WATCHED IT TWICE Tori LaVelle (left) said she saw a dark-colored cougar Saturday night while driving down Cottage Road north of Blackstone. The photo above is one she found on the internet and said it closely resembles what she saw. Tori said she was so convinced that it was a mountain lion, she turned her car around and watched it a second time
A Nottoway County woman says she’s certain she saw a mountain lion (cougar) late Saturday night on Cottage Road about four miles north of Blackstone.
Tori LaVelle says it was no ordinary cougar because it was black in color.
Tori, 22 was driving home at approximately 11 p.m. when she saw the animal which she said resembled a black panther.
“It was a slim, long black animal with long tail,” she told the Courier-Record. “It crossed Cottage Road in front of my car. I slowed down to process what I had seen while I called Dad. I told him it was too slim to be a bear, too dark to be a deer, not nearly as fluffy as a coyote, and too slim to be a cow. I turned around and drove back by the field slowly, and confirmed it was a slim black animal but I could not identify more than that.”
Tori took video footage with her cell phone and shared it with the Courier-Record. While the late night lighting is poor, the video shows a silhouette of what appears to be a long-tailed, cat-like animal. Image quality is not sufficient for quality publication.
Tori’s sighting occurred in farmer John Shepherd’s field between the historic home “Windrow” and home of Tom & Sandi Forrester. “I saw it for about five minutes between driving by it initially and then turning around and seeing it again.”
Tori says she’s taken some kidding by skeptics but she’s certain what she saw.
Tori LaVelle, 22, is the daughter of Jeff & Beverly Flynn LaVelle of rural Nottoway. She’s a senior at Virginia Tech. where she’s studying Crop and Soil Science. She works at Sundae’s Restaurant in Crewe when she’s home and also is a Summer intern at the Southern Piedmont Agricultural Research & Extension Center.
The Courier-Record has been reporting local cougar sightings for the past 20 years. One indisuputable image was captured on trail cam in the Rehoboth area of Lunenburg in Fall 2013 and published weeks later in the Courier. A farmer in that area had lost several goats, and cameras were set-up and identified the feline culprit.
Some residents, including Fort Pickett employees, in the early 2000s reported seeing a black or dark grey mountain lion on base near West Entrance Road and Military Road.
The Courier-Record in 2021 covered a rash of reported cougar sightings along Little Creek Road and Bible Road. In April 2017, Mike and Kathy Shreck reported seeing a mountain lion cross Piney Green Road at 10:15 a.m. A month later, Darrell Lott of Deep Creek Road reported seeing a mountain lion at 2:00 p.m. one afternoon.
In November 2021, Linda Abbott of Little Creek Road — a Missouri native who had seen cougars in that state — reported seeing a cougar cross Deep Creek Road in front of her vehicle at 10:00 a.m. one morning.
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