Zach: Big Cats Redux
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Zach,
Check it out: DNA evidence of a cougar in Louisiana in 2002. This is not only just five miles from where I live, but on the same lake as the story I related from when I was a late-teenager in the other thread:http://www.dailyworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070114/SPORTS/701140333/1006
Agreed, you gotta take some of them with a grain (or a pound) of salt. It was kinda strange: After our discussion here, I wrote my weekly newspaper column last Wed. on my encounter with the big cat (I don’t want to call it a panther anymore, I think that was just Indian/Cajun interpretation of the true animal) then my girlfriend told me about reading this in a more recent magazine in Louisiana. I did an Internet search and found this earlier reference.
Rest assured, my attention to my surroundings will be much more keen when in the basin…and my Nikon will be close by!
It won’t be long before you will have to back your chair up to a wall to keep a Cougar from jumping you from behind and biting your neck while your sipping your Pinot Noir on your deck. The animals are taking their territory back. Watch Out!
Stouff you a Harry Middleton fan? I’ve read all his books that I could get my hands on. A few of his titles are sadly out of print.
Stouff you a Harry Middleton fan? I’ve read all his books that I could get my hands on. A few of his titles are sadly out of print.
Everything but “Rivers of Memory” and “Starlight Creek Angling Society” is on my shelf in hardback AND paperback for loaners. 🙂
Our esteemed host doesn’t share our opinion of Harry ;), but to me he’s among the finest writers of any genre, not just fly fishing memoirs.
I got these pics the other day of a Caney Fork Black Cougar. ;D The pics kinda suck because it was so far away but they’re still good enough to see what’s going on.
http://www.trophyfishingtn.com/coppermine/displayimage.php?album=34&pid=749&slideshow=5000
Harry was a great writer! He had a fair bit of misfortune in his life and I think it finally killed him. The Bright Country is a tough read. The Earth Is Enough and The Spine Of Time are my favorites. Harry worked for Southern Living for a while until they fired him and I think thats when the wheels kind of started coming off.
“…the old men fished for many reasons, I suppose, but angling gave them no greater reward than solitude… No other bounty they had known matched these moments of quiet during which they desperately tried to smuggle themselves, in spirit if not in body, back into the natural world, the place where they were most at ease, truly at home.”
–Harry Middleton, “The Earth is Enough”
He certainly had a hard time of it, and yes, I think it led to his demise when his heart failed. Of course, many people believe he committed suicide, but that’s an urban myth arisen from his battles with depression, he died of a heart attack:
Birmingham News (AL)
July 30, 1993
DEATHS
Section: Obits
Page: 4-01Article Text:
Harry Middleton, writer, restaurant reviewer, dies at 43
Harry Middleton – a writer whose work brought him more fame and friends than fortune – died Wednesday of an apparent heart attack. He was 43.
Mr. Middleton’s work included seven books, the latest of which is due for publication from Simon and Schuster in early August; stories for The New York Times, Field & Stream and Smithsonian; articles for Southern Living, Progressive Farmer and Southern Accents; and, since April, restaurant reviews for The Birmingham News.
But his success never brought wealth, and in recent years, Mr. Middleton earned his living at a series of odd jobs.
His love of the outdoors was evident in the titles of some of his books: The Earth is Enough, Rivers of Memory, The Starlight Creek Angling Society and On the Spine of Time. The new book, The Bright Country, is Mr. Middleton’s memoir of his struggle to regain his balance after losing his job. An advance review from Publisher’s Weekly says the “unusual volume is beautifully written.”
After college – he was an English major at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La., and earned a master’s degree in Western history at Louisiana State University – Mr. Middleton lived in New Orleans, where he wrote about food, art, music and books for Figaro, an alternative newspaper. He moved to Birmingham eight years ago to work for Southern Progress. His first novel was published in 1989.
“If you want to know the best about Harry, know what he wrote,” said John Logue, now retired from Southern Progress, where he was creative director. “The thing he was meant to do, he has already done, and that’s his books.
“Harry was a contradiction: On the one hand, he was the kind of guy you’d love to go fishing with, although I never did; on the other hand, he could be fairly hostile about anyone editing his work. It meant that much to him.”
Memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Bluff Park United Methodist Church, with burial in Jefferson Memorial Gardens South.
Survivors are his wife, Mrs. Marcy Middleton; sons, Travis and Sean Middleton; father, Harry Frederick Middleton, Scottsdale, Ariz.; sister, Mrs. Donna Middleton Bates; grandparents, Mrs. Rose Middleton, Shreveport, La., and Travis Jones, Arkansas.
Copyright (c) 1993 Birmingham News
I got these pics the other day of a Caney Fork Black Cougar. ;D The pics kinda suck because it was so far away but they’re still good enough to see what’s going on.
http://www.trophyfishingtn.com/coppermine/displayimage.php?album=34&pid=749&slideshow=5000
Dang it Mike–I’m pretty sure that’s a Caney Chocolate Panther. You need to get your ID book out and check it again.
By the way, I can almost hear that rabbit squeal from here. You ever call coyotes up with a rabbit squeal call?
Ha ha Ron. At first I wasn’t so sure whether the Mink was killing the Rabbit or just practicing a little Karma Sutra Mink Style.
I’m still not sure the Rabbit didn’t just die from shock. I mean it is Mink mating season after all.
John, I agree, “Earth is Enough” would be a great movie, if handled correctly. It could be terrible if not. 🙁
“The Bright Country” is indeed tough, but it intrigues and fascinates me because of one thing: All the toil and misery Harry was going through, and his sole, all-enveloping solace was wild water and wild trout. I think I know how that feels. I think many of us do. I think the “bright country” was not only the medicine the doc finally found to hold Harry’s depression at bay for a time, it was also sunlight sparkling on gin-clear streams, and the clarity he felt when in those lands.
Ah, Harry. We hardly knew you. 🙁
Being as we’re part of the Great Internet Fly Fishermen/Cougar Watchmen Association, I thought I’d knock together a few links here for people interested in this topic to peruse:
First, this thread.
Second, our original thread:
http://www.itinerantangler.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1171488488/0
Third, Byron Begley’s Little River Outfitters (recent sightings!) thread:
http://littleriveroutfitters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7903
(Also includes discussion of coyote and red wolf sightings in the Smokies, including by your truly.)
Finally, Fly Fishing Arkansas’ thread, including a sighting by Davy Wotton at Bull Shoals Tailwater:
(Thanks to Rusty Garoutte for that link.)
Enjoy,
Zach
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