Wayne County's own Loch Ness Monster has been sighted again, this time on lonely Trotter's Mountain near Sherman. And, paralleling Nessie's unique and warm relationship with her Scottish Highland neighbors, northeastern PA's oft-sighted, never-confirmed mountain lion family is fast becoming a popular visitor in our neck of the woods.
"I thought they were pretty cute," enthuses Bethann Holbert, Susquehanna, describing her recent close encounter with the creatures. "I kind of wished they'd have stayed around longer, but they just scooted across the road and into the trees."
As a few other residents have reported, the mysterious animal wasn't alone. Two pale, small cubs followed their mother's silent shadow.
"They looked kind of like big giant housecats. Not fat, just solid and big. They had light golden yellowish fur and really long tails."
The mother, Mrs. Holbert reported, appeared to be 80-90 pounds, or about the size of a large dog.
She also speaks with great authority on the physical characteristics of similar animals.
"I thought, the only other thing this could be was a bobcat. But bobcats have the short tails, and they're a grayish color."
This precise description is rooted in Mrs. Holbert's deep, personal familiarity with the wildlife around her mountain home.
"Right outside our back door is a few thousand acres of Pennsylvania state gameland. We've got bears, deer, skunks, porcupine, all kinds of animals running around. On our front porch is a big picture window, and we've seen bears through it. Once a bear on our front porch sat down with his feet on the door."
Prosaic descriptions of natural encounters that would have most people running for the nearest Starbucks are just another part of the Holbert's natural lifestyle. Mrs. Holbert, along with her husband Lothar, and their three children, Julius, 9, Joseph, 7, and Hannah, 5, know well how to treat their furry, toothy neighbors, and rarely feel fear of them.
"If I'm nervous, I'll make my husband take out the garbage. The kids play outside all the time, they know to stay away from an animal that is acting wrong - a nocturnal animal out in the day, something like that.
"My husband is especially into conservation, and he's teaching the children."
The entire Holbert family is clearly passionate about animals - when Mrs. Holbert met the mountain lions, she was on her way home to feed her fish. As soon as her surreal sighting was over, she was right on the phone to her children, who were staying with their grandmother at the time.
"I said to them, 'the mountain lions are coming your way!' But they never saw them. It took me fourteen years to see one."
Unconfirmed sightings of large animals are a common phenomenon, with certain animals - such as Nessie or her equally famous Badlands counterpart, Bigfoot - being sighted multiple times in a certain area. These creatures are called cryptids, after the branch of study, cryptozoology, concerned with them.
Northeastern Pennsylvania's cryptid lion story, however, parallels most closely that of a famously elusive big cat from the wilds of England, called the Beast of Bodmin Moor. While British scientists assert that there are no large feral cats in England, sightings there persist. The Pennsylvania Game Commission also continually reassures the public that no mountain lions remain in the wild, but such dry facts have rarely interfered with the creation of a legend - or the telling and retelling of a good story.
Only time will tell if conclusive proof of the "Beasts of NEPA" will be found. But for now, Mrs. Holbert is convinced, and her encounter has left her moved, if a bit frustrated. For Mrs. Holbert's story ends on the same note of disappointment shared by so many after their encounters with the weirder side of nature:
"I only wish I'd gotten a good photo. I had the camera with me and everything...they just disappeared too fast."
Mountain Lion Report Northeast Pennsylvania
Mountain Lion Report Northeast Pennsylvania
