posted on May, 31 2019 @ 06:58 AM
I moved to a community near Logansport, La in 1988. One day a local told me about the "black panther" sightings in the area. We used to see these
things in LaSalle Parish, La. When I was very young (around 1970) my sister was driving the car near our home one night when we topped a hill and saw
two young ones play fighting in the road. She had to stop the car and wait for them to get out of the way. Sometimes you`d hear their screams in the
woods at night but it was rare.
We were camping once in the late 1970s and had seen large cat tracks in the old sandy creek bed we set up camp in. Right across from us there were
scratches on the red clay bank which was about 8 feet high. After midnight one of them started screaming nearby in the woods and kept us awake all
night. We weren`t really scared because they had no reputation for ever harming anyone and we had a shotgun. I think we were blocking its trail or
maybe it had kittens nearby. My grandfather had always warned us to never shoot one, however, because he said a man decades before had wounded one
that attacked hogs in a pen and was found dead near the pen with his chest ripped open two days later.
Anyway, the local guy I met told me that lots of people had seen these big cats in the area. The local high school football team was even called the
Stanley Panthers and their logo was the face of a black cat. This guy mentioned something about a circus train crashing (LOL!) and these cats getting
loose and breeding in the wild. I never heard anyone else say this though. There are historical reports of these big black cats in the Sabine River
bottoms going back to the horse and buggy days. Supposedly there was a bounty on them in the late 1800s because they were attacking supply wagons and
hurting people.
After talking to that guy I saw huge cat tracks in clearings along the Louisiana side of the river. There were a LOT of tracks in washes in clearings
where the ground was bare. I tried calling them using a tape of a rabbit squealing but had no luck. One evening I was riding down a dirt road beside a
clearing on an ATV and one ran right across the road in front of me only about 15 feet away. It was about 8 feet long tail and all. I thought I saw
some white on its chest and a patch of brown on its side but it could have been mud or dirt. It crossed the road so fast it was like a blur.
I told a local commercial fisherman about it and over 15 years later his son told me he`d "seen my black panther" in the same area while deer hunting
from a stand. He promised not to shoot it. Two brothers that lived near there told me one had followed them, staying nearby in the bushes, as they
walked down the dirt road near their house and it kept growling. I spent a lot of time in the woods around there, even camping alone at night, and the
only thing that ever bothered me was three coyotes who tried to steal my chicken roasting over the coals near my feet as I was falling asleep. I
scared the HELL out of them! I heard sniffing, looked down towards my feet and saw them then jumped up and went AAAARRRRRRRR! They screamed like
little puppies and ran for their lives! LOL! True story!
These big black cats are certainly seen all over East Texas. There`s a website called TexasCrypted (sp?) where people report sightings. Lots of people
I spoke with in NW LA said they`d seen them all their lives. Well I saw one there too and was so thrilled to see it! I reported it to Wildlife and
Fisheries and they said there's no such thing as big black cats. Have you seen one or know of anyone who has? Let me know...
edit on 31-5-2019
by DrumsRfun because: fixed all caps title