Speaker 1: You can't choose your neighbors if you're moving to a
Speaker 1: new home. You can, to a degree, while shopping for
Speaker 1: a new place. If you will pay attention to the
Speaker 1: area around the neighboring homes, you might know what sort
Speaker 1: of neighbors you'll have for the foreseeable future. Unkept property,
Speaker 1: along with various other signs, will clue you in to
Speaker 1: what life will be like in the neighborhood. However, after
Speaker 1: you buy the place and move in, you never know
Speaker 1: who's going to move in next door a year later.
Speaker 1: This is what happened to us after buying a home
Speaker 1: in a rural area with a few acres in Mississippi
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight. My wife and I wanted
Speaker 1: to get away from the city. The city we loved
Speaker 1: all our lives had turned violent. The politics, the violent crime,
Speaker 1: the traffic, and the devaluing of homes all over the
Speaker 1: county left us with no choice, so we began to
Speaker 1: look for a quiet place to live out our middle
Speaker 1: age years in peace. My wife was a bit apprehensive
Speaker 1: about moving away from good health care and family, but
Speaker 1: the desire to get to a peaceful place overrode all
Speaker 1: those concerns. We were in our early fifties. I was
Speaker 1: not retired and my job allowed me to work from
Speaker 1: anywhere as long as the internet was available. We settled
Speaker 1: on an existing home on five acres of land. Our
Speaker 1: nearest neighbor was within eyesight, but the distance was such
Speaker 1: that we didn't feel like that they were close. The
Speaker 1: place next to us was well taken care of, and
Speaker 1: after meeting our neighbors, we knew we had chosen a
Speaker 1: good place to live. Within six months, however, that property
Speaker 1: went up for sale and it sold quickly. Within a
Speaker 1: month of the for sale sene coming down, our new
Speaker 1: neighbors moved in that weekend. Gave us a good idea
Speaker 1: of how life would be for us for the next
Speaker 1: three years. They threw a party in the backyard. Rap
Speaker 1: music blared all night. Cars were in and out until
Speaker 1: the early morning, and we didn't get much sleep, and
Speaker 1: our two dogs barked at the noise all night. The
Speaker 1: next day, I rode my ATV over to meet these
Speaker 1: people and to let them know that my hope was
Speaker 1: that these parties would be few. My first trip over
Speaker 1: produced no interactions. I knew the hangovers would be bad
Speaker 1: for these people, and I gave them some time. By
Speaker 1: three o'clock that afternoon, there was life stirring around the house.
Speaker 1: All went back over and there's no need to describe
Speaker 1: the conversation that followed, but it was not pleasant. I
Speaker 1: was told that this was their property and they would
Speaker 1: do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and that I
Speaker 1: needed to f off. I didn't need a confrontation, so
Speaker 1: I left. But it would have been my great pleasure
Speaker 1: to put this punk in the hospital for a few days.
Speaker 1: But I'm a grown man now, and I learned a
Speaker 1: while back to avoid these conflicts unless I have no choice.
Speaker 1: The new homeowner or tenant I would later discover, was
Speaker 1: a twenty something white male who had an affection for
Speaker 1: the urban gangland lifestyle, music, and wardrobe. It has amazed
Speaker 1: me that some of the younger generation want to appear
Speaker 1: as stupid looking as possible. The fact that this kid
Speaker 1: was a redneck from a small town in Mississippi made
Speaker 1: him look even more ignorant. My guess is that if
Speaker 1: he had been transplanted immediately to an actual urban gangland environment,
Speaker 1: he would have folded in a second. I figured that
Speaker 1: he would soon find out that he was not as
Speaker 1: bad as he thought he was, because there was no
Speaker 1: doubt that he would soon be a convict at Parchment
Speaker 1: before he was inmates. There have a way of sorting
Speaker 1: out the misfits, but that was none of my business.
Speaker 1: I just hope that we would have no more trouble
Speaker 1: for them, and I will say now that we personally didn't.
