The subject of big cats is one I'm not terribly interested in, so I forgot about this story until yesterday.
Many years ago I lived in a suburb outside of Houston, and at that time I worked at LaMadeleine (french restaurant). An old woman worked there with me, both she and her husband lost all their retirement money in an emu farm, and so even though she was in her 60s she was working at a restaurant.
I used to ask her all these questions about her emu farm, and once she told me this strange story.
She said once she heard her dogs outside sounding very agitated, so she went outside with a gun thinking that maybe prowlers were out there. The emus and ostriches were extremely expensive so they were very protective over them.
Anyway, she stepped outside and in her yard she saw a gigantic black panther and it had one of the emus by the neck. She raised the gun but she was paralyzed with fear, and for some reason she could not shoot it. She didn't know why she didn't shoot it, because each emu costs thousands of dollars and she would not willingly let an animal carry one away. But she just stood there frozen as the panther easily carried the emu over the fence, which was 7 feet tall.
There are a lot of weird things about this story. First of all, there is no area around us for a black panther to live, as far as we know. The area around Houston is extremely flat, and additionally there are no forests large enough to contain huge panthers. From what I've read, just one panther needs several miles of territory.
Also, these emus are really large and able to defend themselves, so she was shocked to see this panther so easily kill it and carry it over the fence. Apparently they used to have a shorter fence and one of the emus managed to leap over it. The husband chased it down the street, and when he tried to catch it the emu tore his stomach up with its claws.
Not to mention the fact that black panthers are not native to North America.
Anyway, it was interesting due to the strangeness of seeing a black panther in Houston, and also her strange reaction when she was unable to shoot it.
Many years ago I lived in a suburb outside of Houston, and at that time I worked at LaMadeleine (french restaurant). An old woman worked there with me, both she and her husband lost all their retirement money in an emu farm, and so even though she was in her 60s she was working at a restaurant.
I used to ask her all these questions about her emu farm, and once she told me this strange story.
She said once she heard her dogs outside sounding very agitated, so she went outside with a gun thinking that maybe prowlers were out there. The emus and ostriches were extremely expensive so they were very protective over them.
Anyway, she stepped outside and in her yard she saw a gigantic black panther and it had one of the emus by the neck. She raised the gun but she was paralyzed with fear, and for some reason she could not shoot it. She didn't know why she didn't shoot it, because each emu costs thousands of dollars and she would not willingly let an animal carry one away. But she just stood there frozen as the panther easily carried the emu over the fence, which was 7 feet tall.
There are a lot of weird things about this story. First of all, there is no area around us for a black panther to live, as far as we know. The area around Houston is extremely flat, and additionally there are no forests large enough to contain huge panthers. From what I've read, just one panther needs several miles of territory.
Also, these emus are really large and able to defend themselves, so she was shocked to see this panther so easily kill it and carry it over the fence. Apparently they used to have a shorter fence and one of the emus managed to leap over it. The husband chased it down the street, and when he tried to catch it the emu tore his stomach up with its claws.
Not to mention the fact that black panthers are not native to North America.
Anyway, it was interesting due to the strangeness of seeing a black panther in Houston, and also her strange reaction when she was unable to shoot it.
