Byline: Al J. Laukaitis
"BIG CAT" SIGHTINGS MYSTIFY STERLING
STERLING - A teen-age girl has the creature's snarl on tape, and others
have heard the sound at night.
Several people have seen it around town near the ballpark. One woman
even claims to have seen it near a horse corral from her kitchen window.
But no one has been able to get a good close look at the animal to
identify it. And game wardens have been unable to find any tracks. Call
it the mystery of the Big Cat.
"I can't believe somebody hasn't shot it or seen it up close," said Jim
Scott, owner of Scott's Place, a cafe and bar in this small community
about 40 miles southest of Lincoln. Scott was referring to the large cat
some residents claim to have seen around town since spring. He won't say
if the animal is a cougar or mountain lion - only that it weighs about
80-90 pounds and has a long tail.
"It ain't a bobcat." said Scott when queried BÁby a reporter. Scott said
he got within 20 feet of the cat last summer near the ballpark with a
flashlight, but didn't get a good look at the animal. Other residents
have reported seeing a big cat in the same area.
"A couple people north of town saw it. These ain't drinking people
either," Scott said.
Lois Schmidt, who lives on the north edge of town, saw it at 4:39 p.m.
Dec. 2 from her kitchen window. Schmidt said she looked outside because
their horse was going crazy and saw the large cat running by.
"It was pretty good size, too," she said. "It wasn't a dog. It wasn't a
deer. It wasn't a bobcat. It loped. It definately had a lope to it." She
described the cat as being about 3 feet tall and having tawny fur, but
does not recall it having a long tail. "Everybody asks about that,"
she added.
Schmidt said some residents believe there may even be a den of cats
because they have reported seeing small and large ones. Some people
believe the cats have made a home somewhere along Tickle Tail Creek.
"I'm a believer. There's one around. I know because I saw it,"
Schmidt said. Scott's teen-age daughter Angela, recorded the cat's
snarl on tape, but when she played it for some employees of the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission they couldn't identify it.
So far the alleged cat is not known to have killed any dogs or cats or
other small animals in town, according to Scott. He believes the animal
is somewhat tame and may have even been someone's pet at one time. Frank
Andelt, a non-game and fur bearer biologist with the commission,
said the agency received numerous reports of a large cat in the Sterling
area last spring, but when employees went out to investigate they
could not find any tracks.
Andelt said the local town marshal reportedly saw the animal through a
rifle scope. However, he said, the agency has not received any reports
of a large cat in the town recently. Cougars or mountain lions were
common to in Nebraska before the state was settled by pioneers. Since
then their numbers have dwindled and sightings have become quite rare.
In 1991 a hunter shot a mountain lion near Crawford in the Panhandle. It
was the first such animal to be killed in at least 100 years, a
commission employee said. Andelt said the commission received a report
this fall of a mountain animal in the Stamford area near the Harlan
County Reservoir in south-central Nebraska.
"Supposedly, an animal took some sheep from a rancher," he said.
Control workers went out to investigate, and it was determined that the
killings could have been done by a mountain lion, Andelt said.
There also was a report of a mountain lion in the Wildcat Hills area
near Scottsbluff last week, he said.
Date: 12/15/94