed his young daughter.

The TWRA and a bunch of other LEO agencies w/ helicopters involved, where chasing them around on his farm...don't really remember if they darted them, or outright shot and killed them.

Also, IIRC they may not have caught all of them...hell, I've slept since then! He was even on the local news forgiving the large cats for killing his daughter, and even wanted them back. I don't believe they let him have 'em back though...He was kinda nutty anyways, fwiw.

Joe Savage used these large cats in his rock show; as well as a very large Anaconda. Some of you older members around middle Tennessee may remember this incident.

I live not 3 miles from where that happened. And trust me, anything that got loose and wasn't re-captured is long dead... Probably was within a week or so of getting loose.

( The area around that farm is well-populated with gun owners... Gun owners that don't take too kindly to large, non-resident beasties chewing up their kids, dogs, livestock, etc. )

[Guest .45packer]

Trust me, you are crazy. You are just having visual hallucinations. Cougars, panthers, or any large cats do not exist in this area; it is absolutely impossible. None of the experts on this forum have seen them, so they do not exist. Period.

Well I guess that proves it!! None of the "experts" on this forum have seen them. Although you might find this site interesting, https://www.uu.edu/forms/cougars/sightings.cfm, it's run by the biology department of Union University and contains many sightings by people that probably weren't high or drunk at the time of their sighting. But since I'm not an "expert" I can't prove that one way or another.......

[Guest bkelm18]

This thread makes me laugh. People get so worked up about stupid crap. Who gives a **** if you believe there's Cattywompii living in the Smokies? Ugh. Im tired of the internet. Damn you Al Gore.

[dats82]

Well I guess that proves it!! None of the "experts" on this forum have seen them. Although you might find this site interesting, https://www.uu.edu/forms/cougars/sightings.cfm, it's run by the biology department of Union University and contains many sightings by people that probably weren't high or drunk at the time of their sighting. But since I'm not an "expert" I can't prove that one way or another.......

Yeah, I was just dicking with you man. I am not one of the "experts," but if you scan through the rest of the posts, you will find them.

[Caster]

People get so worked up about stupid crap. Who gives a **** if you believe there's Cattywompii living in the Smokies? Ugh. Im tired of the internet. .

Right. Believe what you want. I can't prove God exists, but the world can't prove he doesn't. Same principle. Until we gain omnipresence, we my never know for sure. In the mean time, who gives a rat's års?

[Oh Shoot]

Right. Believe what you want. I can't prove God exists, but the world can't prove he doesn't. Same principle. Until we gain omnipresence, we my never know for sure. In the mean time, who gives a rat's års?

Oh, I do. Cause I believe we still have saber-toothed tigers and wooly mammoths. Black ones, too. And you can't prove we don't!

Gotta run for now, have to feed my passenger pigeons.

- OS

Edited April 4, 2011 by OhShoot

[Caster]

Oh, I do. Cause I believe we still have saber-toothed tigers and wooly mammoths. Black ones, too. And you can't prove we don't!

Gotta run for now, have to feed my passenger pigeons.

- OS

Until I have been everywhere and done everything, I can't argue with any of that. There's a lot of known knowns, and known unknowns.......dahhh crap!

[Guest Jamie]

Speaking of seeing things that you have no explanation for...

Something happened here the other night that has me scratching my head.

About 11:00pm I went out with our dogs for their final trip out for the day. They all scattered to their various favorite spots in the yard to do their business, and I took up my usual place in the middle of the area to keep an eye on things.

About 5 minutes into this outing something made me and all 7 dogs look up to the right back corner of the yard. I was standing about halfway up the slope that leads up to the flat area at the back fence, so had a good vantage point at what we were seeing, since I was no more than 15 yards from the middle of the back fence.

And what I saw was something about 12 to 14 inches high, about twice that long, and apparently a light color... maybe tan or gray, or possibly even white. Given the light, there's no sure way to tell. And it moved rather quickly from right to left along the fence row, about 3 ft. off the ground, and out of sight some 15 feet past the leftmost corner of the fence.

My first thought was "deer"... after all, we have plenty of those around here. But the more I thought on it, the less likely that became. And here's why:

One, it covered some 75 feet in maybe 2 or 3 seconds. Two, it went in what appeared to be a straight line, with none of the up and down bobbing that a deer does when it runs... and three... there's no way in hell to run in a straight line along the back of my fence. There're just too many trees to run into.

Two other things struck me as odd... the dogs, which usually run straight to the fence to harass deer or anything else that might be on the other side... all about-faced and beat a strategic retreat to the back door. And I mean all at once, as a group, without any barking at all.

Which brings me to the final thing I find extremely unusual... The only sound to be heard during the whole incident was the sound of 28 dog feet beating it back to the house. Whatever passed along the back fence did so without any of the crashing and crunching deer usually do when they run through the woods there. It was absolutely silent as it traveled.

