At a A. Hey, everyone, thanks so much for joining us for
this special livestream episode of dog Mean Encounters Radio. For tonight, we're going
to welcome back a special guest. Of course, I'm talking about Mike from
episode five O four. If you remember, Mike came on that episode and
talked about a very traumatic encounter you had with a dog man up on Beer
Mountain in Connecticut. It was, like I said, an extremely traumatic experience
for him. On that episode of the show. He talked about what happened
when he had that experience, and that's good. But unfortunately, since that
episode aired, some very unfortunate things have happened to them. But of course
we're going to get into that tonight and there'll be plenty of time for Mike
the answer any questions you might have for him. But without any further ado,
let's bring Mike on here now. Mike, thanks so much for coming
back. Thank you, VIC. I appreciate your patience and I appreciate you
giving me the chance to come back on. I know I was supposed to
do it the very next week, but a lot of things have happened in
my life since then and in my head since then, so it's taken me
a hot minute, but again I appreciate your patience and I also am grateful
that you brought me back on to finish this. Are You're welcome well as
far as timing goes, when it come to this sort of thing, it's
a simple answer as far as what's the best way to handle it, and
that answer is in your own good time. Like I said, I mean,
it's been so it's such a traumatic experience that you had. If they're
in Beera Mountain, I mean, there's no reason to rush anything. So,
like I said, in your own good time. We're just glad to
have you back to answer some questions about the experience, also to get more
off your chest, and it'll be another good opportunity to see all the support.
I'm not sure if you've noticed all the support that people have been pouring
out after that first episode aired. By the way, well, it actually
it took me about a month. It wasn't until about maybe three days ago,
to be honest, that I actually went on to YouTube and I've read
all the comments, each and every single one of them, and there's like
three hundred something. So I was on there for like two hours, maybe
even three hours, just reading all the comments, and I was not prepared
for that at all, to be quite honest, you know, again,
it took It took me a solid month. It's been about one month since
a little over a month since I first told my story, and I was
just so messed up in the head, and my family life was a little
bit messed up because of it, and so I just I had no intentions
at all of even listening to myself, listening to the broadcast, or or
reading any comments. And it wasn't until about three days ago that I first
found the nerve to go on and to read all the comments, and I
was blown away. A lot of them made me cry, a lot of
them made me giggle, and mostly I felt nothing but love and support,
and I felt like I wasn't alone, And although my children have made me
feel that I'm not alone, just hearing this from strangers, I felt as
if I was in a community that understood that, sure, what happened to
me is not a singular thing, and that many, many, if not
hundreds of people have experienced the same things that I did in that and maybe
even more people have experienced it and have never come forth. Oh sure,
yeah, So many people have encounters with these things that never come forward with
the experience, and for understandable reasons. I mean, if they do come
forward, is you found out yourself, there can be some serious problems that
arise from that. And speaking of that, all right, I know it's
not a cheerful subject to talk about, but let's get into that now.
Please tell us what you've been made to bear since that episode aired. Well,
so when I talked to you and I told my story live stream.
About three days later, I went back down to home to the Roanoke area
in Shenandoah and me and Midnight when back home, uh my wife was in
our end travelers and uh my, my all three of my adult children knew
immediately something was wrong with Midnight and something was wrong with Dad, and uh,
you know, I don't want to I don't want to lay my burdens
on anybody. I try to help people, not not give them worries or
concern, and uh so, you know, I just I bottled it up,
and I bottled it up. But after three or four days, all
three of my adult children noticed that Midnight was acting weird. Dad was acting
weird. And so they finally confronted me, and uh, you know,
these are my kids. So I sat them all down, all three of
them, and they're all adults, eighteen, twenty one, and twenty six,
and you know, I said, Okay, this is what happened to
me. So I relived it again. So not only did I relive it
with the park ranger who got me in touch with you, and then I
relived it with you prior to the show. Then I relived it a third
time on the show, and now I'm reliving it a fourth time with my
children. I explained a little bit to my wife over the phone, but
she's busy and she wasn't really all that interested, and you know, it
was just like, okay, i'll talk to you about it when I get
home kind of thing. And so I had to sit down with my kids
and I explained everything to them word for word. If anything, I probably
even talked longer to my kids than I did with you or anybody else.
And uh, at that point, I remember details that I I didn't remember
from my life broadcast with you because I was so in the moment and it
was just so fresh in my mind that it's like a month later, or
even two weeks later, things are popping into my head like oh, there's
a description I forgot, and then like, oh there's there's a there's a
part of this that I completely just it slipped my mind. So it's almost
like when you're it's almost like what you know, if if you witness a
brutal crime and you're brought in by the police and they ask you to give
a statement if it's happening, you know, if it's that day or the
day after, you're going to give a full, complete description of everything you
remember, and then like three weeks later, you'd be like, oh my
god, my brain is now remembering this thing that I completely forgot about,
and you know, you want to call the police again and be like,
hey, I know I gave you a complete statement, but there's something I
forgot to tell you, and now I got to add that to the statement
kind of thing. I don't know if that makes any sense or not,
but that's kind of how I felt. So all three of my children believe
me one thousand percent. My wife does not at all, zero, negative,
negative, negative, one thousand percent. So my children eventually ended up
calling my wife in Montana and said, hey, midnight's messed up. Dad's
messed up. We don't know why you don't believe him. You know,
we need you to come home. We need you to be here right now
to help support dad. She broke She broke her contract. Now, mind
you, she did not get fired her job, understood. She said she
had a family emergency, and so she had to break her contract and come
back home. She was not happy about it. So she lost money on
that, but she did not lose her job. I'm thankful for that,
just because I wouldn't want anyone losing their job over me. So she lost
money on it, but she didn't lose her job. And so she came
back home and I relived it one last time, and I told her face
to face with my kids. Right there, all all five of us adults
sat down and I relived the story the last time, and she just did
not believe a word of it. No, this thing is were wolves.
No, this thing as a dog man. Uh. She actually came up
with her own word, called coyote guy, right because I kept saying were
wolf. And then my oldest daughter was like, Dad, they called you
know, I've listened to the podcast now that you told me about it.
I have listened to it. They call it a dog man. I'm like,
okay, whatever, dog man. And so my wife now makes fun
of it by saying kyote guy, which, for some weird reason, oh
boy, upsets me. I agree, you know, like, I'm fine
with dog man. I still I'm still going with were wolf, which I
know don't exist, but this damn thing exists. But I know that the
terminology here in the United States of America is dog man, and and so
that is that is what it is. And so she made fun of it
by saying kyote guy. And it was two days after she got back.
Huh oh you cut out there? Are you still there, Mike, Yeah,
I'm here. Can you hear me? Okay, yeah, now we
can. Yeah. Right after you said two days after she got back,
you went silent, So please restart from there. Okay, I'm sorry.
