WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.759 For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace. 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:10.279 Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:14.160 refuses to believe in. But those who have survived they 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.679 know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we 5 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.879 share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness bigfoot, 6 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:28.239 dog man, UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make 7 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:32.320 it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because 8 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.640 once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the 9 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:38.920 woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close, and 10 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.840 remember some things in the woods don't want to be found. 11 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:46.240 Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads, 12 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.399 and let's head off into the woods if you dare. 13 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:05.480 This is part six of a ten part series from Garrett, 14 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:08.560 a listener who's been sharing a decade of escalating encounters 15 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:11.680 on his remote mountain property in the Southern Appalachians of 16 00:01:11.719 --> 00:01:15.480 western North Carolina. If you haven't heard the first five parts, 17 00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:18.840 go back and start from the beginning. This series builds 18 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:21.799 on itself, and the emotional weight of what Garrett's about 19 00:01:21.879 --> 00:01:25.159 to describe depends on your understanding of everything that came 20 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:28.719 before it. Here's where we stand. Over two and a 21 00:01:28.760 --> 00:01:32.040 half years, Garrett has experienced wood knocking from the ridge 22 00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:36.920 behind his cabin, discovered enormous bipedal tracks, witnessed a massive 23 00:01:37.079 --> 00:01:40.640 upright creature at the meadow's edge, had his garden systematically 24 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:44.000 harvested by something that defeated every countermeasure he set up. 25 00:01:44.599 --> 00:01:47.480 Heard his brother Wade's voice replicated and used to lure 26 00:01:47.519 --> 00:01:50.959 him into a ravine. Discovered through fresh snowfall that the 27 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.920 creatures had been circling his cabin nightly while he slept, 28 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:56.959 and climbed to a bluff overlook, where he saw three 29 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.439 creatures on the slope below him, communicating with stone on 30 00:02:00.519 --> 00:02:04.719 stone strikes and a sustained vocalization displaying zero fear of 31 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:08.199 his presence. Earle, the man who built the cabin and 32 00:02:08.199 --> 00:02:11.840 sold it to Garrett, passed away in September of twenty sixteen, 33 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:15.319 taking most of his knowledge about the property's other inhabitants 34 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:19.360 with him. Throughout all of this, one constant has been Bowie, 35 00:02:19.759 --> 00:02:23.400 Garrett's red healer mix, the dog who appointed himself night 36 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:26.360 sentry and property guardian from the first week on the mountain, 37 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:29.800 The dog who slept in the Hallway, who refused to 38 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:33.199 cross the northern tree line, whose hackles predicted the knocking 39 00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:36.879 before it started. Bowie has been the emotional anchor of 40 00:02:36.919 --> 00:02:40.840 this story from the very beginning. In story six, Bowie 41 00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:43.800 isn't alone anymore, and what happens to him and his 42 00:02:43.879 --> 00:02:47.400 companion on a fall evening in twenty seventeen is the 43 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:50.599 encounter that Garrett told me was the hardest to relive. 44 00:02:51.479 --> 00:02:54.240 Here's Garrett's own words. I need to tell you about 45 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:57.879 Ruby before I tell you about the night. After Earl 46 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:01.199 passed in September of sixteen, I went through a rough stretch. 