Speaker 1: There were a few times over the following months when
Speaker 1: they deprived us of sleep, but it was not often
Speaker 1: and the situation was bearable. Later, checking the records in
Speaker 1: the courthouse, it appeared the property was owned by his father,
Speaker 1: a wealthy North Mississippi businessman. I didn't know, and I
Speaker 1: didn't care, who the actual property owner was. The records
Speaker 1: for the property was down the hall from the tax
Speaker 1: collector's office, so while buying tags from my car one day,
Speaker 1: I walked down and I looked them up. This has
Speaker 1: no relevance to this story other than to give you
Speaker 1: a feel for the kind of person that we were
Speaker 1: dealing with at the time. The new neighbors moved in
Speaker 1: during December, and by May a new chain link fence
Speaker 1: had been installed behind their house. Four large pit bull
Speaker 1: dogs were now being kept inside the fence. The fence
Speaker 1: was tall six feet tall, and we never worried that
Speaker 1: the dogs would escape. That was not the problem. By July,
Speaker 1: there were fifteen or twenty pit bulls inside this fence.
Speaker 1: They were all staked to a short, heavy chain with
Speaker 1: no shelter. The dogs appeared healthy. I saw the tenant
Speaker 1: feeding and watering the dogs each morning, but it was
Speaker 1: hot that summer and those dogs were roasted in the
Speaker 1: sun during the hot months. My wife and I love dogs.
Speaker 1: We have two. One is actually a pit bull rescue.
Speaker 1: He's a big teddy bear, and we take great care
Speaker 1: of our dogs. But my neighbor, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: looked to be training these dogs for something else. On
Speaker 1: the other side of their place, a privacy fence went up.
Speaker 1: It was not a large area, and first I thought
Speaker 1: they built it to conceal the trash cans. I noticed
Speaker 1: my neighbor and two other men taking two dogs into
Speaker 1: that fenced area, and soon I could hear dogs fighting.
Speaker 1: The men would be screaming at the dogs, provoking them
Speaker 1: to attack each other. I never saw it happen, but
Speaker 1: it was obvious what they were doing. And then during
Speaker 1: the fall, I would see the tenant was out among
Speaker 1: the fifteen or twenty chained dogs. He would pick a
Speaker 1: few of them out and beat them with a limber
Speaker 1: stick until they became aggressive with him. Some would cower
Speaker 1: in fear, and those were taken to his car and removed.
Speaker 1: I supposed they were given away or just dropped out somewhere.
Speaker 1: I thought he just got a kick out of being
Speaker 1: cruel to animals. But a friend visiting me one day
Speaker 1: told me that the guy was raising fighting dogs and
Speaker 1: he was probably selling them. Allow me to stop here
Speaker 1: and qualify that at that time, there were no laws
Speaker 1: in this county that made anything he was doing illegal.
Speaker 1: I once saw the sheriff at a local restaurant and
Speaker 1: I asked him about it. He straight up said there
Speaker 1: was nothing he could do and suggested that I contact
Speaker 1: one of the national groups that handled these things. I
Speaker 1: did that, and I never heard from the organization again.
Speaker 1: In addition, those were his dogs, they weren't mine. It
Speaker 1: was not my place to tell him what to do
Speaker 1: with his property. If there was something I could have done,
Speaker 1: I would have done it. There were two instances where
Speaker 1: dogs escaped and they found their way to the back
Speaker 1: of my house. I armed myself and approached them slowly,
Speaker 1: only to find that these dogs were just happy to
Speaker 1: have some general human reaction. They were not well mannered,
Speaker 1: meaning that they jumped all over my wife and I
Speaker 1: and one got pretty rough with me, but at no
Speaker 1: time did they seem aggressive. Both of those dogs were
Speaker 1: taken to a shelter many miles away in another date.
Speaker 1: I never returned them to the owner. Maybe that is
Speaker 1: the best I could do, and I hoped more would
Speaker 1: escape and make their way to my house, but none
Speaker 1: ever did. Since that time frame, the city and county
Speaker 1: have passed animal cruelty ordinances and officials strictly enforced them.
