I do think that the workman here who are installing new power poles along the eastern edge of our property must have disrupted Mr. Owl’s usual perch. I’ve never seen this guy before, even though I’ve heard the owls calling from time to time. I hope I see him again. He was amazing. I called a neighbor to warn her because she has 2 very small dogss that could be carried away quite easily. Her dogs are called Hava-Malts — a cross between a Maltese and a Havanese. Wouldn’t last a minute with your “panther”.
I read a book about the early days of TX when I lived there, and the early setlers called those big cats panthers.
You know what Ogden Nash wrote about panthers, don’t you?
“When called by a panther
Don’t anther.”
I saw a red-tailed hawk grab a fair-sized rabbit right up out of a clearing in the woods once-I can just imagine what an owl could do to a toy dog...
You bet your ass I’m not going to answer the mountain lion-bikers and hikers in California and Colorado get eaten sometimes. Hasn’t happened in Texas, but who wants to be first?
This particular cougar/panther/mountain lion is responsible for the demise of several dogs-including a 70+ pound standard poodle-whose owners did not heed warnings from the game warden to keep their pets in a fence or indoors-the kitty is a protected species here-the dogs are not...
I remember that poem from childhood-a panther is just like a leopard, except that it hasn’t been peppered...