Sightings make life interesting around Alton area
July 21st, 2008, 3:00 pm · 1 Comment · posted by dbrannan
It seems as of late we have been busy chasing cougar or panther or whatever-the-cat-is sightings around the region.
We had another one come in last week from an area woman who spotted some paw prints near her work. We will write about this soon. We have been trying to verify with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources whether or not a cell phone photograph shows the paw prints of a large cat or something else.
I talked to a local public relations person this week and she claims she saw something of this nature a few years back. For a long period of time, she said she thinks people thought she was imagining the creature, but now she feels some validation that what she saw actually might have been a large black cat of some type.
It seems to me that we have had too many sightings for something not to be going on out there, but who knows.
I encourage residents to take a photograph or videotape any large black cats you happen to come across, of course staying enough distance to avoid any harm.
I also urge people to send us the photographs and videos and to contact the Telegraph news editors at (618) 463-2576, (618) 463-2515 at night or (618) 463-2560 during the day if you happen to see the fleeting black cat in the region. The only way we will prove there is such a thing is to get the right photograph or video.
If you see anything, I also encourage you to contact the local authorities.
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:11 am
This idea is not far-fetched at all. Cougars used to live here a long time ago and flourished until we humans pushed them out. It’s only a matter of time before they come back. Their habitat stretches as far south as South America and as far north as Alaska. I say, come on back, kitties.