Speaker 1: Dogs on chains are forbidden inside the city limits and
Speaker 1: in the county. The dogs must be well cared for
Speaker 1: with shelter, water, and food. The owners get one warning.
Speaker 1: After that the dogs are removed and taken to an
Speaker 1: adoption service, and I'm pleased that my county now sees
Speaker 1: that these animals need protection. Now to the topic of bigfoot.
Speaker 1: I have known that bigfoot exists since I was a child.
Speaker 1: My grandfather showed them to me in Arkansas on his
Speaker 1: land years ago, but that is an entirely different story.
Speaker 1: As a child and a teenager, my grandfather showed me
Speaker 1: how to draw the creatures near to me. It takes
Speaker 1: a lot of time. So when we moved to the country,
Speaker 1: my first thought was to see how many, if any
Speaker 1: Bigfoot inhabited the forests around us. With the steps I took,
Speaker 1: gifting and leaving subtle signs behind our home, finally I
Speaker 1: confirmed that a clan did indeed live in our woods.
Speaker 1: We never saw them, but we knew they were there.
Speaker 1: They let us know they were there in no uncertain terms.
Speaker 1: I know your stories are about Bigfoot, and in the
Speaker 1: stories you share we get to hear about all the
Speaker 1: typical behaviors that Bigfoot exhibits, but I will leave that
Speaker 1: out of the story. My goal here is to tell
Speaker 1: you how Bigfoot handles cruel animal owners. However, I will
Speaker 1: mention that it is my experience that the big alpha males,
Speaker 1: or the fathers of the clans usually stay in the background.
Speaker 1: They do not reveal themselves unless they need to as
Speaker 1: a show of dominance to other animals. We never saw
Speaker 1: signs of a huge alpha, but we knew he was there,
Speaker 1: lurking in the shadows, watching everything his clan did. The
Speaker 1: stories you hear over and over regarding children and animals
Speaker 1: being saved from critical situations that is typically the result
Speaker 1: of a female bigfoot intervening in the natural course of things.
Speaker 1: Males generally never do this, and it is my opinion
Speaker 1: that the patriarchal males probably disapprove of the female's intervention
Speaker 1: into human activities, but it happens anyway. I believe that
Speaker 1: a female seeing a dire situation will pull on the
Speaker 1: breeches in the family and take matters into her own hands,
Speaker 1: no matter what the male thinks. Back on the farm,
Speaker 1: the dog training and whipping seem to get more serious
Speaker 1: as the fall months set in. The temperatures were cooling down,
Speaker 1: and by Thanksgiving it was chili. My neighbor had begun
Speaker 1: doing his beating and training at night. They had installed
Speaker 1: two lights on each side of their fighting pin. I
Speaker 1: supposed this was to conceal what they were doing from
Speaker 1: neighbors like me. Maybe they just enjoyed the cooler nights.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Whatever the reason, the training intensified on
Speaker 1: moonlight nights. I would go to the edge of my
Speaker 1: property after hearing noises from the creatures in the woods.
Speaker 1: It was a regular thing I did. When I knew
Speaker 1: the bigfoot were close. I would set in the yard
Speaker 1: close to the trees and just talk to them. Even
Speaker 1: though my wife believed in these creatures, she still thought
Speaker 1: that I was nuts for doing this, But I knew
Speaker 1: they were there. On some nights, there would be three,
Speaker 1: maybe four creatures just beyond the light of my house.
Speaker 1: I could see movement in trees moving, and I could
Speaker 1: hear them breathing, especially when I would pitch a half
Speaker 1: a pone of corn bread into the woods or other
Speaker 1: table scraps that we didn't eat that night. I just
Speaker 1: knew they were there, and I felt like the last
Speaker 1: year had been productive in developing a relationship with our clan.
