I've said this in another post, but I DID kill one as a young teenager in Dale County. My little terrier used to tree all kinds of stuff behind our house and, around the swamp I grew up next to. One night my parents were gone and she treed something right behind the house over a small creek that drained into the swamp. As usual, I grabbed my gun and a head lamp (grew up coon hunting), and headed out expecting to find a coon or possum. The tree was leaning at about 45 degrees and about 10 to 15 feet off the ground there was a huge cat. It had spots like a bobcat, but was significantly larger. It also had a long tail with rings around it. Being a kid and wanting to put my hands on it, I shot it. I took it home and put it in our deepfreezer. My dad would've killed me if he'd found out I killed that thing. The next day, a friend of mine came by to see it. He took it to his stepdad who was supposedly going to have it mounted. None of us had any idea what it was. We just knew it was way too big to be a bobcat and had tail that was as long as the cat itself. Later, as an adult, I saw a special on lions on tv. It was showing the juveniles have spots, and it was then obvious to me what I'd killed.