Читать книгу Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside - Brad Steiger - Страница 19

When I was boy growing up in Iowa during the 1940s, I came to look forward during the winter months to the arrival of a curious guest—in addition to Santa Claus—who would faithfully visit our state. Santa, of course, was a welcome guest at our house on Christmas Eve. The other visitor was not at all welcome at any time. According to newspaper accounts, each winter a mysterious black panther somehow materialized among the snow banks and proceeded to frighten folks with its threatening growl and piercing yellow eyes.

Startled eye-witnesses from across the state sighted the beast near the mailboxes at the end of their lanes when they went to retrieve the day’s newspaper and bills. Others spotted it running through the groves near their homes. Livestock was killed or mauled, victims of the black panther.

Each morning, my little sister and I had a very long lane to walk in order to be picked up by the school bus, and we kept a wary eye on our thick groves and apple orchards, hoping that we would never spot the big cat stalking us. During the winter months, it was nearly dark by the time the bus dropped us off to begin the trek back down the lane to the safety of our home. On each side of our lane, there were fields with fallen cornstalks awaiting next spring’s plowing. A panther could easily crouch behind clumps of dried stalks, hungrily awaiting his prey.

Journalists had a wide variety of theories as to how a black panther could make its way to Iowa. Most common of these hypotheses was the obvious one: someone had obtained a panther as a pet and it had escaped when it reached its maturity. Pleas were made to whomever might know the origins of this dangerous creature to come forward and help provide clues to its possible whereabouts.

Experienced hunters suggested that a mountain lion (also called a cougar, puma, or panther, depending on regional preference) might easily have found its way down to Iowa from northern Minnesota, and they assured the populace that they would soon be able to hunt it down. Most people knew that cougars were not black, but others argued that the panther could be a freak of nature, turning black, rather than a cougar’s typical tannish-brown color.