Speaker 1: In addition, I always knew when the creatures were behind
Speaker 1: my neighbor's house. The distance from my back porch was
Speaker 1: a long way, but I could clearly see the dogs
Speaker 1: in the moonlight. Every dog chain to the ground would
Speaker 1: get up and stretch that chain to the limit, looking
Speaker 1: into those woods. Every tail would be wagging, and all
Speaker 1: barking would instantly stop. By this time, there were between
Speaker 1: twenty and thirty dogs inside that fence. I wish you
Speaker 1: could have seen it, because it would have given you
Speaker 1: great joy seeing those happy tails wagging. Now I think
Speaker 1: I know what they were looking at. The creatures knew
Speaker 1: what was going on at that house, and it is
Speaker 1: I feeling that, even though they did not like it,
Speaker 1: that Big Alpha forbid his clan from intervening. This went
Speaker 1: on for several weeks, and the tenants training method grew
Speaker 1: more violent. The beatings became even more frequent. On a
Speaker 1: chilly night in March, I was awakened by a gunshot.
Speaker 1: It was not unusual for neighbors all around the area
Speaker 1: to shoot guns on their property, but I had never
Speaker 1: heard a gunshot. At two in the morning. I got
Speaker 1: out of bed and I dressed quickly and was soon
Speaker 1: out on our back porch under the canopy. Rain fell
Speaker 1: in a steady shower. I tightened up the collar around
Speaker 1: my neck and I walked towards my neighbor's house. The
Speaker 1: whole backyard was lit up by lights attached to the house.
Speaker 1: He had a dog by the chain and was beating
Speaker 1: it unmercifully. I could hear the yelps and the squeals
Speaker 1: from the poor animal. The closer I got, the more
Speaker 1: clear the scene became visible. In the misty conditions. He
Speaker 1: had a pistol in his hand and he would shoot
Speaker 1: it in the air on occasion. It didn't make sense
Speaker 1: to me. I think he wanted to shoot those dogs,
Speaker 1: but he thought better and he would shoot around off
Speaker 1: in the air. Then he would go to another dog
Speaker 1: and start the process all over again. I had had
Speaker 1: it with this guy, and against my best judgment, I
Speaker 1: yelled to him to knock this crap off and leave
Speaker 1: the dogs alone. It was not the smartest mood that
Speaker 1: I ever made. He did have a firearm and was
Speaker 1: probably under the influence of who knows what. He heard me,
Speaker 1: but he kept beating the dog he had in his
Speaker 1: hand until it began to fight back, at which point
Speaker 1: he released the dog and he moved to another I
Speaker 1: yelled at him again, and this time he heard me and
Speaker 1: came to the fence and he yelled something back that
Speaker 1: I did not understand, and then he went back inside.
Speaker 1: I returned home. I dried off, and I discussed the
Speaker 1: event with my wife. She wanted to do something, but
Speaker 1: still there was nothing we could do. If we stole
Speaker 1: the dogs or release them while he was away, we
Speaker 1: would be the criminals. That's what we wanted to do.
Speaker 1: It was frustrating for both of us. The nightlya beatings continued.
Speaker 1: On a comfortable night in May, I sat on my
Speaker 1: back porch and I watched him head out to the
Speaker 1: large pen with his stick and opened the gate. It
Speaker 1: was a few minutes past eleven PM. I knew his pattern.
Speaker 1: He always started with the dogs closest to the gate.