Two days after she got back, she went to the magistrate, our local
magistrate, and she filed for a legal separation. And she came back home
and she presented the legal separation papers to me and said, you have you
have two choices. You could just sign these as an adult, or you
could fight it and then we have to hire lawyers. And take it from
there. And again, you know, I'm a I'm a blue collar professional
chef. I'm a working classman. I can't afford lawyers, I can,
you know I don't. I don't think she can either, And so we
we had a we had another lengthy talk just by ourselves about love, respect,
truth, honesty, and none of that mattered, none of it,
None of it mattered in her eyes. She thinks I'm crazy now. She
thinks I'm on drugs or I have some type of psychosis where my brain is
sing chemicals and I just I went crazy, like overnight kind of thing.
That's that's what she's looking at me as far as a registered nurse. She
thinks I went into some kind of psychopathy and I'm now crazy, and she
doesn't want that in her life. And she just says that she can't handle
it. And so it was either hire a lawyer, which I can't afford
as a blue collar, working class professional chef, or man up and signed
the damn papers. And I asked her to give me a moment, which
was roughly about like an hour. You know, I had a couple of
beers, I calmed down, smoked a cigarette, and I was like,
Okay, if you don't believe me, fine, let's sign the papers.
You don't believe me, You've been with me twenty six years, right,
twenty six years. You've been with me, never lie to you, never
hurt you, never let you down, always there for you and the kids
and the grandkids. And if this is what it comes to and you don't
believe me, absolutely, f the lawyers. I can man up. I'll
sign these papers. So I did, and we are now legally in a
court of law separated. And what I did not know is that when she
actually went to the magistrate to get the legal separation papers, she also asked
for divorce papers, so she has those on hand. In the state of
Virginia, you have to be legally separated for one year before you can file
for divorce. But she went ahead and got the divorce papers anyways, right
then and there when she asked for the legal separation papers. So that tells
me straight off, straight off the bat. That tells me that there's no
reconciliation, there's no possibility of making this workout if she's getting the divorce papers
at the same time she's getting the legal separation papers, and you need a
year of legal separation before you can file for divorce. That tells me that's
her mind is made up, and that's it. And again I had a
long talk with all three of my adult daughters, and thanks to them and
thanks to their love and support of me, because they do believe me one
thousand percent. I talk to them every day on the phone. Because I
no longer lived at the house anymore. With the legal separation required by law,
someone has to vacate the house and it's up to the adults in the
separation to figure that out. And I'm not going to ask my wife to
leave the house. I'm not going to ask my wife to leave the grandkids
and everything. You know, I'm gonna bite the bullet on that. So
before the discussion even happened, I just raised my hand like I'm some dunce
fool in junior high and I said, okay, I raised my hand.
I'll take it. I'll take the bullet, I'll bite I'll bite the knife.
It's fine. And for about two weeks I stayed at a local motel
that does like a weekly rental and it was three hundred dollars a week.
So for it's twelve hundred dollars for this crappy, roach infested, nasty carpet
motel room with a mini fridge in a microwave. There's not even a stove,
there's no burners, there's no oven. It's just a microwave and a
mini fridge and a disgusting room for three hundred a week, which comes out
to twelve hundred a month. That is ridiculous. After two weeks, I
said, no, I'm gonna live in my car. I'm literally just gonna
sleep in my car and live in my car because I'll save twelve hundred a
month. And although I'll probably spend a lot of money eating out at fast
food places and you know, getting ready to eat food at grocery stores and
stuff like that, at least I'll save so much money comparatively then dropping twelve
hundred a month for this nasty, nasty, the uh bug ridden room.
My children are all torn up, but they're they're all torn up about this,
and they're they're very unhappy with their mom right now. Uh she just
signed another contract to go to UH Shreveport, Louisiana. She leaves in one
week, so she won't even be there for the kids, and uh I've
got all the love and support of my three beautiful adult girls, and they
all three of them told me, you know, Dad, you know you
need to focus on yourself. You need to focus on your happiness. And
you know, my oldest daughter actually said, you know, you need to
go out and date. Go go date someone you know, fall in love
again, find find love and happiness again in your life. Dad, you
deserve that. You're a good guy. You know, you have integrity.
You'll take a bullet for anyone. You know, you'll take the shirt off
your back, You'll take the jeans off your pants for anybody. You know,
there's plenty of women out there that would love to have you in their
life and to better their life and for them to better yours. And I'm
like, well what about mom? And my daughter is like, forget about
Mom. She just went and made you sign legal separation papers and then had
back up divorce papers right next to it, just waiting for the year to
end. She's like, Dad, you know, like, wake up,
open your eyes, stop seeing this through a certain filter, and see it
through the filter of our eyes as children. You need to move on.
Mom. Don't believe you, she never will. You're now homeless. We
hate it. We think it's disgusting. There's going to be a big rift
between our love for you and our love for mom. That's not your faults.
That's a completely different animal, nothing to do with you, Dad.
And it was hard for me to hear all this. It was really difficult
to absorb it and to come to terms with it. But on a daily
basis, they're texting me and calling me. All three of my daughters,
eighteen, twenty one, and twenty six, all telling me, you know,
focus on yourself, Dad, that's it, that's you know. Don't
worry about us. Us kids are good, your grandkids are good. We're
going to be fine. As long as you talk to us daily, we're
going to be good. Focus on yourself. Go out, find your happiness,
Try to go camping again. Maybe get a puppy. Because Midnight Midnight
passed away in the past month. I'll get to her burial maybe later,
maybe I won't. I don't know. I don't even know if I'm up
for that. If someone asked me about it, if someone brings it up
in a question, sure I'll answer it, and I'll bring it up at
that point. But Midnight did pass I think due to stress PTSD. She
wasn't the same when she came home, just like I wasn't. And I'm
still not. Obviously, I'm still not normal. I'm kind of a little
weird in the head because of this experience. I mean, I'm as normal
as I ever was. I can still go to work, I can still
do it eight hour day. I can still talk to people like a normal
person. But when I get out of work, the first thing I think
about is yellow eyes and snapping, popping bone sounds and the sound of trees
being ripped down as I'm running. These are the things that immediately come to
my brain as soon as I So when I go to work, I shut
everything out. I shut my family out, I shut my experiences out,
and I just focus on work as a professional chef. That's all I can
do to make a paycheck. But as soon as I clock out and I
leave that door and I'm walking to my car, it all comes back to
me in a rush, a big rush, and it's like I immediately start
having a panic attack because I immediately start hearing those snapping, popping sounds.
I see that enormous head, the grotesque body, and those crashing sounds in
the howls, the howls at the end, which terrified me in midnight for
the umpteenth time that night. And I'm sure that had an effect on Midnight
as well. And unfortunately, unfortunately Midnight passed last week. And it's like
losing your best friend. It's it's like losing one of your soulmates, you
know it is. I won't compare it to losing it. I won't compare
it to like, you know, a parent losing their child. But Midnight
was just as much a part of the family as anybody. And I know
she's just a dog, and people consider dogs to be property. And if
you go to a court of law, the court's like a dog's a property.
