Phantom Felids Roam the Country…Still Whether you call them Phantom Panthers, Black Panthers, Mystery Felids, or Mystery Cats, sightings and reports from North America’s Midwest and East continue to roll in. The Associated Press’ Jim Suhr, with a dateline out of Carbondale, Illinois has written a good summary article of recent happenings. Carbondale was my old stomping grounds in 1965-1969, when I was being educated as an undergraduate Saluki, at Southern Illinois University. It was a hot spot from which to study reports of cryptid felines back then, so there’s no reason to think it would change now, what, forty years later! It sounds like folks need to be reminded again that these sightings have been going on for a long time. Suhr’s article begins with the Kenny Tharp find last December near New Boston, Illinois, of a dead 98-pound cougar and goes from there. It is a good survey.