So, where I have no idea what I and the dogs saw, I know for a fact we saw something. It wasn't just a trick of the light on my own eyes. And given the location, there's no way it was a flash of light or anything else of the like from the road or either of the neighbor's houses. It gave the impression of a solid object in low light, not a reflection.

Anyway, just thought I'd pass that along, given the discussion here on things seen... or not. And no, I have absolutely no clue as to what our "high-speed phantom" might have been. Not even gonna try to guess. I just know it's behavior didn't fit anything I'm familiar with.

Edited April 8, 2011 by Jamie

[Guest Bluemax]

The dog's reaction would have creeped me out. This has the makings of a good Friday night thred

[Guest BEARMAN]

Bobcat? Coyote maybe, Jamie?

[mikegideon]

Alien... and it's a damn good thing it was only one of them. If they manage to get you on their ship, they go straight for the butt every time.

[Guest Letereat!]

This thread makes me laugh. People get so worked up about stupid crap. Who gives a **** if you believe there's Cattywompii living in the Smokies? Ugh. Im tired of the internet. Damn you Al Gore.

[Guest db99wj]

Alien... and it's a damn good thing it was only one of them. If they manage to get you on their ship, they go straight for the butt every time.

Just like fishing, they might throw Jamie back.

[Guest mosinon]

Speaking of seeing things that you have no explanation for...

Something happened here the other night that has me scratching my head.

About 11:00pm I went out with our dogs for their final trip out for the day. They all scattered to their various favorite spots in the yard to do their business, and I took up my usual place in the middle of the area to keep an eye on things.

About 5 minutes into this outing something made me and all 7 dogs look up to the right back corner of the yard. I was standing about halfway up the slope that leads up to the flat area at the back fence, so had a good vantage point at what we were seeing, since I was no more than 15 yards from the middle of the back fence.

And what I saw was something about 12 to 14 inches high, about twice that long, and apparently a light color... maybe tan or gray, or possibly even white. Given the light, there's no sure way to tell. And it moved rather quickly from right to left along the fence row, about 3 ft. off the ground, and out of sight some 15 feet past the leftmost corner of the fence.

My first thought was "deer"... after all, we have plenty of those around here. But the more I thought on it, the less likely that became. And here's why:

One, it covered some 75 feet in maybe 2 or 3 seconds. Two, it went in what appeared to be a straight line, with none of the up and down bobbing that a deer does when it runs... and three... there's no way in hell to run in a straight line along the back of my fence. There're just too many trees to run into.

Two other things struck me as odd... the dogs, which usually run straight to the fence to harass deer or anything else that might be on the other side... all about-faced and beat a strategic retreat to the back door. And I mean all at once, as a group, without any barking at all.

Which brings me to the final thing I find extremely unusual... The only sound to be heard during the whole incident was the sound of 28 dog feet beating it back to the house. Whatever passed along the back fence did so without any of the crashing and crunching deer usually do when they run through the woods there. It was absolutely silent as it traveled.

So, where I have no idea what I and the dogs saw, I know for a fact we saw something. It wasn't just a trick of the light on my own eyes. And given the location, there's no way it was a flash of light or anything else of the like from the road or either of the neighbor's houses. It gave the impression of a solid object in low light, not a reflection.

Anyway, just thought I'd pass that along, given the discussion here on things seen... or not. And no, I have absolutely no clue as to what our "high-speed phantom" might have been. Not even gonna try to guess. I just know it's behavior didn't fit anything I'm familiar with.

After much research I have your answer. At 2 or 3 seconds to cover 75 yards you're looking at somewhere between 17 and and 25 mph. That leaves a lot of things out but also leaves a lot of things in. Elephants, black mamba snakes and humans can all achieve those speeds or more.

We can probably rule out the elephant.

Since the speed data isn't all that helpful we need to look at the dogs behavior. Apparently there are seven dogs present. Seven dogs who would normally chase anything that moved. Sure dogs are smart enough not to take on, say, a lion individually but those things don't think that far ahead. They see a cougar and think "That will be fun to kill, Rex might get it though" and then chase the thing down.

So now we have something kind of biggish that moves semi quickly and scares dogs.

But there is more. This thing also moved silently. You know what moves silently? Predators. Why do the move silently? To surprise their prey of course.

So we've got: Moves quickly, scares a pack of dogs and is silent.

but we have some more information. This was just a couple of nights ago, at the end of the month.

We have the necessary data to reach a conclusion.

We need something that moves reasonably fast, is reasonably quiet, scares dogs and lurks at the end of the month. I've given consideration to the cougar hypothesis, but that fails. The dogs would chase a cougar. The great horned owl would be a possibility, those things are notorious for mis identification, but they don't keep calendars.