It's not a it's not a it's not a family members. It's a
part of your property. It's not a living member of your family. But
anyone who has a dog or a cat or any domesticated pet, no,
that's not true. So it was it was really difficult for my children.
My five year old grandson cried like all day, all day long, because
Midnight and my grandson were just they were the best buds. Like I told
you in that conversation about a week ago. Mike, I'm so sorry to
hear that you're going through all this, and I'm so sorry to hear about
Midnight passing. But Midnight was fifteen years old. Like I told you,
it doesn't make it any easier, but she was a one hundred and twenty
pound fifteen year old dog. I've got no doubt you, being the type
of guy you are, that she lived a life that was just beyond amazing.
So, like I told you in that conversation, Midnight crossed the finish
line. It was definitely a victory. Again, I'm so sorry that she
passed, and you're right, yeah, that is a family member. But
this situation is so much better than you only being able to enjoy her company
for two years than her passing. Again, that doesn't make it easier.
It's still tough, as I'll get out, but I'm so glad having said
that that, Yeah, you were able to spend fifteen solid, good years
with her, showing her an amazing time, an amazing life. So yeah,
just like with everything else here, I really hope you can hang in
there and do the best you can to work through this. Yeah, none
of this is easy to deal with whatsoever. And as far as your wife
goes on that side of this, like I told you in that conversation,
I can appreciate the fact that when you got married to her, you have
these ideas about her and how she was, and she was, like you
told me, the love of your life, and there are so many good
qualities to her, at least you thought. But eventually, even someone like
that who's not who you thought they were, eventually that will be known.
Everything comes out in the wash. Well, unfortunately it took you twenty six
years to have that come out in the wash, but eventually, yeah,
apparently it did come out in the wash. Now, this doesn't make it
any easier to deal with the fact that she's trying to yank the ground out
from underneath you. Doesn't make it any easier at all. But just like
I tell eyewitnesses, to try and focus on encounters for what they really are,
to cut through the chaff and look at the experiences for what they really
were and not for what it's all too easy to make them out to be.
Like I told in that conversation last week, I really hope you focus
on seeing your ex wife or what she really is, and not putting those
rose colored glasses on and getting all sorrowfull because you think about her in ways
that kind of mirror how you look to her when you got married to her
or years ago. When it boils down to it, she's not worth anything.
She really isn't. And I know it doesn't seem like it right now,
but she's actually doing you a favor by revealing her true self to you.
Again, doesn't make all this any easier, but yeah, I mean,
you know the truth now about her. So not only do I want
you to focus on that encounter, the facts of the encounter that happened to
you, so that you don't traumatize yourself any more than necessary by looking at
it in ways that have nothing to do with reality. Like I told you
last week, I want you to continue working on looking at your wife in
this whole situation that she's put you through. Consequently, look at her accurately,
see her true color, and focus on the fact that, yes,
someone who would do what she's done to you, she's not worth wanting to
have in your life. She's not worth wanting to have around at all.
I mean, look at your children, their adults, Like you said,
they've listened to you, lay out on the table what you've been through,
just like your wife did, and all of them they're on your side,
they're not on her side, And for good reason, a well adjusted person
would understand what you've been through and how difficult this has been for you and
not make fun of you and talk about coyote man crap and all that stuff,
make fun of you the way she has. So Yeah, the remedy
to this, it isn't an easy one, but it's a definite one that
is just focusing on the truth again, whether you're talking about your encounter or
her. That's all it's going to take for you to get through this.
Now. On the side of you unfortunately being homeless, now you've got an
email add Like I told you before we recorded the show, when you look
at the reach of dog Me and encounters, I've got no doubts that someone
out there has either a room that they'd be interested in renting you so you're
not homeless anymore, or maybe they own an apartment complex or an apartment building,
or they own a home that they would be interested in renting to you.
If there is anyone out there listening right now who owns a property that
they'd be interested in renting Mike, or even a room that they'd be interested
in renting Mike. There is an email address you can contact Mike at to
let him know about that, so that the two of you can be in
contact so you can work this out. His email address for that would be
Chef Michael Martin, the number seventy four at yahoo dot com. That's chef
Chef Michael Martin, the numbers see four at yahoo dot com. Now,
that would take care of the housing situation. But as far as the funds
go, people have been posting a really good idea about creating a GoFundMe page.
If if we could create a GoFundMe to help you out, would you
be interested in that? Well, I've to be honest, I've I've never
even put any thought into that. I'm very self sufficient, Uh. I
believe that you reap what you sew and hard work gives you a good life.
So I've never I've never really, you know, I have friends where,
you know, like their their mother would get cancer and they would have
a GoFundMe to try to because they can't they can't afford the medical bills.
Or you know, a newlywed couple that has a newborn child that has birth
defects, and the child desperately needs care and attention, and just you know,
being a newlywent couple, you're young people, and you just you don't
make the money to be able to afford that, and they would put up
a GoFundMe. And I've never been in a situation ever in my life where
I've ever had to do that. I've never even the thought never even crossed
my mind. So if you're asking me, would I be okay with it?
I've never been homeless. This is my first time ever in my life,
and it's quite embarrassing, and I feel like less of a person.
I truly, for the first time in fifty years, in fifty years of
breathing the air on this planet, I've never felt so low, so little,
so be little, so tiny. So I feel like the biggest loser
you could possibly imagine. So a part of me wants to say no,
I don't want to gofund me, because if I can't pull myself up by
my bootstraps, then it's not I'm not worth being a human. But at
the same time, I need so much help right now being homeless, then
I kind of want to say yes. So I don't know, Vic,
I don't let me throw something on that. I can understand how you're conflicted
about this, because obviously you're a prideful man and everything. So yeah,
you're feeling this way is totally understandable. But please don't lose sight of the
fact that this is not a situation that you put yourself in. This is
a situation you should have never been put in in the first place. It's
a situation that she put you in due to her being unreasonable. As I'll
get out, in a situation like this, that is not your fault.
It's not if you're doing I mean, there is no shame whatsoever in accepting
help, no shame whatsoever in accepting help. I really think you should heavily
consider having a GoFundMe page opened, and for everyone listening, Mike can go
back and forth on this, but please keep your eyes on the homepage of
Dogman Encounters dot com. Dogman Encounters dot Com. If Mike does decide to
allow a GoFundMe page to be developed created for him, right on that very
first landing page of the show's website, That's where I'm going to post a
link to it so you can help him and help support him again. Mike,
Please remember, if you put yourself in this situation, that'd be one
thing. But like I said, you didn't do anything that made you deserving
of having any of these problems. So I really hope you do heavily consider
saying you know what Vic's right about that there's no shame in asking for help,
especially when you're placed in a dire situation due to no fault of your
own. So I really hope you're going to say yes about that. It's
hard. I know it's hard, and I told you before, don't be
embarrassed whatsoever. I know you're prideful. I mean most of us are,
But don't be embarrassed about crying or needing help or anything like that. You've
got so much to offer, You're so strong to get to this point,
even mean to boot you losing midnight on top of all this, the fact
that you're still here, I mean that says volumes about your strength. I
know at times, because you might be crying about this aspect of it or
that aspect of it, I know at times you're gonna call in the question
just how strong you are. But trust me, when I tell you,
the strength is there, The strength is there. Man, I'm telling you
what you're something else. You're awfully impressive. Don't forget that because that's the
truth. Wow, thank you, Vic. Well, you're welcome, Mike.
