John James Audubon, The Cougar, c. 1846 (Public domain)
In high school, a friend who lived on Steege Hill told me a story: one night, watching television with his mother, they heard an unearthly cry outside in the dark. His mother gestured for quiet. The banshee wail, she told him, was a panther.
“Listen closely,” she said. “You won’t likely ever hear that again.”