Speaker 1: At a.
Speaker 2: Book in.
Speaker 3: Tonight's guest wish is to a mean anonymous and with
that in mind, I'm just gonna call her TJ. TJ.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Hi Vic, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for being here. We appreciate your time. TJ.
Please give us a brief bio on yourself.
Speaker 2: I am forty nine years old. I am originally from Millington, Tennessee.
I have worked in the medical field for about twenty years,
and I retire early so I could stay home with
my son. After I had my son, and in twenty sixteen,
we packed up from Millington and moved to Pensacola, Florida.
Speaker 3: So you moved from Millington to Pensacola. What kind of
a culture shock was at.
Speaker 2: It's not that different because Millington's a Navy town and
Pensacola is a Navy town as well. Like we're surrounded
by the naval air bases and the Blue Angels are
based out here, and they would always come to Millington
for events and do flyovers over the house and whatnot.
So it wasn't that much of a culture shock. Actually,
it was kind of like being home.
Speaker 3: Well, well, that's really good.
Speaker 2: Then.
Speaker 3: Sounds like you just adjusted right away. That's always a
good thing. Speaking of Millington, that's where your encounter happened
in two thousand and two. Were you living inside the
city limits at the time, though, on the outskirts or
outside of town?
Speaker 2: We actually would have been considered at the time Shelby County.
We were just outside of the Millington what they call
the Millington at Annex, so it was Shelby County.
Speaker 3: I see, sounds like you were just a mile or
two outside of the city limits.
Speaker 2: In Oh, yeah, I don't even know if it was
actually a full mile. We were just barely outside the
city limits, so you were closed.
Speaker 3: Then. What was Millington like back then?
Speaker 2: It was, you know, when I was younger, it was
an actual naval a school, like the only inland Navy
base that we had that was a school that they
would teach at. But during this time two thousand and two,
the school had closed and they started. It was a
lot of like big wigs, I guess you would consider
big wigs. I'm not necessarily a military person, like my
family's never been in the military, but there were like
a lot of admirals and generals and things like that
that were stationed there.
Speaker 3: So this wasn't exactly a two stoplight town. It adds
some size to it.
Speaker 2: It sounds like it did. It did, especially after the
school closed and the generals and the admirals and all
these other people came in, Like it grew it really
it boomed after that, the whole the little town boomed.
Speaker 3: Sounds like a good place to live, just outside of
You had all the benefits of living that close to
a town that size, which you're living out in the country,
so you also had all the benefits that came along
with that, unfortunately, including having dogmen around. But we'll get
into that in just a bit here. Before we spoke
for the first time, even though you're encountered, how and
roughly twenty years ago, how much trouble were you having
dealing with that experience.
Speaker 2: Immediately afterwards. It was odd because immediately afterwards it was
one of those things where I just didn't talk about it.
I didn't talk about it. I put it out of
my mind. It was a weird thing that happened, and
it was almost I think it was almost like a denial.
In fact, that was the way I coped with it.
It was denial. It was just maybe you know, I
dreamed it. I second guessed myself a lot, so yeah,
that's basically how I dealt with it. Was just sheer denial.
Speaker 3: Was that effective and dealing with that experience or did
it not work all that Well?
Speaker 2: It was effective until it got dark, and then that's
when kind of that subconscious fear would set in. And
we also we have coyote out there, so hearing them.
I'm not sure if you've ever heard coyote yelp and
carry on, especially during the spring when it's mating season,
but it's very very eerie, and yeah, that would kind
of set me off a little bit. But other than that,
like it worked well.
Speaker 3: I'm glad it worked at least part of the time.
But yeah, I'm sure hearing those coyotes that didn't help
at all. Yeah, answer your question. We do have coyotes
here behind my house. It's not fun once they decide
to start piping up late at night. Not a good
thing at all. But that's all right, you'll have that. Sometimes.
You were rinding a home next door to your parents'
home at the time. Did your parents own your home though.
Speaker 2: They did not, they were just they do now, but
at the time they were really good friends with our
landlord who had my parents had lived there for ages
like ages, and they were good friends with him. So
when he had it up for rent, my parents had
asked them if it was okay, you know, and so
we kind of had a nice little way to get
our own little house. But yeah, that's how we got it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sounds like that did work out. Well. Have your
parents lived there all that long?
Speaker 2: Let's see, my brother I have an older brother who's
seven years older than me, and he was probably two
or three when they moved to that house, so they've
been there. They have been there for probably fifty two
years at this point.
Speaker 3: Wow, and that is a long time. Have they ever
noticed anything strange that might have hinted that something strange,
like a dog mean, might have been lurking around?
Speaker 2: Not necessary, There's been strange occurrences, but not necessarily dog
man per se. There's been some paranormal stuff that goes
on just around the not just with my parents' house,
but our house, my sister and I his house as well,
and just Millington in general. You know, odd lights, but
a lot of times we blew that off as it's
a military base and they have, you know, stealth fighters
over there, and so we just kind of blew it
off as military to be honest.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm sure it's no mystery to you that military
bases can have a pretty good amount of strange things
happening on and around them. So maybe this is all connected.