Speaker 1: But for some reason we will never know, he went
Speaker 1: to the back of the enclosure, and I suppose he
Speaker 1: was planning to work his way forward. Every dog cowered
Speaker 1: and laid flat to the ground as he walked through
Speaker 1: the area. There was no barking and no excitement. There
Speaker 1: was not a sound. They knew he was coming. He
Speaker 1: made it to the back of the enclosure, and instead
Speaker 1: of starting on the dogs, he leaned his back against
Speaker 1: the chain link fence and let a cigarette. I remember
Speaker 1: seeing the orange glow on his face when he would
Speaker 1: take a long draw. I just watched him. He was
Speaker 1: bouncing against the fence, leaning back into the give of
Speaker 1: the chain link, and letting it push him forward. Over
Speaker 1: and over. He used the fence as a lateral trampoline,
Speaker 1: bouncing a bit harder each time, until I could hear
Speaker 1: the fence creaking. He was letting the dogs feel his
Speaker 1: anger and getting them afraid of him even more. He
Speaker 1: thumped the cigarette but at the closest dog, and I
Speaker 1: saw sparks settle on the animal, burning its hide. While
Speaker 1: it moved to relieve the pain. There was a short yelp.
Speaker 1: He bounced himself off the fence one last time and
Speaker 1: leaned forward to commence this night's beating. But before he
Speaker 1: could take the first step, a massive black arm reached
Speaker 1: over the fence, and the last thing I saw was
Speaker 1: his legs being dragged over the top of the six
Speaker 1: foot high top rail. No scream, no noise at all.
Speaker 1: He just vanished into the woods. I stood there for
Speaker 1: a minute in shock. What should I do? Should I
Speaker 1: call the police? Should I go knock on their door
Speaker 1: to see if anyone was home? I had never seen
Speaker 1: anyone living there, even though he did have visitors all
Speaker 1: the time. I reached for my cell phone and was
Speaker 1: about to dial nine to one one, and I stopped
Speaker 1: when the officer showed up. What was I going to
Speaker 1: tell them a family a bigfoot took him. Hell, they
Speaker 1: would put me in jail and probably consider me a suspect.
Speaker 1: I put the phone in my pocket and I walked inside.
Speaker 1: My wife was already in bed. I undressed and crawled
Speaker 1: in beside her, kissed her neck, and I went to sleep.
Speaker 1: It was a good night's sleep at that The next day,
Speaker 1: I saw that nothing had changed at his house. The
Speaker 1: dogs were still there, The overgrown grass still annoyed me,
Speaker 1: and I wonder if I had dreamed all of this.
Speaker 1: I decided that I had been fully awake when it
Speaker 1: all happened, so I relaxed. I ate breakfast, and I
Speaker 1: started on a project that I had been planning to
Speaker 1: do for months. I was going to plant fast growing
Speaker 1: trees at the edge of my property adjacent to his house,
Speaker 1: so that I wouldn't have to look at the meanness
Speaker 1: after the trees grew large enough. However long that took,
Speaker 1: I finished late in the day, and soon it was dark.
Speaker 1: No one had showed up at that house. No one
Speaker 1: knew he was gone. I did see one car pull
Speaker 1: in the drive that night, but they turned around and
Speaker 1: left after seeing the tenant was not home. It was
Speaker 1: the fourth day after the incident that things began to happen.
Speaker 1: That morning, sometime before lunch, I saw two sheriffs cars
Speaker 1: in the driveway from my office window. I saved my
Speaker 1: work and I leaned out and watched. Two deputies walked
Speaker 1: around the house several times and then stood by their cars.
Speaker 1: Soon a civilian drove up. I assumed it was the father,
Speaker 1: and the deputies talked to him for a while and
Speaker 1: they all went inside the house. Not long after, there
Speaker 1: was a knock on my front door, and when I answered,
Speaker 1: one of the officers stood there with a pad and
Speaker 1: a pen. He asked me the usual questions, and I
Speaker 1: told them the last time I saw the tenant he
Speaker 1: was in the backyard three nights ago beating his dogs,
Speaker 1: and that I paid no attention, and that I went
Speaker 1: to bed I had not seen him since. The officer
Speaker 1: seemed perplexed about the dog beating statement and asked about
Speaker 1: that further. I explained what I had seen the man
Speaker 1: do for the last few months, and that I had
Speaker 1: I told the sheriff about it. It seemed to ring
Speaker 1: a bell with the deputy, and he mumbled something about
Speaker 1: wishing they had the authority to stop the animal abuse
Speaker 1: in our area. I actually believed him. He asked if
Speaker 1: I had seen any activity at the house since, to
Speaker 1: which I replied no, but that I had not really
Speaker 1: been paying attention and that was the truth. I then
Speaker 1: asked the deputy if I could go over and feed
Speaker 1: the dogs. If this guy had been missing for three days,
Speaker 1: I was sure the dogs were starving. He agreed that
Speaker 1: that was a good idea, and I headed over. I
Speaker 1: made my way into the garage to find the dog feed,
Speaker 1: and I saw several large bags in a utility room.
