An Odd Story - Part III

And now to connect parts I and II...

(Do not read unless you've read the first two...you'll appreciate it more)

This friend of Bob's took Don out in to the hall to tell him something odd that happened to Bob and gave him a phobia of large cats.

This friend (we'll call him Jim) worked at Wal-Mart distribution with Bob. Jim liked Bob, though Bob had it within him to get on a person's nerves if he set his mind to it. Bob had bugged Jim for several weeks that he really wanted to go hunting with him. As a way of adding the pressure, Bob went and bought his own equipment. He bought hunting clothes to wear, some various supplies, and a brand new rifle. With all this constant begging, Jim decided to give Bob a chance, and so they picked a date to go hunting together.

On the day of the hunt, Bob got all his new equipment together, and went very early in the morning to the woods with Jim. Jim had intentions of going in a certain direction, and pointed where he thought Bob should go to start looking for a place to settle and hunt.

Not long after this, Bob came running back to their meeting point as fast as he could. He was pale and shivering, and he had none of his equipment with him. He was so hysterical he could hardly speak. Jim finally got him calmed down enough to tell him what had happened. Bob's story was something like this:

'After you pointed me where to go, I went a little ways out into the woods, when I realized that I needed to relieve myself. So I found a pretty large tree, got up next to it, and squatted to take care of business. I didn't know it, but there was a panther up in this tree that I hadn't seen. When I squatted down, that panther jumped down and attacked me! The sound it made chills me to the bone when I think about it...That panther was screaming just like a woman when it attacked me! I ran off as fast as I could, and managed to escape.'

Jim asked, "But what about your stuff? Did you at least get your rifle?" Bob said, "I was too busy running for my life to even worry about it. I don't care what happened to my stuff."

At this point, Don was able to put the pieces of this puzzle together, and had a nice laugh. No one ever bothered to tell Frank's wife or Bob what had actually happened.