We've all needed help, every last one of this have needed help.
I've needed help more than once, and unluckily, I've had great people in
my life that were there to stick out a helping hand. And I mean,
you don't pretty much know anyone. I don't think you know anyone who
hasn't needed help at one time or another. So please don't be too prideful
to accept, to accept a hand up when I hand up is exactly what's
what's needed. So yeah, please heavily consider that. I'm sorry to interrupt
you. Please continue. No, I'm usually, uh, I'm usually the
one lending the helping hand to friends and family and loved ones, so I'm
not I've never had the reverse. I've never. I've never I've always had
my family to help me out in any situation. I've that's ever arisen in
my life well prior to meeting my soon to be ex wife and and all
that, you know, I've never I've never needed a helping hand, and
I'm always the one to extend the olive branch or to you know, help
a friend out financially or emotionally or you know if Even with my Bare Mountain
encounter when I first went on, my whole main purpose for that was was
not to get it off my chest, although I wanted to. It was
to let people know, don't don't go up there. This is these things
are up there, and I don't want anyone else to get hurt. I
don't want anyone to die. I don't want anyone to get mauled or injured
or go through what I went through. To me, that was my sole
purpose for this, especially contacting the park rangers to say, hey, you
know, there's this is what's going on up there, and you can't like
shut it down, shut shut the Appellation trail down for that three mile stretch
at least minimal, just so you guys can do an investigation and do some
searching and and maybe you'll see what I saw or or or or or see
some detective work of of Okay, this doesn't seem right, or that doesn't
seem right, maybe this guy's onto something. Let's uh, let's be very
cautious in this in this area, let's let's put up signs, let's let's
do something. And that was my main concern for even going on and doing
the initial live stream. But you're you're you're very smart, VIC, and
you're very caring and you're very sweet, and I'm in no position to refuse
anything. So if you think, if you personally and I trust you explicitly,
if you think it's in my best interest to do that, then I
will. I will absolutely allow a gofund me. I don't even know how
it works. I don't even know the beginnings or the ends of it.
Truly, I'm clueless on that kind of stuff because I've never had to deal
with it. But if you, personally, VIC think that that is something
I should do, then my answer is yes. Outside of that, back
to present day, I'm currently in my car. It's illegal to sleep in
your car in the state of Virginia, so I'm constantly moving from like truck
stop to truck stop right here, right now, as I'm having this interview,
this live stream interview with you, I am at Big Reds. Silly
name, but I'm at Big Reds truck stop and I'm way back in the
corner where all the loud trucks are are not really near me so much,
And unfortunately, this is probably where I'm gonna end up sleeping in my car
tonight. And I would like to say one thing about Midnight though. When
she passed away last week, I've been terrified to go back in the woods.
I really have, and living on the outskirts of Roanoke, Virginia,
right there by the Shenandoah National Forest, which is like connected to the Blue
Ridge Parkway and all that. I mean, it's just hundreds and hundreds of
miles of wilderness, more so than Connecticut. As much of the wilderness as
Connecticut was where the part I was at at Bear Mountain, that is miles
and miles and miles of wilderness, But this is hundreds and hundreds of miles
of wilderness because Connecticut is a much more densely populated state compared to where I
am in the Roanoke vicinity. So there's this mountain that Midnight loved to go
to. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't have never even been to
the summit of this mountain if it wasn't for Midnight she led me. I
think she was on a rabbit chase or a squirrel chase, I don't know,
but she was just determined and she was leading me. I wasn't leading
her on this particular We were doing a solo camp like we always do again
Avid solo camper, and we were on a solo camp and I kind of
really didn't have I don't like the camp where there's a campsite. I don't
like doing that because if there's a campsite and there's already a fire pit,
and you know, that means other people know about it. Maybe you know,
there's millions of people in the US, so at any given point,
there could be some other family or some other person that could come up to
this camp site and next thing, you know, I'm now sharing this area
at somebody else, and that defeats the whole purpose of solo camping. So
I like to pick these places that are just you know, miles miles miles
twenty thirty miles deep into the wilderness, into the mountains. And at this
one, and this was about maybe about ten years ago, she was just
leading me. She was she literally was dragging me at the end of the
leash, and she had she had a goal she had a she was pinpointing.
I don't know what she was chasing. I don't know what she was
smelling, but she she knew where she wanted to go, and I was
just following her because I hadn't. I had no idea where we're going to
camp that night. And you know, we're so from from the the Shenandoah
Park Ranger station to where you park your car is about an eighth of a
mile, and then as soon as you park your car is as soon as
you go into the woods. I mean, you are just hundreds of miles
in any direction. You're going to be alone. No houses. This is
state property. This is a state sanctioned wilderness area. So there's no there's
no houses, there's no development, nothing, It's just straight up wilderness.
And so I'm letting her lead me, and we ended up climbing. I
don't know why she wanted to do this, but we ended up climbing this
super super steep mountain. When I looked it up online, it came to
be three thousand, seven hundred feet above sea level, so way higher than
Bear Mountain was only two thousand, three hundred and eighty feet. This was
like three thousand, seven hundred feet like solid, no, no, three
thousand, seven hundred and one foot or two feet. It was a solid
three thousand, seven hundred feet above sea level. And we get to the
summit and I'm expecting there to be like a family of rabbits or a family
of squirrels, Like what what are you so determined to get up here for?
What? Why are we chasing whatever we're chasing? And there was nothing.
There was nothing there. And she literally just sat down on her haunches
and just was panting. She was just sitting there looking to me, panting
like, Yeah, this is what this is where I wanted to be the
whole time. And I've never been there. She's never been there. We've
never been to this summit before. I didn't even know the name of the
summit until we came back down and I looked it up on GPS, and
then finally I'm like, oh, that that's the mountain. That's the name
of the mountain. I was at Mount Crawley. C r ow l e
y so cool. She picked Mount Crawley three thousand, seven hundred feet above
sea level, and it was a beautiful view. It was gorgeous. You
could see the mountain ranges all around us. Everywhere you look panoramic view,
just mountains and mountains and mountains all the equal, same level, nothing higher
in the distance, nothing lower in the distance. We are literally in like
the biggest group of mountains in this particular subdivision of the Shenandoahs, which is
a subdivision of the Appalachians in Virginia. And so when she passed away a
week ago, I took my fear of the forest and I did my best
to swallow it. Again, I'm not a gun guy, so I brought
two knives, two belt knives, two pocket knives, and two chest harnessed
knives. So I had one, two, three, four, five,
six, seven eight. I had eight knives on me. Two of them
were bowie knives. And if anybody knows what a bowie knife is, that's
like one stab and you're dead, well at least for a human. So
I was geared up. I don't like guns, never been a gun guy.
