by Nancy Thompson
(Paintsville,Ky. U.S.A.)
I live in Eastern Kentucky (Lawrence County) and all my life I have heard members of my family talk about sightings of the Black Panther.
My grandmother talked of seeing them while walking home after dark. My grandfather has seen them while out working the farm or while in the woods hunting. My father spoke often of seeing them in the woods after dark when he went fox or coon hunting.
About 10 years ago a neighbor and his wife stopped by my home, asking to see my daughter’s black house cat. After seeing him they promptly told me what they saw the night before in the road above my house was much larger than him.
About the same time, both of my children (ages 10 and 15 yrs. old) heard our dog barking outside in the yard. After seeing the dog still tied they both told me they saw a huge black cat sitting near the creek in front of the house.
My mother had repeatedly seen them while driving home from church. I have never heard of anyone seeing a Puma, Mt. Lion etc. We do have Bobcats, but there is no way to mistake a Black Panther for a Bobcat. Wrong color scheme there.
I actually saw a Bobcat early this spring in broad daylight walking the fence line, across the creek. My mother called the local game warden at that time and told him about all the new sightings and he quickly brushed it all aside. He told her there are no “Black Cats” in Kentucky….haven’t been any since Daniel Boone.
She was irritated that he didn’t take her seriously and quickly informed him that her name was now “Daniel Boone” and he needs to get out of the office and into the woods a little more often. We had the same problem when people first started seeing Black Bear and Coyotes in the area, but those were quickly accepted are being here.
Nancy
In around 2015 I was getting on the i-471 exit from southgate ky to head to 275 (the exit is called Newport/Ft. Thomas) and there is a gulley that seperates the on ramp from the hiway. It opens up to about the length of a large back yard but is about 20 ft down. you can see straight down to it as you merge. It was around 3/4am and I looked down in there as I was hit by 3 deer a few months prior in the same spot. Keep in mind this doesnt connect to any woods, its just a spot containing wild grass the state doesnt allow companies to trim. I aas doing about 35 and looking to merge, looked down and in the middle of the gulley was a massive huge headed, long tailed jet black large species cat like seen in zoo exhibits. I had lasik surgery in 2014 and see 20/20 with my left eye and 20/15 with my right eye and my night vision is spectacular. Its headed moved down to sniff low as it briskly walked thru the small pat h so I seen its whole body and feet and legs and noticed from having house cats my whole life that when it was what i guess smelling the ground, its tail was sort of stretched out, up in the hair, and “bouncing”. like a person would do to an hot piece of metal. (touch, pull back, touch, pull back, touch, etc) a few times. It was massive, long, and magnificent. I slowed, watched it for a few seconds, then went on my way. The city i lived in was Southgate, KY. There are a lot of wooded areas around the area and we have deer all over the place and other animals in abundance such as opossum, dogs, cats, rabbit, squirrel, etc etc everywhere you look. Plenty of food..
2022 Somerset ky. Unknown large cat weighing 64lbs. Killed by my dog in my backyard in somerset, ky. Humane society Came to collect it and said they’ve never seen 1 like it and we’re gonna do some testing on it To try to find out What type of cat
2019 very large solid black cat spotted several times near buck creek boat dock & omega boatdock area (Pulaski county) estimated weight 200lbs height est 2 1\2 to 3 ft tall