Based on a true story that happened in September 2024. Some details changed to protect privacy.
“It’s such a beautiful day,” Kay stated. “I’m going to work in the greenhouse.”
“And I’m going to do some baking,” Fay announced. “I noticed the cookie shelf is nearly empty.”
The twins had a greenhouse with a building attached where they sold baked goods and other items.
I wonder how many customers we’ll have today, Kay thought as she walked through the store to the greenhouse.
Opening the door to the greenhouse, she stood admiring the Boston ferns and vines in hanging baskets. With a monkey or two swinging on the bars among the vines and tropical plants, it would look like a jungle, she mused.
Kay began repotting mums. Once she thought she heard something, but, looking up from her work, she did not see anyone.
“Guess I’ll take a break,” Kay said to herself after working quite a while.
As she turned to go, she spied a big black dog walking among the tables. “Hi there, Doggy,” she said softly, not wanting to scare it.
Thinking that a customer was here, she looked around. Seeing none, her gaze drifted back to the dog. Kay began to say something, then suddenly stopped. She looked hard, then blinked and looked again. That was no dog. It looked more like a cat. Kay stiffened. She felt uneasy. This black creature had round ears and a long tail that curved at the end and swayed back and forth like a lion’s as it walked.
That creature is ignoring me as if I’m not here, Kay thought, but I’m sure it knows that I am.
Kay slowly walked toward the outside door. Feeling spooky, she glanced over her shoulder. There crouched along the side of a table lay another one of those mysterious black creatures. Kay stifled a scream and dashed out the door.
As the door slammed shut, the two creatures leaped through the screen, tearing it, and ran around the back of the greenhouse toward the hollow.
Just as Fay stepped out onto the porch with a dish pan of water to throw on the flowers, Rover rushed past the porch, barking furiously.
Fay’s gaze followed the dog. Seeing the two fleeing creatures, and her sister standing by the front of the greenhouse, Fay asked, “What is going on?”
“Hear that?” Kay asked. “The coyotes are yipping now. I wonder why they are so worked up?”
“Well, what were those creatures?” Fay wanted to know.
“I want to know too,” Kay replied. “They were in the greenhouse!”
Thinking the creatures were gone now, Kay entered the building. Going through the store, she quickly closed the door to the greenhouse, glancing behind her to make sure nothing was there.
Examining the greenhouse through the Plexiglas®, Kay began to relax, when suddenly she glimpsed movement at her feet. Looking down, Kay saw another one of those mysterious black creatures lying under the vines hanging from a table.
Kay froze and screamed, holding the latchless door closed with her hand.
When Kay’s scream faded, the huge black mama was standing before her on its hind legs, screaming back at her. Kay shivered and nearly fainted as she looked up into that huge wide-open mouth screaming at her.
When the creature dropped down on all fours, a strip of hair six inches wide stood straight up all along her back. Then she turned and fled out the back of the greenhouse to join the others—were they her offspring?
Old Jim, a neighbor passing the Yoder lane, heard the screams and turned in to investigate. Seeing a black creature fleeing across the lawn, he took after it with his four-wheeler.
When the creature stopped to take a look at its pursuer, Old Jim waved his hat and yelled, “Hey! Get going!” until the creature leaped into the cornfield.
The twins were waiting for Jim when he returned. “What was it?” Kay stammered, still shaking in fright.
“A panther,” Jim exclaimed. “A black panther!”
“You mean there are panthers here in Wisconsin?” Fay asked in disbelief.
“Oh, yes,” Jim said. “Deer hunters sometimes find half-eaten deer carcasses hanging in trees, which is a panther’s work.
“The other day a man told me he saw a cougar chasing a deer across a field. When they came to a pasture fence, the deer jumped over and so did the cougar. On the other side of the fence, the cougar sat down to look things over. Soon it jumped back out and went another direction. But that was a brown cougar.”
“Well, these three were all black,” Kay informed.
“What!” Jim exclaimed. “Did you say three?” He listened dumbfounded as Kay told him her story.
“Well, I declare,” Jim said. “God must have been watching over you!”
“God surely was,” Kay agreed. “But I am scared to go back in there,” she admitted.
“I’ll go in and take a look around,” Jim offered.
Kay smiled appreciatively.
As they entered the building, Fay exclaimed, “Such a mess! Who did this!?” They stood staring at the empty granola bags scattered over the floor.
“Looks to me,” Jim said, “that the panthers tore open the bottoms of the bags and shook out the granola, then ate it off the floor.”
“Y, you m, mean,” Kay stammered, “the panthers walked in through the open part of the greenhouse and ate the granola in the store, then wandered back to where I was working without me hearing them?”
“Panthers have soft, padded paws,” Jim explained. “Normally their claws are retracted like a house cat’s, and they can walk almost noiselessly.”
“The first one I saw,” Kay said, “was walking along beside that table, pretending I wasn’t here. It stood taller than the table.”
Reaching into his pocket, Jim pulled out a measuring tape. “That would make the panther about twenty-seven to thirty inches tall, which would be about the right height. Panthers are around five or six feet long and can weigh a hundred pounds or more.”
“When I glanced behind me, there was another one crouched on the ground beside that table,” Kay pointed. “The third panther was lying under those vines. When I screamed, that cat jumped up and stood on its hind legs and screamed at me!”
“The cat might have been as scared of you as you were of it,” Jim said. “The Plexiglas® between you probably confused it. Just thank God it left.”
“I don’t think there are any more panthers in here,” Jim stated after searching every corner of the greenhouse. “I’d better be on my way. My wife is probably wondering where I am.”
As the sisters cleaned up the mess, Kay said, “This reminds me of God sending an angel to shut the lions’ mouths.”
“Yes, God protected you like He protected Daniel,” Fay agreed.
Editor’s note: Panther, cougar, and puma are all names for the mountain lion found in many states. There has been much debate about black panthers. There is not a distinct species for black panthers. The term is used to describe melanistic jaguars (in the Americas) or leopards (in Africa and Asia). Melanism in jaguars is caused by a dominant gene. If both parents are melanistic, there is a 75% chance the offspring will also be.
All of these cats are solitary. A female with cubs is an exception to this, and her cubs may stay with her two years. It is our opinion the female in this story had two offspring with her, even if all three appeared to be adults.
Whether or not there are wild populations of panthers, there is always the possibility that escapees from zoos or even illegal private sources can contribute to rare sightings.
Some years ago, three tigers were found in a live-haul trailer about twenty-five miles from us. Imagine the stories told had those animals gotten out! My conservation officer neighbor said that when he and his partner were beside that trailer, one of the animals roared, and his fellow officer was about to jump out of his patent leather shoes.
Friends of ours had a cougar attack a deer by their house in Onego, West Virginia. I have a plaster mold of its footprint. It is larger than my closed fist.
Just because official status is that a cougar or panther does not exist in a given area does not rule out incidental sightings.