Only hunting I've ever done is been bow hunting. And again, like
I said in the first live stream, I'm an amateur. I pretty much
suck at it. So I ate my fear of the wilderness. And even
though My experience happened in New England on Bear Mountain in Connecticut. It's like,
you know, the Shenandoa mounta are a far more extensive wilderness than the
Bear Mountain wilderness. So if they're up there, I'm pretty damn sure they're
down here as well. They have to be, especially when the park ranger
told me that she is in contact with fellow park rangers from all across the
country, all across other national forests on a weekly to monthly basis, and
they all talk about these things. So yeah, I'm in the Shenandoah National
Forest, So that's one of those parks that I'm sure she knows a ranger
that she communicates with on a weekly or monthly basis. So I ate my
fear. What I did was I had midnight's ashes. I had a cremated,
which cost me a pretty penny. I had it cremated, and I
had I had nothing to put her in. So I asked the services,
you know, do you have anything like really pretty, something beautiful for a
female for a female dog, And they presented me a lacquered oak, a
lacquered oak box that they would put her in. And they would put like
a stainless steel plaque on the front with her name on it. And I
said, that's beautiful. Let's go with that. And so once she was
cremated, they had her placed into the box. So I took the box
with me in a backpack. It was it was my last It was my
last hiking trip with Midnight, and I brought her up to Mount Crawley,
that one damn mountain that she was so determined to get to the summit of
for reasons I still have no idea, swear to this day. I thought
she was chasing something, but nope. When she got to the summit,
she just sat on her haunches and just had her tongue lolling off the side
of her mouth, just panting like, hey, we're here. And I'm
like, okay, thanks, thanks for that Midnight. And so it was
our last hike together. Unfortunately she was in my backpack and not beside me.
And when we got to the summit, I took my I took my
grandpa's military shovel and I started digging and I was digging and digging and digging.
I think I dug a decent sized hole about four feet roughly about four
feet down and I put her in it before I put the box in there,
though, I wrapped the box in a garbage bag just to protect it
from weathering and from rain water seeping into the soil. I also included about
twenty pictures of me and her together that we've taken, that I've had taken
of us, or that I've taken of us selfies, and this and that
and the other. Some are polaroids, some I just uploaded online and then
printed out. So I had about twenty photos of me and Midnight together on
all of our different excursions and adventures solo camping, and I put those into
the bag as well. And I also wrote a note saying, hey,
whoever finds this one hundred two hundred three thousand years from now whenever, I
mean this as a time capsule. I want this to be a time capsule
if anybody, for whatever reason, comes to the summit of Mount Crawley three
thousand, seven hundred feet and decides to put a tower up here or level
the mountain off for whatever reason for development, this, that and the other.
I don't know it's a national force. I don't really see that happening.
But for whatever reason, if anybody ever dug up that particular section of
the summit of Mount Crawley and they found this bag with her urn in it
and these photos in a letter. I just wanted them to know, like
I wanted it to be like a time capsule, you know, like you
do when you're in elementary school. You know, like the teacher has everyone
put something into a container or or you know, some drawings or a spaghetti
necklace or you know, like whatever, a toy. You know, like
put put your things that represent you into this container. We're going to bury
it, and then fifty two one hundred years from now, you know,
the classmates will come out, they'll open it, and then we can all
like, look at what happened fifty two one hundred years ago. So I
kind of wanted that to be what I was trying to do. And I
mean, six thousand, ten thousand years might go by before anybody discovers this
because it is literally on a summit of a three thousand, seven hundred foot
mountain in the middle of the Shenandoah National Park, which is you cannot develop
on this area at all. At the very most, if they want to
put a tower for internet or communication that I could see. I could see
that, I could see the park allowing that because it doesn't really disturb the
natural forest, or the inhabitants, or the animals, or the waterworks or
you know, it doesn't disturb the ecology. But I just thought it would
be special for her because that was her place. That's she brought me there
on her own volition, on her own instinct. And I couldn't think of
any better way to respect her and love her than to bury her with about
twenty photos of me and her happy together in our fifteen years. And then
I wrote a letter describing who she was, how much she weighed, how
good of a dog she was, what breed of a dog she was,
And at the very end, I said, if anybody ever digs this up,
bring this to city Hall please, and maybe Midnight will get her own
little plaque at city Hall. Two hundred years you know. So I buried
her in twenty twenty four. If someone finds this in two thousand, one
hundred and twenty four, one hundred years later, you know, maybe city
Hall, they'll bring up the city Hall and be like this, This guy
cared so much about his damn dog that he went through all this trouble.
Let's go ahead and make a plaque for Midnight, and then maybe they'll hang
the photos up and they'll have my little letter there and everybody can read it
and appreciate it. And maybe maybe the little pre she the Shananda Mountains a
little bit more as well, you know, maybe don't give the mountains a
little bit more of a homey feeling or a little bit more of a sentimental
feeling. And that that is what's happened to me in a nutshell over the
past month. I'm sorry, but I'm like I got snot running down my
nose and I got tears running down my face. I'm a mess right now.
No, don't apologize for that. That's expected. Like I said,
yeah, I don't even think about apologizing for it. Well, I've got
to tell you, after all the stress that you're going through right now,
for you to be able to give Midnight that good of a send off,
that's really impressive. She was a special dog, but you obviously had quite
a special owner. Please never forget that. And I want to put it
out there. Not only am I going to put a link for the GoFundMe
page for you on the home page of Dogmandecounters dot Com Mike, for anyone
listening who'd like to contribute to the GoFundMe page we're going to create. We're
going to have that up and running in at the most a day or two.
If you go to the description for tonight's show, you'll find a link
to that go fundme page as well. I'm not sure how far into the
future it's going to be there on the homepage for dog Mean Encounters. I'm
not sure how long Mike's gonna need help with this, but yeah, I
mean, if you go to the description for tonight's show, that's always going
to be there. There's always going to be a link to his GoFundMe page
for as long as it's active, So that'll make it really easy to find
that way, really easy. Well, i'm not sure if you can see
the comments that are being left here in the live chat, Mike, but
you've got tons and tons of support. There's so many people behind you speaking
of help and people wanting to help you out with this horrible situation that you've
been put in again by your wife. You told me before we started recording
that you're open being a chef. You're open to traveling, if someone in
a particular place had a room or maybe a house they would rent you,
or maybe they have an apartment unit that they'd be interested in renting you.
You told me that you're up for traveling. How far would you be willing
to go though, if someone did have a place to offer you to stay,
well, anywhere. For ten years of my life I used to be
a travel chef, just same concept as my soon to be ex wife as
a travel nurse. I actually met her as a travel chef. Well,
she was a travel nurse. And so I've been all over the country.