I don't know. Speaking of your sister, she was with
you when you had your encounter. What can you tell
us about her?
Speaker 2: My sister is seven years younger than I am. We
worked at the same hospital together. I worked nights and
she worked second shift in the emergency room. And now
she continues living in the same house. She has two girls,
and she does medical coding for Progressive Insurance.
Speaker 3: Well, if you have to have a dog, meaning the counter,
it's always better, or at least I should say, it's
normally better to not have it alone, to have someone
else with you. And it sounds to me like you're
you have a really good relationship with your sisters, so
that just helps that much more, it really does.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a good thing.
Speaker 3: Do you think you're ever going to be able to
live in the country again without being paranoid? Now that
you know that dogmen are out there.
Speaker 2: That's a good question. I don't I want to say yes,
but I think I would be really, really careful, especially
if I have animals. I have dogs and cats and
things like that. I would be real careful. And you know,
you always hear those stories of Appalachia and they close
the blinds at night and lock the doors and you
don't pay attention to any sounds you hear outside. I
would probably almost be like that when it comes to
living out in the country.
Speaker 3: Yeah, don't look outside at night. Uh, I get it. Unfortunately,
your son saw one about thirteen years after you and
your sister did. Did you ever tell him about your experience?
Speaker 2: No, no, I never told him about it. I didn't
want to scare him from going over to my parents'
house and visiting, as you know, his grandparents, and surely
I didn't want him because he and my sister's oldest child,
oldest daughter, they're real close. They're close like me and
my sister are, and I didn't want him scared to
go over there to play with her. So no, I
never told him. I didn't tell him about it until
way after, when he was old enough to.
Speaker 3: Know a lot of parents would have handled it that way. Yeah,
it just might be a really good way to handle it.
You know him better than anyone else in the world,
so you would definitely be the best judge on that
on how to handle that. How's he dealing with that
experience now? Has he come to terms with it?
Speaker 2: He has? He? I mean, his experience is what prompted
me to start talking more about my experience because he
is a little bit more open about it than I was.
But he's the same way as I am when it
comes to There's just certain places he doesn't necessarily want
to be at after dark, and he, you know, gets
a little gets a little jumpy, and I mean he
for the longest time he would sleep in the same
room with me and his dad because he was scared
of the dark, like he just fearful.
Speaker 3: Well, everything you just told us about how you responded
is totally understandable. You see a dogman that's going to
tend to make you afraid of the dark. I get it.
I do. Before I ask TJ to tell us about
her encounter, I just want to remind you of that.
Tonight's the premiere of my new dogman podcast. It's called
dog Me and Tails. And it features fictional stories about
dog men. Dog Me and Tails isn't available on YouTube
for listening. It's only available in podcast format. With that said,
if you'd like to check it out, which I hope
you will, please go to Dogmanencounters dot com and visit
the podcast page. There you'll find links to the new
show if you already have a favorite podcast app, though,
dog Me and Tails is available anywhere you can listen
to podcasts. Having said all that, tonight I published the
first four episodes of the show. I hope you like him,
all right, TJ. Please tell us about your encounter. Now,
give us every last detail that comes to mind.
Speaker 2: Okay. It was two thousand and two and it was
around eight thirty nine o'clock at night. My sister and
I were leaving from my parents' house. We had had
dinner with my parents that evening, and we had a
black German shepherd. Her name was Kaylee. She would walk
with us over to our parents' house and then we
would bring her home at night, and all we were
doing was crossing the yard. We didn't even have to
go in the streets to walk next door because we
had a chain link fence and it had a gate.
My dad had put a gate in so we could
just walk, you know, in the yard. But I always
had to carry a flashlight with me because Kaylee was
so dark you couldn't see her at night. So, and
she was a puppy, she was, I mean, she was
a year old, but she was still a puppy, and
she would run circles around you. And I used the
flashlight to keep an eye on her. And we were
walking home and she took off running, growling and barking,
went through the gate to our side of the fence
to our house, my sister and I's house, and hit
the gate, snarling and growling and barking at something that
she saw in the field across from our houses. We
have this huge field, and that year they were growing
corn in the field and the corn was about ready
to be harvested because they had the machines out there
to harvest the corn. I noticed that that night, and
so it had to have been about six foot tall.
So Kaylee is barking and growling and carrying on, and
I couldn't figure out what it was she was barking
at because she very rarely reacted like that. So I
took the flashlight and shined it in the field to
see if I could set eyes on what it was
she was barking at. I was thinking maybe apossum or
you know, raccoon or whatever. And I noticed the corn
stalks moving a little bit and I kind of stopped
and I flashed the flashlight on it, and I saw
something shadowy there. And when I hit the flashlight directly
on it went it stood up. And when it stood up,
it was I would say seven about seven foot seven
to eight foot tall, dark fur, and it had the
ears like a German shepherd, and it had amber eyes.
