A Mystery Solved & Expanded! Also, Merry Christmas To Some...Happy Holidays To All

[rabid1st]

First, let me wish all of my Christmas celebrating friends the Merriest of celebrations with family and friends and festive good cheer.

Second, let me wish everyone else a Happy Holiday Season celebration of your choice.

Third, let me say...I have solved a mystery, but also expanded on it. A few years back, while driving home from another town, on a lonely road running through dense forests, my SO and I saw a large black cat cross the road ahead of us. Since the road we were on was four lane and well lit we got a very good look at the animal.

What puzzled me is that I am very familiar with most large cats, having spent time with many breeds, and I could not place this one. It stood much taller than a panther and was lighter framed. It was almost dog like, but it wasn't a dog. It was too big to be a bobcat and wasn't heavy enough to be a lynx and it did not have pointy ears. I was so stunned by this siting that I contacted the forest ranger for that lonely stretch of woods to report what I'd seen. He told me that HE and several other people had also seen this black cat and we were all puzzled. He and I both having some wildlife training we exchanged notes and reported our sitings to higher authority. And there the mystery remained, until this photo hit YAHOO today...




THAT'S IT! That is what we saw. My SO confirms it.

But...BUT...it is a CHEETAH! I mean, this one is a pale, non-spotted cheetah from Africa. So, did I see a rare black cheetah that had somehow escaped into the forests of my state? Or is the big black cat that is spotted from time to time in deep forest of the American South...a relative of the cheetah? And why would such an animal haunt forests? The evolutionary design is for speed over flat terrain. But an animal like the one I described to that forest ranger has been spotted as far north as Kentucky and as far west as Louisiana. So...hmmmm! Anyway, it is a cheetah or some close relative. At least we now know this much. I must say, I never even looked at cheetahs when I was searching from some cat...because I associated them so much with Africa and spots. And, having never had the pleasure of seeing a cheetah in person, I didn't recognize it.

Rae
a bit mad at herself for NOT looking up Black Cheetahs before this.

Comments

[ladyoneill.livejournal.com]

I never knew there were cheetahs without spots either! That's definitely a cheetah though, with the aerodynamic head and large back muscular legs for running. cool!

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

And again, without putting it together with CHEETAH...that was one of the telling things about this animal.

[fishsanwitt]

OMG! What a cat!

Happy Holidays :)

[asahifirsa.livejournal.com]

That is beyond cool! I always hope to see some rare animal, I rarely do though :)

Happy Holidays!

[strange-f.livejournal.com]

You may want to look up stories about the wampus kitty. My mother and Aunt would tell me stories when I was little about a black mountain cat that could stand on two legs. They claimed to see it one night stopped on a mountain road, my aunt was pregnant and had to stop to pee. This had to be in the late 70s or early 80s. Its been a long time since I heard the stories but the wampus kitty was the first thing that popped into my head when I read your story.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I will definitely look up the wampus kitty. As I said, I have looked up mysterious black cats and found quite a few sitings in Southern forests. I would hate for this thing to stand up on its hind legs though...it was really big on all fours. I kept telling people it was no bobcat...it was about 4 feet at the shoulder with powerful hind legs like this cheetah. And a long stride, but definitely a cat stride.

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

I had no idea cheetahs had those ears! Neat.

Merry merry!

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Yes, the ears were another point that I made in my report. That they were sort of rounded points, standing up but not tufted like a lynx. It was definitely this animal...only black. I said it might have had spots but if it did they were black (or dark brown) on black.

Merry Merry to you, too!

[rednekkid.livejournal.com]

My very first thought was CHEETAH! (And we have none.) Of course my very next thought was DUMBASS! (Applied to myself for thinking that.)

Weird.

Reference for Black Cheetah

[(Anonymous)]

Hi , I found this

http://www.messybeast.com/genetics/mutant-cheetahs.html

Never seen a photo of one - but I guess they can exist ...

Joe
UFOWag2112ec@yahoo.com