When I was a teenager I was cycling alone, up a pretty country lane, rural part of the Midlands. I’d cycled this route many times. It was school holidays, around noon, sunny, I was relaxed and enjoying the weather. Day dreaming a bit. There were trees on both sides, as the hill steepened they thinned out a bit on my right but it was still cool and shady.
As I cycled uphill I suddenly felt very uneasy. No reason to be. Just a feeling of wariness from nowhere. I stopped, listened to check no car was coming towards me, no other cyclist (I couldn’t see over the brow of the hill). I actually got off my bike and walked, looking into the trees but saw nothing odd. Heard only the sound of crickets, birds and my own breathing.
As I reached the top of the hill I felt even more uneasy. Then to my left, at the roadside, was a dead deer. I assumed roadkill. Recently killed, there was blood trickling away from the carcass. I remember it’s glassy eye was wide open.
The deer freaked me out, so I hurried past, got back on my bike and was poised to cycle fast downhill, when I heard a loud hissing behind me. I was about 5m from the carcass. I looked around and this enormous black animal slunk out of the ditch on my right. I swear it was a black leopard or panther. It crossed the road, sort of keeping its body low to the ground like it was crouching. It had a long tail and long skinny body, but it moved like a cat. Broad, flat head. It passed the deer carcass, never taking its eyes off me, paused then disappeared into the trees.
I was so shocked I just stood there, one foot on the pedal. Then the fear returned and I cycled as fast as I could the last couple of miles to home.
My parents didn’t believe me at first, but I was so sure I’d seen a panther my dad drove us to the spot that evening. No deer carcass just bloodstains where it had been, and blood on the grass around the trees. He and my brother got out and looked around for a bit but there was no sign of the cat. They found the deer carcass further into the trees and said it was half eaten, bite wounds on its neck and covered in flies.
There were no other sightings of a panther in our area but my dad said he’d seen a similar big cat about 15 years earlier, down in Cornwall.
I often wonder how I knew there was danger over that hill. I think our subconscious sometimes picks up on tiny cues. The birds were singing and chattering loudly as I cycled up that hill, like they warn each other when a domestic cat is around, maybe I subconsciously registered that sound as unusual? Maybe the smell of blood carried down to me and triggered fear? Maybe I heard the hissing earlier but didn’t think anything of it? Had the panther been watching me, stalking me even, as I cycled up the hill?
I think our senses are always alert to danger even if we don’t understand what the danger is. A strange noise, smell, movement in the trees half glimpsed, something out of place, our brain notices even if we’re oblivious.
Maybe the lady who was afraid to go down to the canal that day sensed something was wrong, out of place? An unfamiliar sound/smell/sense of being watched?