I've been from California all the way all along up and down the western coast
to the middle of the country, to the southwest to Minnesota, you know,
New England, all the way down to the deep South. I've worked
all over the country as a as a travel chef. I don't do that
gig anymore because, you know, once once I had kids, you really,
you know, someone needs to be home. And although my soon to
be ex wife continue doing that, I'm not gonna yell at her. I'm
not gonna, you know, like, if that's your passion, if that's
what you want to do in life, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna try
to talk you out of it. I got the kids, I got this.
You go do your thing. I'll stop being a travel chef. I'll
be I'll be a state home chef. I'll just work a job locally in
town. So as far as where am I willing to travel at this point
in my life. And I'm basing this off of the advice of all three
of my adult daughters. They just want me to focus on myself, to
be happy and being that I'm fifty, and I mean, I hope I
live forever. But let's face it. You know, if I was to
live to one hundred, I would be middle aged right now. And not
too many people live to be one hundred. Most people go around seventy or
eighty. So I'm past I'm past midlife. I don't know. Hopefully I
have a long life ahead of me. But all my kids want from me
is to focus on myself and to live a happy life, hopefully maybe meet
that forever person, fall in love again, and like literally just live a
genuinely healthy, happy life. And if I got to drive across the country
to do it, I have no problem. I'm a professional chef. Everybody
needs to eat. There's a job waiting for me in any city, in
any town, in any state. It doesn't matter where I go. It
can be the smallest town on the planet. As long as they have a
restaurant, I can get hired and I will have a job. I can
pay my rent, I can pay my gas, I could pay my utilities,
I could pay the bills I have that That's never been a stress issue
for me as a professional chef. No matter where I go, I can
always land a job because everybody needs to eat and everybody loves eating. And
with my extensive amount of experience in skill level advanced skill level, I can
work the high end restaurants all the way down to the low end restaurants.
It does not matter of paycheck's a paycheck. Again, I'm very blue collar.
I'm a working man. That's all I care about. Pay the bills,
make my significant other happy, and make my landlords happy. That's really
all that matters. And you notice I didn't say make myself happy. I'm
always the last one, like I always think of me being the last person
happy, and my kids get on me about that constantly. Like Dad,
you need to put yourself first. You deserve it, you've earned it.
You need to put yourself first. But I just I've never been that type
of guy. It's always like I want I want everyone else to be happy
first, and then maybe everyone's collective happiness will like hickle down onto me and
then and then I can enjoy the happiness of everyone else being happy. But
they're like, it doesn't work like that. You know, maybe it worked
like that when you were young, because apparently I'm as old as dirt,
and apparently it might have worked that way when I was young, my kids
say, but nowadays, it doesn't work like that. And if you want
your happiness, you have to go and you have to get it. But
really, I'm willing to travel anywhere in the country as long as you're a
good landlord or a good person or a good friend, anyone who's willing to
understand what I've been through, understand what I am currently going through as I
tell this story, and knowing that I'm a good man. Huh, oh,
you cut out again? Are you there? I'm here, I'm here
victims, Okay, but that's that's yes. So the answer is yes,
I'm I'm I'm willing to travel anywhere for a good landlord, for a good
person, male or female, doesn't matter to me. I'm who knows.
We might end up being best friends, we might we might end up being
significant others. I have no idea. You never know. And this is
what my adult children keep telling me, because I'm not used to this stuff.
You never know what life is gonna throw at you until you go out
there and give it a try, experience it, you know, like take
a chance, you know, like get out of your bubble, get out
of your safe zone, find a good place to live, find a good
landlord. You know, you might meet your best friend, you might meet
your future wife. You never you never know. And of course these are
not the things that are on my mind, but these are things that all
three of my daughters, who I trust and love and respect, are telling
me simultaneously. And if I don't listen to them, I'm the dumbest dad
and on the planet I would have to be the dumbest dad on the planet
to not listen to these three intelligent, very well rounded, beautiful adults.
So yeah, there's I'll go wherever as long as as long as they're good
people. That definitely does help. Yeah, being a chef, like you
said, that helps tremendously being able to live anywhere and still be able to
make a living. And for the people listening to the show, like I
said, if you do have a place, you'd be interested in allowing Mike
to rent the email address you can reach him at to let him know so
you can work out the fine details would be Chef Michael Martin. This is
all spelled conventionally, Chef Michael Martin, the number seventy four at yahoo dot
com. And I'm going to put that email address in the description for tonight's
show as well. That'll make it really easy to find that as well.
But now we've put that out there, and Mike, I've got some questions
that the listeners are posting with they want me to ask you. The first
question would be from Vanessa, and Vanessa wants to know do you think the
encounter had anything to do with Midnight's passing? Oh wow, I actually thought
about this the very night that Midnight passed. I actually thought about that because
if you remember, in my initial encounter when we were talking, I kept
hearing this voice in my head m death, death, Death, death,
Death, and I attributed it to me. I thought that was me.
I thought I thought, in my head, I'm thinking to myself, I'm
gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. Death death death,
death. Death. But at the same time, like I mentioned in the
first live stream, I don't think it was me, but I you know,
again, I'm not gonna say I think this thing was telepathically talking to
me, like like that episode with with the military guy and his sergeant top
and all that. I'm not even going there because I just not even sure
that, you know, telepathy is even something humans can interact with. But
why that came into my head at that moment that I'm peeing myself and I'm
frozen in sheer terror, I don't know why, but it was there,
and I remember it vividly. Death death, death, death. So I
don't know. That's a good question. Was was the dog man referring to
Midnight passing only a month after I don't that's a very good question. I
I don't know if I can answer that accurately, but that that is something
I thought about. It did come to my mind as soon as she passed.
I was like, oh my god, it's a month later, and
death death that's running through my head, that that popped in. That is
something I absolutely did think about when midnight passed. That sure is awfully eerie.
It really does make you wonder what that was all about, But of
course we can wonder until we're blue in the face and never know. It's
just one of those things awfully strange. The next question is from Sepster sixty
seven, and his question is, Mike, I recall your encounter that you
stated I'm sorry, I says Mike, I recall in your encounter that you
stated you were an atheist. I'm curious since you did not realize these things
existed and now they do. Have you considered the possibility that God exists?
Absolutely not. If anything, it convinces me more that God does not.
If if there was a kind, gentle God, first of all, there
are millions, millions of innocent children that die every day from starvation, from
disease, and from war. Innocent children, babies dying from starvation, disease,
and war, all across the world, by the millions, not thousands,
but by the millions. If there was a God and he allowed that
to happen, that's no god that I would ever want a worship and if
there was a God and he created these creatures that I encountered, again,
that is no god that I would ever want a worship. So no,
it did not bring me closer to religion. It brought me closer to atheism.
The next question is from Sarah Laize and her question is do you think
you'll go solo camping again? Well, I've that's it again. Thank you
for the question that that is a good one, and I contemplated that my
whole drive down from Connecticut back home, and even after I got home on
a daily basis. When I went back to work, you know, I
shut myself off and then as soon as I get out of work, I
think about it again. And I questioned myself, you know that that's a
love of mine, and you know I've been doing it with Midnight for fifteen
years, so if I do it again, you know, like okay.