The eye shine was amber colored. And it was just
far enough in the field to where I could see it,
but it was more it was shadowy like it was.
I couldn't tell. I assumed the fur was black. I'm
not real sure because the visibility wasn't that great because
it was a little further out in the field. But
it stood up and I could see it from it's
probably midway up its chest and up and it had
the big broad shoulders. And as soon as it stood up,
Kaylee yelped and took off for our front door and
was scratching and clawing at our front door to get
in and crying. And by the time my sister and
I got up to the front porch, Kaylee had urinated
on the front porch, and you know, I was trying
to fumbling for my keys, trying to get the key
in the door and get the door open. And as
soon as I got the door open, she took off
into the house and went under my bed and hid
under my bed and she did not out until that morning.
Till the next morning, I didn't hear a peat from her.
And after that, my sister and I closed you know,
we locked up the house, pulled the blinds and kind
of looked at each other, like what what was that?
What did we just see? Because when it stood up
like it did and I saw the ears and the
you know, the the fur, I immediately thought werewolf because
that's the best way I could describe it. That's what
it looks like. I didn't know anything about dog Man
or any of it. I didn't know nothing. I knew
nothing about it prior to this event, to this encounter.
But yeah, my sister and I just locked the house up,
pulled down the shades, closed the blinds, and like that
was weird, and that was it like, we did not
talk about it after that. We didn't tell our parents
what we saw, We didn't tell any of our friends
what we saw. It was just one of these things
where it was unspoken between us and we just never
talked about it.
Speaker 3: Do you have any regrets about not talking openly about
it with your sister or are you glad you did that? Still?
Speaker 2: I'm glad I did it because I think both of
our defense mechanisms. You know, It's like I said, it
was just kind of a denial thing, and I knew
what I saw, She knew what she saw. We both
understood that we witnessed it together. The dog acted the
way the dog acted that and we kind of had
this understanding that even if we told our parents or
told anybody, our friends or whatever, that they wouldn't believe us.
I think they would think we were crazy, or that
it was like some sort of shared hallucination.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you haven't experience like that. It's pretty hard to
share it with people because you know darn well in
most cases, they're not going to believe you, So why
start all that mess? I get it. You're walking from
your parents home to your home when your encounter happened,
you said, but how far of a walk is at.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's not far at all. I would say maybe
five six hundred feet from one house to the other.
Speaker 3: Well, that's still a pretty good walk. That's not a
hop skipping to jump when all this happened, was Kaylee
closer to the dog man than you were or vice versa.
Speaker 2: She would have been closer because she hit the front
part of our fence like she went exactly like she
went straight to the spot where he was. And yeah,
she would have been closer because my sister and I
kind of stood in the driveway behind her, and that's
when I was shining the light trying to see what
it was that she was barking at.
Speaker 3: If she went right to the spot where the dog
man was, how close did she get to the dog man?
Speaker 2: He was a little ways in the field, So I
mean he was close. He was closer than he should
have been. I mean, I would think he was probably
about fifty feet.
Speaker 3: Away, fifty feet from you or from Keihley.
Speaker 2: He would have been fifty feet from us. He would
have been a little bit closer to Kaylee because it
was so you have our fence than our ditch, than
our little street, and the streets are not very big.
It's enough for two cars to pass another ditch and
then the field. So I would say with Kaylee, he
was a little bit closer since it was nighttime. I'm
not a real good judge of distance.
Speaker 3: Well, that's all right, just so I'm clear, though, when
Kighley started barking, he was just to hear under fifty
feet from her. Yes, okay, I see. So if she
was just to hear less than fifty feet from him
when she started going off, how close did she get
when she approached it?
Speaker 2: Oh, I don't know. I have no idea. And the
way the field is set up, it's kind of so
these fields that they plan in, you know, they have
the runoffs for the water for the irrigation, so it
kind of dips down as well, so like our houses
are built slightly higher than what the field is. So
that distance kind of messes me up. But I mean
she had to have been fairly close to him, because
even from where I was looking, he looked huge when
he still well, I mean he was because the he
was towering over the corn.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you could see him that easily over the corn,
he must have been but thinking of angles. I mean,
she is a shepherd, She's not that tall off the ground,
and if the corn was about six feet tall. Could
she even see the dog man when she first started barking,
but then he stood up?
Speaker 2: I think she smelled something in the air, That's what
I'm because I did not I saw the corn moving.
I didn't see anything in the corn at first until
he stood up. I just noticed it was moving. And
because I was thinking coyote, because sometimes the coyote would
come fairly close to the houses. But yeah, she when
we as soon as we opened our gate that separated
our houses, she hit the fence and was growling and barking.
So it makes me think she picked up on a scent.
Speaker 3: You're probably right, she probably did. Now, just so unclear
on all this. When she started going off, How close
were you to her?
Speaker 2: I was about five feet away from her.
Speaker 3: Okay, so really close? Mm hmm, yeah you were. Then
after you put your flashlight beam on the dog mean
and it stood up, did it seem to be mad at
you that you saw it, or did it seem to
be nonchalant?