Speaker 1: Rats that chewed holes in all the bags and I
Speaker 1: didn't know how old the dog food was, but it
Speaker 1: would be something for the animals until something got figured out.
Speaker 1: I found a two and a half gallon bucket, I
Speaker 1: filled it with feed, and I walked into the fence.
Speaker 1: None of the dogs were aggressive with me. Some cowered away,
Speaker 1: but that was to be expected. Most were happy to
Speaker 1: see me. A few trips later and I had all
Speaker 1: twenty four dogs fed and water. As I walked through
Speaker 1: the garage to leave, I heard the father saying something
Speaker 1: about drug deals and gangs, etc. I didn't catch enough
Speaker 1: to know what they were talking about, but I thought
Speaker 1: to myself, if they get on that trail, they wouldn't
Speaker 1: even investigate around the house. Maybe that would keep them
Speaker 1: out of the woods and away from the Bigfoot clan.
Speaker 1: That is exactly what happened. In the news, I read
Speaker 1: that the man had been tied to a local drug
Speaker 1: distribution ring and had been under surveillance by local authorities.
Speaker 1: I didn't have any idea he was under surveillance while
Speaker 1: I lived there, and of course that he was missing,
Speaker 1: and if anyone had any information to please call the
Speaker 1: number below. To my knowledge, no one ever recall that
Speaker 1: number with anything of value to the investigation. Almost a
Speaker 1: year later, I was walking through the woods behind our house.
Speaker 1: I was looking for signs of the Bigfoot clan. I
Speaker 1: had not seen or heard from them since the night
Speaker 1: Tupac disappeared. I walked through the thick patch of briars,
Speaker 1: a place I had never explored, and I saw something
Speaker 1: that didn't belong. I approached the object, and I saw
Speaker 1: a white Nike running shoe. It was dirty now, and
Speaker 1: it looked as if it had not been moved since
Speaker 1: it fell there. Small new plants grew through the laces
Speaker 1: which were still tied. I saw nothing else of interest,
Speaker 1: and so I walked back out the way that I
Speaker 1: had come in. We sold that property a while back,
Speaker 1: and I have moved to another larger town in a
Speaker 1: neighboring state. I am retired now and enjoying my days
Speaker 1: with my wife. Oh yes, about the dogs. I worked
Speaker 1: with our local rescue organization, and every dog, all twenty four,
Speaker 1: were eventually adopted out to families far away from Mississippi.
Speaker 1: Some actually live in Manhattan in New York City. One
Speaker 1: even lives with us now. She's an old dog now
Speaker 1: in short on time, but she's very comfortable. We gave
Speaker 1: her a good life after that ordeal. Believe me, she
Speaker 1: earned it. It was six years before I began to
Speaker 1: see evidence that the Bigfoot were back. Maybe it was
Speaker 1: the same clan, maybe it was a new clan. Maybe
Speaker 1: they never left and just kept a very low profile
Speaker 1: around my house. I will never know. I never stopped
Speaker 1: occasionally leaving them gifts through the years, but most of
Speaker 1: the time when I would come check back the next day,
Speaker 1: the gifts were still there, unless it was food, but
Speaker 1: even then, any animal could have taken that food. During
Speaker 1: the last years that we lived there, I knew the
Speaker 1: young ones and the females were close. They were always
Speaker 1: present when I had the dogs out in the back
Speaker 1: playing with them. I think they liked that kind of thing.