Alabama "Black Panthers"

A sighting reported in the column of a small Alabama newspaper:

"While trying to finish my Christmas shopping in late December, I got a phone call from Dave in north Alabama. 'I need to tell you what I saw last night,' Dave said. 'I’m a painter, and I had just finished a job outside town. It was dark, and as I pulled out of the driveway, about 50-60 yards in front of me, four deer ran across the road. My headlights were shining right on them. Then, about 30 yards behind the deer were two big black cats. They looked like they were about four feet long and their tails were about four feet long. I got a good look at them. Because I’m a painter, I know all about colors and hues. These cats looked like a cougar that had been spray-painted black.'"

And, of course, the columnist talks to Alabama DCNR and gets the standard response: no wild cougars in Alabama, and no cougars are black.