February 29, 2008
Learning my ABC's
I saw something extraordinary this evening at approximately 9:20pm est; just outside of M'Chigeeng, on the side of highway 540, heading east, just after the dump road, in front of the small rock cut was a large, black animal sitting in the ditch.
When I first spotted the animal by the flash of its large, bright yellow-green eyes, I thought it was a bear, which wouldn't be an uncommon site lumbering around any of the island's dumps. However, this animal was different, it didn't lumber, it moved with measured steps of a sleek predator.
Caught in the flash from my Silver Cavalier's headlights, it pulled its torso up to stare directly at me as I slowed to get a better look. There was something decidedly feline about the form that I observed, from its flat face, tucked ears, long neck, long sleek body and crook of the tail, there was no doubt in my mind that I was momentarily face-to-face (as it were) with what looked that world like a black panther.
It turns out that the term "black panther" is actually a collective bit of nomenclature for several species of large black cats, generally known as "melanistic leopards or jaguars".
Now, there's a slight problem with having spotted a "black panther" on the island, which is located in Northern Ontario, Canada and that is that the island is located in Northern Ontario, Canada, not exactly a region known for its abundance of jungle cats!
So what the devil did I see? Well, these are the facts as I witnessed them:
- The animal was larger than an average dog, I've had friends with Newfoundlanders and I'd say that the animal I saw was a similar height at the shoulder, but longer, not including its tail, this beast was at least 6 feet long, with another 1.5 to 2 feet of felid tail behind.
- The was jet black, I mean, it was absolute glossy black, the light from my headlines refracted a little from this perfect black coat. (I should note that in the past, I had always assumed that large black cat sightings were just made by people under bad lighting conditions, mistaking the silhouette of a tan cougar for a large black cat. This wasn't the case for my mystery animal; it was caught fully in my headlights and reflected almost no light whatsoever with the exception of its eyes and gloss coat highlights).
- It was gone by the time I got the car stopped and turned around, unfortunately, it was frigidly cold tonight (minus 16 F according to Environment Canada), so there was little chance of finding any paw prints in the icy hard snow banks at the side of the road. Neither my travelling partner nor I were inclined to look either, visions of hungry black beasts leaping upon us from the rock face above swirling in our minds.
- The animal was not a figment of my overactive imagination, as my partner observed it as clearly as I did. Her only deviation is that she doesn't remember the eyes reflecting for as long as I did and she thinks the animal was larger than my observation.
So, if this was a "black panther", which is clearly not native to this region of the world, excluding unsubstantiated reports of melanistic mountain lions, then what I observed was an official ABC aka "Alien Big Cats".
Now, I'm not talking about space aliens here, I am just referring to the common classification for non-native (alien) cat species in the cryptozoological canon.
General ABC lore would have us believe that these alien big cats fall into one of the following classifications:
- Misidentified large dogs or other animal. I fully admit that I may have misidentified a bear or large dog. However, against this hypothesis is the frigid temperature, which should see any black bears well in winter hibernation and the overall look of the animal, which was like no other canine I have ever observed.
- Escaped/Released exotic pet or circus animal. Well, I don't know of any circuses that have visited the island recently, but I could by the escaped or released pet theory. If so, I feel sorry for this animal, which must be used to much warmer conditions than the island in February. I'll have to keep an eye on the local papers for any news of escaped beasties.
- Previous unknown species. Highly unlikely in such a small geographical region, although, plausible that cougars, which have been spotted previously in the Espanola region (and much like the moose in the Espanola Hills), could have wandered south onto the island over the frozen North Channel. I which case, this would definitely be a sample of the previously unidentified melanistic mountain lion (puma) sort!
- Spirit or otherworldly creature, living half in our world, half in some other parallel dimension. This really isn't my sort of cup of tea, but what I saw was surely black enough to imagine that it could indeed be some sort of shadow brought to life. Owing to the fact that I actually had a dream about a black panther chewing on my hand a couple of weeks back, I found this page on black panthers as spirit totems to be quite fascinating.
http://wolfs_moon.tripod.com/blackpantotem.html
- Shapeshifter/Lycanthropy/Skinwalker. Well, like the strange combined bare human footprints with black bear footprints that I found out on the south shore of the island a few years back, I suppose there's always the possibility of folks who walk on two legs during the day and on four legs at night. I suppose too, that it has been a bit of a mystical time of the year, today, being the rarest day of the year (February 29th) and just having passed that lovely lunar eclipse last week, so who knows what kind of strange mystical beings may still be lurking about?
- Large feral housecats. This is actually a fascinating concept coming from the pages of Fortean Times, which in its August 2007 mentions anecdotal evidence of regular house cats gone feral and growing to enormous sizes in the Australian outback. Which I doubt is the sort of thing that could happen on the island without somebody, somewhere having noticed!
Well, that's it for my list, what do y'all think, any other explanations (reasonable or otherwise?)
One thing is for sure, I won't be forgetting tonight's late night run to the crossroads (and you do know what they say about "the crossroads!") Timmy's in Espanola for a long time to come!
April 2008