Old guy joke

Rico says his friend Kelley sends along this one:

An old dog, a German Shepherd, starts chasing rabbits and, before long, discovers he's lost. Wandering about, he notices a panther heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch. The German Shepherd thinks: "Oh, oh! I'm in deep shit now!" Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the panther is about to leap, the old dog exclaims loudly: "Boy, that was one delicious panther! I wonder, if there are any more around here?"
Hearing this, the young panther halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. "Whew!," says the panther, "That was close! That old German Shepherd nearly had me!"
Meanwhile, a squirrel, who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the panther. So, off he goes. The squirrel soon catches up with the panther, spills the beans, and strikes a deal for himself with the panther.
The young panther fu,rious at being made a fool of, says: "Here, squirrel, hop on my back and watch what happens to that conniving canine!"
Now, the old German Shepherd sees the panther coming with the squirrel on his back and thinks, "What am I going to do now?" but, instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old German Shepherd says: "Where's that squirrel? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another panther!"

The moral of this story?
Don't mess with the old dogs, because age and skill will beat youth and treachery every time.

(Rico says he knows, the line is traditionally old age and treachery beats youth and skill, but this is a different joke... )