Speaker 2: It was very nonchalant. I got the feeling that, I mean,
I got the feeling that it was watching us, but
it was more interested in her and Kaylee than it
was us.
Speaker 3: Now that might be because Kaylee sounded the alarm and
brought your attention to its presence. But yeah, you can't
think for these things. As you know, it's hard to
say what was in its head at the time. Now
as you're standing there looking at this dog me and
towering over the corn and looking at its features. If
it was down in all fours and wasn't quite so big,
would it look almost wolfish enough to pass as a
huge timber wolf where its features too monstrous for that
to even be the keys.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I would almost think that it would
pass for Yeah, I mean I think it would pass
for something like a timber wolf. I mean just from
and I didn't get a whole lot of detail from
it because it was dark, and then you know, when
it stood up, like I did not stick around to actually,
you know, take in all the features I left.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean it was very it was very
wolf like. I mean, that's that's the only way I'd
explain it. It. Just the thought of where wolf went
through my head because it stood up and the way
it was standing. It was standing like a man. But yeah,
I could see where it would be. It could pass
for a very very large wolf like dire wolf size almost.
Speaker 3: Well some of that way. Some would pass as a
huge timberwolf if they're down on all fours. Others they're
just way too monstrous in their appearance to have a
chance of passing as a wolf or anything like that.
So you never know. That's why I asked that question.
After it did stand up, though, did it turn and
face you or stand facing a different direction?
Speaker 2: It was facing us. It was facing us because when
the flashlight hit its eyes, I mean I looked at
dead in the eyes, just you know, with the eyes shine.
Speaker 3: Oh I'm sure you did. I think almost anyone would
when you hit it in the eyes with that beam. Though,
did you ever noticed a shift in the she the
color of its eye glow?
Speaker 2: I didn't. It wasn't anything, honestly to me, it wasn't
anything unusual like it looked like natural eye shine. It
was just that amber color, that golden amber color. And
to be honest, even to this day, I don't know
if that's natural eye shine with any other predators that
are out there or not. I've never actually looked into that.
But yeah, I mean, nothing struck me other than its
standing up on two legs and looking at us, and
just that feeling of it knows that we see it,
you know. Other than that, I would almost take it
for like a natural almost a natural predator.
Speaker 3: This is asking a lot because he had so much
going through your mind at the time. But by do
you remember if you noticed any glow from its eyes
before the beam hit its eyes?
Speaker 2: Off hand, No, I don't remember the eyes glowing prior
to me hitting it with the flashlight.
Speaker 3: Well, like I said, you had so much going through
your head. You're doing good to know your name, so
you can't be foulded for that. Poor Kayley, though it
frightened her so bad she needed on herself after she
made it to the front door. Does she suffer from
any behavioral issues after that?
Speaker 2: She didn't like going out at night anymore. After that
we would have to get her. She would go out
just as the sun was starting to set, and then
she would come into the house and get under my
bed and sleep for the rest of the night and
go out in the morning. Which prior to that, she
was very We called her our feral dog because she
was very wild, Like she was really hard to train,
and she liked to just be free, and she would
run between our yards and you know, my parents in
our yard. And but yeah, after that, she stayed inside
at night most of the time, when usually she would
like to stay outside at night.
Speaker 3: Poor Keelle, it really took it out of her. I
can understand why. Believe it or not, some dogs actually
suffer a complete personality change after seeing a dog mean
like that. It sounds like she didn't. She just wore
off every wanting to go outside at night afterwards. But
did you notice any aspects of her personality change she.
Speaker 2: Was She seems like she was more fearful of people
and everything. We would like I when my when I
met my husband and we had started dating, she like
I think he only saw her once because she would
hide from people, like she and she didn't. She wasn't
like that. When she was younger. She was very I mean,
she was kind of suspicious of everybody, but she wouldn't
go and hide. She just I don't know, she kind
of withdrew after this, like she just kind of kept
to her her little immediate family us and my parents
and eventually my sister's oldest girl after she was born.
But that was it, Like anybody, any stranger that came over,
you would not know we had a dog, like she
would disappear.
Speaker 3: Well, poor thing. Yeah, that really affected her understandably. So though,
did your parents hear Achille going off that night and
never wonder why she was doing that? Did they ever
tell you after the fact?
Speaker 2: No, And that's what makes it so bizarre, like they
did not hear any of it at all.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, that is strange. Were you about halfway between
your house and their house at the time or a
lot closer to your house, because if you were that
much closer to your house, then I guess in a
way that would explain it.
Speaker 2: We were closer to ours when it stood up, I
was standing, we were in our driveway, like I was
standing right behind Kaylee. So so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: That would explain it. That's a pretty good amount of distance.
You didn't tell your parents right away about what happened
that night, but have you ever told them period about
that encounter?
Speaker 2: My sister and I told my dad, and he does
not believe what we saw, Like he believes in Bigfoot,
but he doesn't believe in dog man. Like he's in
total denial about it.
