re: How often do you believe someone when they say they saw a Cougar in SE Louisiana?

Never saw a cougar, but I positively without a doubt saw a black panther in the late 90’s in Darlington La in my old hunting club....a distance of 30yds, positive without a doubt would swear on my children at eye level at that...I still get goosebumps thinking about it. Scouting, walking a creek in the sand, get to a bend and see a heavily used deer trail...banks are about 12’ high so I parallel the trail and start climbing up to find a suitable tree to climb next to the thicket....when my head crests, he’s there at 30 yds in a crouch position, he shits his fur and cuts a 180 and starts heading toward the thicket....I got weak and had to collect myself before moving on. I was relatively new to the club and really didn’t want to say anything cause it would sound crazy....when I did say something, they were all like, yeah, we see those here! Like it was nothing....I was like WTF?