So with Midnight, okay, it's solo camping in the sense that I'm the
only human being. But with Midnight there it really wasn't solo camping because I
had my best friend, I had my buddy, so without her, it
truly would be solo camping. And I've contemplated that, and it took a
lot of nerve to go back into the wilderness to climb up Mount Crawley to
that mountaintop that she brought me up to for whatever reason, I still have
no idea why, but that was her mountain. That literally like that,
that was her mountain. She peed on a tree and marked it and everything.
So that that gave me some peace of mind that I wasn't accosted,
I wasn't attacked. I heard no howls, there was nothing out of the
ordinary. I didn't get any weird, creepy feelings. So that did give
me a sense that yes, maybe maybe I can and eventually not right now
for sure, but yes, to answer the question, I do think that,
yes again I will, with with the right person, the right friend,
the right lover, the right animal, I do think that I would
be able to go back in and continue to start the camp. Yes,
yes I do. That's great. Yeah, I'm sure in time you will
start doing that. And yeah, this isn't the end, it's far from
the end. I'm glad that you're not going to give up. You're going
to focus on trying to continue to live your life, and you're only good
time, that is. But yeah, definitely don't give up. That would
be a travesty if you did. And I'm so impressed you have the moxie
to be able to head up that mountainto to Bury midnight the way you did.
Most people couldn't have done that. I was scared. I won't I
won't deny it. Vic. I was terrified to even go into the wilderness
alone. And because even with Midnight, I felt like I had to protect
her. She always protected me, and she was always like, you know,
like if something bad happened, she was the one to protect me more
so than me protecting her. And so going up there without her that was
rough. Man, that was rough, and with my emotional state, and
yeah, no, I'm sure it wasn't easy at all. Like I said,
most people couldn't have done that. You've got sand, you definitely do.
The next questions from baby Girl, and she wants to know if you've
ever seen werewolf movies that have a werewolf that you would compare to that dog
me and that you saw. Oh several, Okay, there are several A
list movies or even B movies where the werewolves were comparable to what I saw
I'd say the one that sticks out the most, uh, on the other
side of that lean to when it stood up after the popping and snapping and
grinding noises of its joints and bones, when it stood up at its full
height, I would say the werewolf movie that I would compare it to the
most would be the original nineteen eighties Howling. The original Howling, not Howling
two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,
ten. I mean, there's like probably twenty of them now, but
the original Howling from the eighties. That that was what I saw because the
head was so enormous, the mall, the mall on this thing was so
gigantic. Again, it could literally just chomp down on my head and just
rip it off and swallow it. It was that large. When I say
massive head, I mean massive damn head. And its body was just I
mean everyone talks about sasquatch being eight nine feet tall and broad and muscular.
I mean this thing, this thing probably could have taken a sasquatch out without
too much trouble. Maybe the sasquatch could have given it a bit of a
struggle, but I mean this thing probably would have taken a full grown adult
male sasquatch out. That's the only way I could describe how viciously brutal the
composition of its body was. And I would relay that to the very first,
the very first Howling movie. But there's others, like Dog Soldiers.
It looked comparatively like some of them on the movie Dog Soldiers. When it
was on all fours, when it first cleared the brush, it looked like
the werewolf from an American Werewolf in London in the scene where it's running through
the streets of London on all fours. It looked very, very much like
that when it was on fours, but when it stood up, it looked
more like the werewolf from the original Howling. I hope that helps. I
hope, I hope that's a good description. Sure, it sounds like a
good description to me. So now I think you did well describing it.
The next question is from Sepster sixty seven. He wants to know, Mike,
what are some details that you remembered after the first interview? Right,
And there's a few. So it's eyes now, mind you. It had
these yellow eyes that were like, again, the only way I can describe
him as like a cran box yellow eyes straight up from a cranbox, like
you know, when you're seven years old and you're in elementary school and you
get your first box of twenty four crons. It's the yellow. The eyes
looked just like that. But what I do remember is that it's it's the
I don't know what you call that part of the eye, but the pupil
I guess the black, the black part of the eye. It was almost
like a star burst. It wasn't like a cat's eye where there a vertical
slit. Nothing like that. Throw throw that to the wayside, nothing even
remotely like that. It was more like a like a like an asymmetrical starburst,
like imagine an exploding sun and all these different tendrils are coming out of
the center of the sun. But yet it's asymmetrical. It's not symmetrical whatsoever.
That is something I noticed. Again, as I mentioned at the very
beginning of this particular interview, there are several things that when I got back
home that I remembered that I wasn't able to put onto the initial show.
And I'm glad that that person asked that question, because that is absolutely one
hundred percent. One of the things I remember is when I was staring at
it, because, mind you, when it had me in that sheer tear
of grip where I could not move like the Medusa, I mentioned the ancient
Greek gorgon Medusa. When it had me in that Medusa grip where I was
turned to stone and I could not move, no matter how terrified I was.
I could only look at its eyes, and it looked into my eyes,
and we literally had a moment of just where I was wedding myself and
this thing was enjoying itself. And what I remember and what I recall were
these a black pupil that reminded me of like an asymmetrical starburst. And I
as crazy as that sounds, go ahead make fun of me. That's on
you. But that's that's what I recalled, and that's what I remember,
and it's one of the things that truly scare the crap out of me to
this day, and understandably so. And that's just about the best description of
a dog man's eye I think I've ever heard. Yeah, by a long
shot, that's a really good description. Well, I've got another question for
you, Mike from Lewis Franco. And Lewis wants to know. Have you
been experiencing any nightmares? Absolutely every night. I don't know if you want
to call them night terrors. I know what night terrors are. I've watched
documentaries on night terrors, and some people are frozen in bed. They see
things that people don't believe. Some people see ghosts, some people see shadow
people, some people see aliens, and they can't move. They're frozen solid.
Just like I was on Bear Mountain, I could not move. Sheer
terror. Whatever this thing was doing with its eighs locked me right then and
there. If it were to let go of its grip on me, huh
oh, we lost you again? Are you there? I'm here? Okay,
good, I'm sorry. Please continue night terrors. I've had nightmares.
I don't know. I don't know if I've had night terrors because I've never
woken up frozen where I can't move. But I've had many nightmares on a
nightly basis. I had one last night, the night before, the night
before that, the night before that, the night before that, the night
before that, week after. For the past month, every single night I
go to bed, I have a nightmare about this encounter. And unfortunately,
I hate to say this, but I have to self medicate myself before I
go to sleep so that I don't dream, or I don't dream as vividly.
In my experience, if you drink alcohol, you don't really dream as
much, or if you do, you don't remember it the next morning.
And if you do have a nightmare, you don't really remember it so much
the next morning, if you've had some drinks the night before. And I
hate to say this because it's not me, This is not how I am.