Speaker 3: Huh. Yeah, it's hard to understand why some people can
be so convinced the sasquatch are out there, even though
I haven't seen a sasquatch. But they just dismiss out
of hand the possibility the dogmen or reality. But a
lot of people think that way for whatever reason. That's
just how it is. How about your husband, have you
told him?
Speaker 2: Yes, I've told him, and he totally believes me because
you know, well, then my son's encounter as well, So.
Speaker 3: Well, that's good. I'm so glad he does believe you.
That's a really good thing. It's always so frustrating when
a significant other doesn't believe that their wife or husband
had an encounter. Some even make fun of them, which
is even worse. But it's just horrible when that happens.
It really is. If they do support their significant other,
it makes such a difference. It's always such a good thing,
it really is. Did you seem to handle that experience
better or worse than your sister?
Speaker 2: She and I are so much alike. I mean we
pretty much. I think we handled it about the same.
We both handled it about the same. Every once in
a while we'll call. We would call each other throughout
the years because it would just kind of we would
see something on TV that would prompt it, like the
whole just reliving that whole thing, and we would call
each other every once in a while and be like,
did we really see this? Is this something that actually happened,
because there's a lot of I mean, there's a lot
of self doubt. I think that's the big thing, is
this disbelief in what you saw. But yeah, we pretty
much handled that the same way.
Speaker 3: Self doubt goes along with dog me and the encounters
like peanut butter and jelly. So that's a normal part
of it. And I was having second thoughts about even
asking that question because you two didn't even talk about
the encounter. You said, So if that was the case,
you wouldn't really have a beat on how well or
how poorly she was dealing with it.
Speaker 2: Right, right, she dealt with it the same way I did.
But I mean we would discuss it every once in
a while, once in a blue moon. What really, I
think prompted us talking about it that Hey, do you
remember when we saw was when a few years later
we saw Linda Godfrey on something talking about the Beast
of Bray Road, and my sister and I looked at
each other like, oh, okay, so this is actually a thing.
And then we kind of, you know, briefly, kind of
talked about it and that was it. But yeah, she
handled it about the as well as I did. We
didn't really talk about it. We didn't discuss it outside
the family, and I mean we didn't even discuss it
with our family until years later.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's some people choose to handle it, and for
some people that works well, but for most it doesen't.
I'm just glad that you're able to deal with that
experience as well as you have, Thank goodness for that.
How long did you and your sister live in that house?
Speaker 2: Let's see after the encounter, we well, she's still there,
I want to say we lived. I lived there for
probably another three to four years, probably about four years,
and then we moved. Then when I got married, I
moved further north to uh Atoka, to Tipton County.
Speaker 3: Was it agonizing to stay there that long after having
that experience or did you take it in stride?
Speaker 2: I just kind of took it in stride. I just
never we never really again. I mean, we would get
nervous or not nervous, but just kind of antsy when
it got dark looking at the field. And it didn't
matter what they were growing in the field, whether it
was soybean or cotton or corn or whatever. I mean,
if they grew corn again, that would really kind of
freak us out. But yeah, we didn't really think that
much about it until it got dark. But then at
the time when she and I were it was just
us and we were living together. We didn't stay home
a lot at night, like I worked nights, and then
she would go with her husband, well boyfriend at the time,
you know, they would go out or whatever, and then
he would come back and stay at the house, that
type of thing.
Speaker 3: So yeah, even if you don't have a dog in
the encounter, when you've got corn grown that close to
your house and everything on the country, it is kind
of creepy at times at night. So I get it.
And with that in mind, if you stayed there for
four years after the encounter, even with crop rotations and everything,
I would expect at least one of the years for
corn to be grown there.
Speaker 2: Did they Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, with my son's experience,
they it was corn again that year. As a matter
of fact, I asked her not long ago if what
they were growing in the field, and she thinks it's
going to be corn this year as well, because they've
not started the the they would have already planted, like
soybean and cotton or sunflowers. Now we've had sunflowers out
in that field too, So, oh, you know, that's.
Speaker 3: Just as bad. Your son's encounter happened thirteen years after
he had your encounter, though you said that you lived
in that house just for four years after you had
your experience. I was just wondering if sometime in that
four year span, even with crop rotations, if they grew
corn again, which I would expect that they did.
Speaker 2: Oh, they did. I'm sure they did. Within Yeah, within
the thirteen years of hours and his experience. Yeah. And
the thing my thing is is, and I do think
about that, is how many times have we gone to
visit my parents or gone over to my sister's house
or whatnot, and it's been in the field and we
not know it because I would not have known it
was there had it not been for Kle, just like
I would not have known it was there had it
not been for my son.
Speaker 3: Well, there's good news and bad news to it. I'd
be awfully surprised if on more times than you could
shake a stick at it was there in the field
watching you. But at the same time, if it was
there and it watched you, it never hurt you. So
that does count for something after all.