The conclusion can only be: A veterinarian.

A vet can run at the required speed, would scare the crap out of the dogs and likely has to make a rent payment at the beginning of the month. He was out there checking on your dogs hoping for arthritis or something.

[Glenn]

I was also thinking owl.

Glenn

[mikegideon]

Just like fishing, they might throw Jamie back.

Doesn't matter. Everybody gets the butt probe, whether they're a keeper on not. Dogs know that instinctively. That's why they hauled ass.

[Guest Jamie]

Bobcat? Coyote maybe, Jamie?

I hope not... 'cause if we've got either of those critters running around here that have basically a 30 inch inseam, I'm gonna need a much bigger gun.

... one with "belted magnum" in the name/description.

A bobcat that size would make TN Outlaw's black panther seem like a kitten.

[Guest Jamie]

Alien... and it's a damn good thing it was only one of them. If they manage to get you on their ship, they go straight for the butt every time.

No alien would let me on their ship... they'd be afraid I'd take it away from 'em and give them the butt-probe.

[Guest Jamie]

After much research I have your answer. At 2 or 3 seconds to cover 75 yards you're looking at somewhere between 17 and and 25 mph. That leaves a lot of things out but also leaves a lot of things in. Elephants, black mamba snakes and humans can all achieve those speeds or more.

We can probably rule out the elephant.

Since the speed data isn't all that helpful we need to look at the dogs behavior. Apparently there are seven dogs present. Seven dogs who would normally chase anything that moved. Sure dogs are smart enough not to take on, say, a lion individually but those things don't think that far ahead. They see a cougar and think "That will be fun to kill, Rex might get it though" and then chase the thing down.

So now we have something kind of biggish that moves semi quickly and scares dogs.

But there is more. This thing also moved silently. You know what moves silently? Predators. Why do the move silently? To surprise their prey of course.

So we've got: Moves quickly, scares a pack of dogs and is silent.

but we have some more information. This was just a couple of nights ago, at the end of the month.

We have the necessary data to reach a conclusion.

We need something that moves reasonably fast, is reasonably quiet, scares dogs and lurks at the end of the month. I've given consideration to the cougar hypothesis, but that fails. The dogs would chase a cougar. The great horned owl would be a possibility, those things are notorious for mis identification, but they don't keep calendars.

The conclusion can only be: A veterinarian.

A vet can run at the required speed, would scare the crap out of the dogs and likely has to make a rent payment at the beginning of the month. He was out there checking on your dogs hoping for arthritis or something.

The problem isn't really the speed... I've seen deer, dogs, and any number of critters cover more ground in less time... on OPEN ground and in daylight. The path this thing took isn't open, and I'm not sure a deer's night vision is good enough to see all the obstacles it would have to dodge and avoid. ( they always make a helluva racket when they travel through there after dark, as a rule )

I know 2 of our dogs have run squarely into trees in the back yard, playing "chase" with each other at night, and it's much more open and clear than behind the fence is.

So unless we have some sort of mutant, narrow-body ninja-deer running around here, I don't know what to make of it.

Oh, and all our dogs like our vet... they'd be much more likely to run to him than from him.

[DaveTN]

It’s not impossible for you to have seen a Panther. I think most here are having fun and don’t mean any harm.

When I was a cop in Illinois there were rumors of a Panther (not the Chicago type, but the cat type). Our dispatchers told me that even people driving through on the interstate would call in and say they saw it. Did it exist? Who knows?

I have seen and captured the Chicago type.

I had a 20lb black cat that could be mistaken for a Panther if you had depth perception issues.

Black Panther Sightings In Upshur County - KLTV 7 News Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville |

Black Panther Sightings? - Yahoo! Answers

RAW VIDEO: Big cat sighting in West Tennessee? - Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee

[laktrash]

Alien... and it's a damn good thing it was only one of them. If they manage to get you on their ship, they go straight for the butt every time.

This would be a good thing "Not the butt probe" But they might pass on us thinking there would easier planets to explore.

[Guest Bluemax]

My Grandmother woild have told you that you had seen a " haint "

[Guest Bluemax]

I was talking with my 86 year old Uncle about this post. He reminded me that in addition to haints, there were also buggers, wooly buggers and witches and warlocks. My Grandmother knew all kind of good tales about these. One thing that did suprise me was that I always thought the term woolybugger was just something mamaw came up with to scare us as kid. Nope..I was watching a show on TV a while back and that is what folks in the Appalachian Mtns called what is now known as Bigfoot

Just Sayin???

Now..about that Glock 20..

[Guest Bluemax]

Show on History Channel tonight at 11:00 PM about Black Panther sightings in the U.S.