Greg Tinsley | October 23, 2009
The next one is more recent and considerably more believable…. in its own astonishing way. FYI, the area where this tom was presumably killed is an out-of-the-way reach of brushy plains approximately 170 miles west of Fort Worth. The note with the pictures read:
Look at what James Snipe hit with his car on County Road 328 north of Swenson, Texas in Stonewall County. The lion was still alive but unable to move, so our neighbor called animal control and they came and put him down.
A landowner had seen this one a week before dragging off a 320 lb steer. A neighbor is an amateur taxidermist and he's going to stuff him. This one weighed 260 lbs. while most mature males mountain lions weigh 80 to 150 lbs.
We had no idea they still roamed around here!
The answer is... they don't, really. Rare, indeed, even if you overlook the toadzilla nature of the animal's body. But who can to say? Maybe the cat came up out of the Big Bend country and fell into a few good years of Texas sheep and goats. Or perhaps is was taken in Idaho and someone made up the part about it being hit by a car up near Dallas. One thing is sure... it's a very big kitty according to the images.