Speaker 2: Right, right, and it has you know, I often wonder
all the years we had heard the coyote carrying on
and sounding like they were fighting. I've often wondered about that,
like are they fighting each other or are they fighting
something else? Like that's kind of low key, subconsciously kind
of gone through my head over the years.
Speaker 3: That's one of the funny things about dog men TJ.
I Mean, sometimes they'll be running with coyotes and everything
seems hunky dory, seems like their best buds, and all
of a sudden, without any cause, you'll see the dog
men reach out and grab a coyote that's within reach
and just rip it apart no reason whatsoever, no rhyme
nor reason. So maybe something like that was going on
that night and that's why you heard that commotion, But
it's really hard to say. I mean, that could just
be normal behavior from the coyotes, because we all know
when you have coyotes around like this, they do make
some noise on occasion.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they do, they do. And the ones we had
would come up fairly close to that. They would never
come out of the field, but they would come up
fairly close to the house. But whenever it was it's funny.
It's eerie because they would come up close to the
house and you can hear them howling and carrying on,
and all the dogs in the neighborhood would stop barking
like it was just silence. You wouldn't hear anything other
than the coyotes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not fun when they do that, but it's
a good trade off still for living out in the country.
It's nothing like it. You told us about your experience
that you and your sister had, But please tell us
about your son's encounter. Now give us every last detail
that comes to mind.
Speaker 2: Okay. It was twenty fifteen. He was about four or
five years old. We had dropped him off at my
parents' house because my husband and I had gone out
for the evening. So I would say this encounter. By
the time we picked him up at the house at
my parents' house it was probably eleven something like that,
ten thirty eleven o'clock, and I had him in the
back in his car seat, the car running and the
doors closed, and it was kind of chilly outside. I
don't remember. I would say, again, they had corn growing
in the field, so I would say it had to
have been probably September, because you know, they again, they
had the harvesting equipment out there. They were about to
harvest the corn, and it was fairly cool outside, and
he all of a sudden, I was talking to my
mom and dad saying we were saying goodbye, and you know,
if you're from the South or know anything about the South, Southerners,
their goodbyes are probably thirty minutes long. And all of
a sudden, he rolls down the window and he's like, Mom,
we need to go. We need to go now. And
even though at four and five, my son has a
very big vocabulary, he's very intelligent, very verbal, like he
you know, he knows. He's an old soul is what
I call him. He's very intelligent for his age. And
I said, okay, baby, you know we're saying goodbye to
Mama and Papa. We'll be there in a minute, and
He's like, no, we need to go right now, Mom,
We need to go right now. And he kept looking
like back, turning his head to the rights, looking kind
of back at the field, which I didn't notice. He
was kind of like turning himself in his car seat
to look back. And so we said goodbye, got in
the car, told my mom. I was like, Okay, he's tired.
He wants to go home. So we get in the
car and we drive off and we're halfway to our
house in a Toka, which is about that drive is
about fifteen minutes between houses. And he was telling me
that he saw something in the field that looks like
a big dog that stood up and it was staring
at him and it had amber colored eyes. And I
think the only reason why he actually saw it was
because there was a car that had driven past that
I guess the headlights where I guess to where it
was standing. The headlights hit it hit the hit it
standing in the field. I don't think he actually I
think this one was just standing there. I think it
was already on two legs. I don't know that it
was actually crouched in the corn like our original original story,
are the two thousand and two encounter. But he said,
and he could he knew it was watching us. He
could tell it was watching us, and in his head
he just had the idea that it was telling us,
or telling him, I could kill you all if I
wanted to, which, you know, for somebody that's four or
five years old, that's kind of a weird thing for
kids to say. And because he was so young, I
told him, oh, you know, it's your imagination, you know,
there's it's probably it was probably a black bear that
had mange, because they look really, really creepy when they
have mange, and they can stand up on their hind legs.
And I was like, you know, it's just, you know,
maybe don't worry about it. It's fine. And and he didn't,
I think it. I don't know that he ever actually
believed me when I told him that, but it seemed
to calm him down a little bit. I just didn't
want him to be scared of going over to seeing
his aunt and seeing my grand you know, my parents
and all of that. And then it wasn't until he
was probably ten maybe that I told him about mine
and my sister's experience. And I want to say originally
that didn't come from me. It came from his cousin,
his older cousin that he's close with. I think she
had mentioned it to him and then he asked me,
and that's when I finally told Amyah, we did see something,
and it sounds pretty similar to what you saw, only
it didn't. I just knew that it was watching us.
It didn't Actually I didn't actually hear anything in my
head from it or whatever, like he did.
Speaker 3: Wow, four or five years old, that's way too young
to have a dog encounter. It's not like it's fun
and games when you have an encounter when you're an adult.
But still at that age, that's really rough. Being so
young the way he was, did you have a lot
of problems with nightmares?