I do enjoy cocktails when I'm hanging out with friends socially, like everybody
else, Like every other blue collar working person on the planet. We all
enjoy getting together with our friends and loved ones and letting lose and having some
drinks and having fun. But I'm doing this solo. I'm doing this alone
in my car, homeless, and it's terrible. I hate it. It
makes me feel disgusting, it makes me feel like a loser. It makes
me feel like I'm less than nothing. But if I don't have a few
drinks before I go to sleep in my car, I will wake up in
the middle of the night in my car, yelling and screaming, asking if
midnight's all right, and then I wake up and I look at my seat
and it's empty, and I realized Midnight's dead, and I just I don't
like I don't like having I don't like waking up having thoughts about stuff like
that. So to answer his question, I'm sorry it was so elaborated,
but yeah, not a night has gone by in the past month that I
have not had a nightmare about this encounter. Absolutely, that doesn't come as
a surprise at all after what you've been through and what you're going through.
I mean, what you're going through right now is just amplifying your experience with
the dog men. So yeah, that's just not helping at all. But
everything that you're going through is totally expected. It's not good, but it's
totally expected. Well, it's about time for us to get out of here,
Mike, but before we do, you, do you have any close
in comments you'd like to put out there for us. I just want to
say to everybody listening that if you know anyone in the northwestern Connecticut area,
or if you are personally from northwestern Connecticut, stay away from Bear Mountain.
I know it's beautiful and it's gorgeous, but there's other mountains in the surrounding
area. And I mean, well, hell, that probably doesn't help at
all, because if they're on bare mountain, they can easily try six seven
miles to the next mountain next to it. So I don't know, I
guess that that probably doesn't help. I guess just be careful, be aware
of your surroundings. Always bring somebody with you if you're If you're a hunter,
bring a gun for self defense. If you're not a hunter, please
bring a crap ton of knives or something. Just not that it's gonna do
you any good, but at least you can say you went out like a
warrior, you know, like you know you're gonna get ripped the shreds and
you're not going to survive it. But at least you can say I had
weapons on me. I went out like a warrior, for whatever that's worth.
And also to the people that aren't in Connecticut, to all the people
across the fifty states that are listening, I'm terrified, and I don't know
if I'm ever going to be the same person, but I hope that I
will be. And if anyone out there listening has gone through anything like this,
and you've never told anybody, but you're just sitting there listening saying,
Oh my god, that sounds exactly what Michael said, sounds exactly like what
I went through. Or those eyes are perfect, a perfect example of what
I saw. Or the sounds of the bones and joints breaking and snapping is
exactly what I heard. Please contact VIC if you need to talk to somebody.
VIC will have you reach out to me. I am victim that to
me with another person named Cody, and he's helped me a lot. And
I am now very good friends with Cody, and we talked about once a
week just to say hi, just to catch up on each other. And
if anyone needs any kind of support like that, whatsoever. Again, I
tend to help people more than I help myself. I tend to give more
than I get. And that's just the nature of who I Oh no,
you cut out right after you said and that's the nature, can you hear?
Okay? Yes, that's the nature of who I am. I tend
to give more than I receive. And if anybody needs any help, please
first go to VIC. And then secondly, if you that you need to
talk to me personally. I want everyone listening right now to understand. I
will do whatever it takes outside of my work schedule to talk to you,
listen to you, text you, whatever you need to help you. The
way that VIC has helped me and is currently helping me, and the way
that my friend Cody, who VIC turned me onto, is also currently helping
me, and I hope that this can be a trickle down effect where if
we can all just get together and help each other, whether it's just relating
your even if you don't want to talk to VIC and and give your story
live, if you just want someone to talk to I'm willing. VIC will
throw you my throw you my information. You could talk to me if you
don't want to do it live for everyone to hear. Cool. I get
that I was worried about that too, but I'm more than willing to listen
to you and talk to you and help you through whatever it is that is
messing you up in the head or messing you up in your heart or emotionally.
And thank you everybody for listening, Thank you for all the I cannot
see any comments right now the way my phone is set up. I'm gonna
have to wait until the episode is over and then maybe tomorrow. I can
go on and read the comments of tonight's episodes, but the initial first episode
from a month ago. I want to say thank you to everybody who said
such sweet, beautiful things. There are people that said things I related to.
I mean, like I'm like, oh, can I come live with
you? Like, oh my God? Like you you you you actually believe
me and you are on the same page I'm on. Hell, if only
I knew how to get in touch with you, I would so be your
roommate and we would live happy friends together. Like there's so many of those
instances where I just I'm reading the comments and I'm blown away and it makes
me cry and I'm torn up at the same time. It's it's it's I'm
I'm bipolar, balancing happiness and sadness and fear. And you've all been so
supportive and beautiful people, beautiful human beings, even the religious people who try
to continuously shove Jesus down my throat. I love you all. It's all
cool. Keep doing what you're doing. That's your thing. I'm not going
to stop you from it. And h you know you're good people too,
and thank you for your support as well. And Vic. Mostly I want
to give the most of my appreciation and gratitude to you, because if it
wasn't for you, I would probably be in the same asylum in a rubber
room with a straight jacket on right now. And you've given me more help
than anyone I've talked to you besides my children. And you're a lifesaver,
Victor. And thank you for answering my texts when I need help. Thank
you for giving me a call back the other day when I really needed to
talk to you, and you know, you took twenty minutes out of your
time, and you know you're like Michael, you're talking hysterically. Don't interrupt
me. Just let me talk and everything's going to be right. And I
listened to you, and I did, and you really did help me out
through that day. You really got me through that day. And to me,
that means more to me than a bar gold. That means more to
me than sunshine and clean air. So thank you. Well, you're welcome.
The biggest takeaway I want you to never lose sight of is the fact
that you're never going to be alone again. Never are you ever going to
be in a place where you don't have anyone that you can reach out and
talk with about this. So yeah, if you ever do need help from
me, then by all means, please let me know. If you lose
Cody's contact INFOE sometime down the road, just let me know and I'd be
more than happy to put you back into contact with him as well. And
Cody, if you're listening, I can't thank you enough for helping Mike the
way you have. I mean, you've got no clue how much you've helped
this man, and I can't thank you enough for that. I really can't
thank you. Cody, thank you definitely. He's a really good man,
like I said. But having said that, if you've had a dog mean
encounter and you'd like to speak with me about your encounter, there's no requirement
ever to come on the show and put it out there for the public's ear
You can always just contact me and we can have a private conversation about it.
I can find out what's ailing you and I'll just do the best I
can to help you. But yes, there's no pressure ever to come on
a show. Like I said earlier, if you want to do a show,
then of course we can, but just understand, like I said,
there's never any pressure to do that. But having said that, thanks again
so much for coming back on to answer these questions and updatus on what you're
going through. Mike. I really do appreciate that, And for all the
listeners, thanks as always so much for your support for supporting Mike and the
other eyewitnesses so much the way you do. I can't thank you enough,
and of course I wish everyone a great night, so thanks again so much,
and take care.