Speaker 2: He did have nightmares, and like I said, he had,
I mean he was He would have nightmares and it
was a struggle to get him to sleep in his
own bed for a long time after that. And even
then there were times where you know, my husband and
I would wake up and he'd make his little bed
on the floor and sleep in our on our floor,
you know, in our bedroom or whatever. So yeah, I
mean he's always had nightmares. Now I don't know if
it was, if it's directly related to it, if it
has a dog, like it's a nightmare about a dog
man or whatever. I know some of some of the
dreams he's had have been like that, but he's always
had very vivid nightmares afterwards.
Speaker 3: Him having nightmares like that the way he did, that'd
be awfully frustrating for you, because I don't want to
put thoughts into your head. But weren't you convinced that
these dog mans had a center around that experience?
Speaker 2: I mean, I would think so that that's it. Do
I think they caused it? Is that what you're asking?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I would think so. That's because I mean
he's always and it's you have to be kind of
careful with kids too, because they have such a big imagination,
and he most definitely did. But just him telling me
exactly what it was he saw and how it related
to so much of what me and my sister saw,
you know, I knew, I knew it wasn't his imagination.
I knew it wasn't a bear with Mange. I wish
it had been, but you know, I knew that in
my heart that's not what it was. And but yeah,
I definitely do. I definitely do think they caused it.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. Him
having nightmare is the way he did, had to be
awfully frustrating for you. With that in mind, did you
ever try to remedy those nightmares by doing anything special?
Speaker 2: A lot of times I would try to. He's sensitive anyways,
He's very sensitive to energies and all of that. He's
very connected spiritually, in my opinion, But I would try
to teach him to listen to I would have sounds
of the ocean on and let him concentrate on that
and the sounds of the ocean good thoughts. Imagine having
a shield around him, blocking all the bad things and
all the negative things coming through, and you know, trying
to affect him. And that worked somewhat. I think it
worked better as he got older and learned how to
build a shield around him, you know, to block certain things.
But yeah, that's how I went about it. Was just
a lot of music, a lot of nice relaxing music
and telling him, you know, you're safe here I met.
There's a big bubble around the house, a big shield
around the house. Nothing can penetrate it. We have the
dogs we have, you know, and that seemed to give
him some comfort, But he'd still end up in our
room at night, you know, just because he had had
a dream or just scared of the dark.
Speaker 3: That is a difficult situation all this put you in.
I can only imagine the thoughts it must have been
going through your head, and how frustrating all this must
have been. If he's a sensitive, that makes them more
likely to have encounters than most people. Unfortunately, did you
know that.
Speaker 2: I did. Yeah, I'm aware. I I didn't know specifically
towards like cryptids or dog men or whatnot, but I've
heard stories like I'm more of growing up, I'm more
of like a ghost person as far as paranormal goes.
I've never been. I like the stories of Bigfoot and whatnot,
and you know they were I'll always listen to them.
But yeah, so I'm always I was always like ghost
and all that type of stuff. But yeah, lately I've
heard I've been hearing stories where you're sensitive, you're more
likely to have like some sort of a cryptid encounter
or or you know whatever.
Speaker 3: That's right, Yes, not just ghosts, it's cryptids too. Unfortunately,
you said that he's a precocious kid and he's always
been that way. Do you think that worked to his
advantage or to his detriment what it came to dealing
with that experience.
Speaker 2: I almost think it was more a detriment because he
is so smart and he knew even at that age
what he saw was legitimate that it was not a
bear with mange. And you're talking about a kid that
likes animals anyways, like he would he wants to be
a marine biologist after he gets out of school. But
he so, he's he's very he was always into animals,
and he was always so him being you know, four
or five years old, but he knew exactly what he
was seeing. So yeah, I think it was If he
had been just a normal, regular kid, I think he
would have been more inclined to believe me and just saying, oh,
it's nothing to worry about, it's just a bear. They
usually mind their business, don't worry about it, and it
would have been fine. But not him. And then again
that whole sensitive thing, like he picked up on something,
he picked up on something negative.
Speaker 3: You are his mother, after all, so it's totally understandable
that you try to insulate him the way he did
from what actually happened. But in hindsight, do you have
any misgivings about telling him that it was just a
mengi beer and not telling him what it actually was
or are you still okay with that?
Speaker 2: I'm still okay with it because I think if I
had given him validation for that sighting or validated his
I think it would have made it worse. I think
he would have been even more fearful than he already was.
Speaker 3: I'm sure you're right about that. Like I said, you
know him better than anyone in the world, so who
would know better than you had to handle that the
best way. That's all there is to it. Now that
he's older, has he tried to learn as much as
he can about dog men or does he just try
to avoid the subject altogether as much as possible.
Speaker 2: He and I both will kind of dive into Like
we love Aaron Dese and his documentaries that he's been
doing about dog men. We'll sit down together and watch
them because we're just it's amazing how many people have
these same encounters and all of us we don't go,
we don't talk about it. We go for years and
years and years without talking to people about it, and
then you see something as well made as some of
these documentaries that have come out. You know, it's gotten
to a thing where he and I will watch those
together and look at each other like, oh, okay, so
that explains that, Like, that's I did not know that.
I did not know that. You know, the amber eye
thing was was a big one because I was like,
I didn't know that was an odd thing. But apparently
I just thought it was a normal I shine, you know.
So But yeah, now he's not as into it as
I am because I'm going through and looking up like
historical things like an old Chickasaw Indian Native American tales
for that area. He's just like, yeah, I'll watch the
documentary and that's about it.
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's great that the two of you
watched these documentaries together. That's wonderful. That's how it should be.
You'd already seen your own dog man, But when you
told you about the message you heard in his head,
did that mortify you or did you not believe him?
Speaker 2: That scared me. That scared me because I kind of
took it as a threat even though it said, you know,
I could if I wanted to, but it did not. Yeah,
that's kind of scared me, and especially a child that's
four and five years old, you know, that kind of
made that actually made me angry.
Speaker 3: To be quite honest, I can understand why that's horrible.
As if it isn't bad enough, him being so young
and having that experience is so traumatic already by itself,
he has to have a message like that in his head.
That's horrible. It really is. You waited until he was
ten to tell him about your encounter. Was he mad
at you for hiding your encounter from him or did
he take it in stride.
Speaker 2: He wasn't angry, but he was kind of like, I
cannot believe you told me it was a bear with mange.
After all those years and then you have that encounter
and you know, I'm not crazy. I didn't see things,
and I was just like, I never said you were crazy.
I just you know, I just I did not want
you to be because I know you, and I know
how you are. When the sun goes down and you're
over it your grandparents, you're going to be calling me
wanting to come home because you're afraid the thing's going
to be out in the field again. So you know
that's why I told you what I told you. But yeah,
now he wasn't angry angry, he was just kind of
teasing me for not being upfront with him about it.
Speaker 3: Well, you only did that to try to protect him.
He's still a kid, so it's doubtful he's going to
understand that. But as always, you're just looking out for
his best interest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he and he knows that. He knows that now,
but he just I think his thing was he whereas
me and my sister had each other where we could,
you know, if we wanted to talk about it, we could.
I think his thing was he really didn't have anybody
to talk about it with. And I think that's where
my niece comes in. I think maybe he had mentioned
something to her and she said and she, you know,
had told him, Oh, well, you know, my mom and
your mom had something like that walking home one night.
That's what my mom told me. Because she's a few
years older than he is.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad he's got her to talk with about this.
I mean, when you have an experience like that, when
you're a kid, it's always better if you have peers
you can bounce things off of. But at least he
had her or has her to do that, so thank
goodness for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, they're close. They're very close, like me and
my sister are close.
Speaker 3: So well, that's really good. Did your dad not believe
in you when you told him about your experience strain
your relationship with him? Or were you okay with that?
Speaker 2: Oh? No, I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it.
What's funny about my dad is it kind of depends
on his mood when he wakes up, Like one day
he'll be I don't believe in any of that, and
then the next day he'll be like, have you been
watching this new stuff on Bigfoot? So I just kind
of dismiss it. But you know, it's funny because lately,
and I talked to my sister about this, the last
few times i've called him, he has specifically brought up
dog Man and I don't know if he's watching documentaries
on it or if he's you know, and he keeps
bringing it up to me, and I don't tell him
my story anymore. I'm just like, uh huh, uh huh,
And he's just like, yeah, I don't really I don't
really believe in all that. I think that's just people
are just misidentifying some animals, you know, that they see
or whatever. And now it makes me wonder if he's
actually seen something and he's kind of trying to bring
up the topic because my father, my father is one
of those. He's eighty now, he's one of those that
he's just he's not going to bring it up, like,
he's not going to admit that he's seen something unless
I bring up the topic first.
Speaker 3: Well, if he's still living there, he just might have
seen one. What are you going to do if he
does call you aplet one night crying for help because
he just saw a dog man? Are you going to
rebuff him or listen to him?
Speaker 2: Oh? I'll listen to him. I'll absolutely listen to him,
you know. And I'll also tell him I told you so.
Speaker 3: Oh that's a given you have to do that. He's
got that coming. Before I ask you for your closing comments, TJ,
I just want to remind everyone that the first four
episodes of my new Dogmian podcast are revealed for listening now.
I just publish them tonight again. The new podcast is
called dog Me Entails And to find out how to
listen please go to Dogmanencounters dot com and visit the
podcast page. I posted links for the new show there.
Now we have that taken care of, TJ. Do you
have any clothes in comments you'd like to share?
Speaker 2: No, I don't, other than beware of the corn fields.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they definitely do seem to be drawn to them. Well,
I can't thank you enough for coming on sharing the
details of not only your experience, but your son's experience
as well. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you, Thank you for having me. It's been
very helpful talking about it.
Speaker 3: Well, that's great. I'm glad it's been beneficial. Well, if
I can ever help you out in the future, please
do let me know. Hopefully there won't be any problems,
but if you do have any down the road, I'll
be there for you. So please remember that.
Speaker 2: Oh I will. I appreciate that.
Speaker 3: Oh you're welcome. Thanks again so much, and have a
great night.