47 00:03:01.879 --> 00:03:04.280 Not just because of Earl, though that was part of it. 48 00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:07.960 Losing him felt like losing the last person who understood 49 00:03:08.039 --> 00:03:12.120 what this property really was. Cliff knew. He'd seen the 50 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:15.319 tracks and measured the hand prints and driven four hours 51 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:17.280 on a Sunday to stand in the snow with me. 52 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:20.960 But Cliff understood it from the outside, the way a 53 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:24.759 doctor understands an illness he's never had. Earl had lived 54 00:03:24.759 --> 00:03:28.159 it forty three years on this land. He'd known the 55 00:03:28.199 --> 00:03:31.439 mountains other residents for decades before I showed up, and 56 00:03:31.479 --> 00:03:34.280 he'd taken that knowledge to his grave. Wrapped in half 57 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:38.560 sentences and careful omissions. The winter of sixteen into seventeen 58 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:43.240 was hard, not the weather, the loneliness. Bowie was seven 59 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:47.360 by then, still sharp, still loyal, still running his morning 60 00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:50.560 loop and standing watch in the hallway. But seven is 61 00:03:50.599 --> 00:03:53.520 middle aged for a dog his size, and I'd started 62 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:57.520 noticing things. He was slower on the stairs. He'd grunt 63 00:03:57.520 --> 00:03:59.840 when he lay down on his blanket, a sound that 64 00:03:59.879 --> 00:04:02.759 had hadn't been there a year earlier. His muzzle was 65 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:05.560 graying around the chin and the eyebrows, giving him a 66 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:08.080 distinguished look that would have been dignified if it didn't 67 00:04:08.120 --> 00:04:11.319 remind me every time I noticed it that dogs don't 68 00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:14.680 last as long as mountains. I'd been thinking about getting 69 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:17.959 a second dog for a while, not to replace Bowie, 70 00:04:18.199 --> 00:04:22.279 nobody replaces a dog like Bowie, but to give him company, and, 71 00:04:22.360 --> 00:04:25.240 if I'm honest, to give myself another living thing in 72 00:04:25.279 --> 00:04:27.720 the cabin that breathed and moved and made the space 73 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:30.680 feel less empty on the nights when the dark pressed 74 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:33.759 in and the mountain went silent, and every creak of 75 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:38.079 the cabin sounded like something testing the walls. Ruby showed 76 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:41.480 up on a Tuesday in March of twenty seventeen, I 77 00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:44.360 was at the hardware store and Chimney Rock picking up 78 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:47.000 fence staples and a new blade for the circular saw, 79 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:49.879 and Dennis mentioned that a dog had been hanging around 80 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:52.079 the gas station down the road for about a week. 81 00:04:52.600 --> 00:04:56.240 Nobody knew where it came from, no collar, no chip, 82 00:04:56.560 --> 00:04:59.800 as far as anyone could tell. The gas station owner 83 00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:02.120 had been leaving food out for it, but he couldn't 84 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:05.519 keep it because his wife was allergic. Dennis said if 85 00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:08.680 nobody claimed it by the weekend, animal control would pick 86 00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:11.439 it up. I drove to the gas station on my 87 00:05:11.480 --> 00:05:14.800 way home. The dog was lying under the propane exchange 88 00:05:14.839 --> 00:05:19.680 cage beside the front door. Female, young, maybe two or three, 89 00:05:20.399 --> 00:05:23.639 some kind of shepherd mix, medium build, black and tan, 90 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:26.079 with a white blaze on her chest and one ear 91 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:28.519 that stood up while the other folded over at the tip. 92 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:31.680 She had that look stray dogs get when they've been 93 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:34.240 on their own, just long enough to lose the expectation 94 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:39.439 of kindness, but not long enough to go feral, cautious, watchful, 95 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:43.000 hopeful in a way she was trying to hide. I 96 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:45.199 crouched down about ten feet away and held out the 97 00:05:45.240 --> 00:05:48.639 back of my hand. She studied me for about thirty seconds. 98 00:05:49.240 --> 00:05:52.360 Her eyes moved from my hand to my face, to 99 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:55.600 my hand again, and I could see her working through something, 100 00:05:56.120 --> 00:05:59.000 some internal negotiation between the part of her that had 101 00:05:59.079 --> 00:06:01.920 learned not to trust and the part that still wanted to. 102 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:05.959 The gas station hummed behind us. A truck went by 103 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.480 on the road, and this dog and I held each 104 00:06:08.519 --> 00:06:11.920 other's gaze in a moment that felt, without any exaggeration, 105 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:14.839 like a job interview, where both parties knew the position 106 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:18.439 had already been filled. She stood up, walked over and 107 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:21.639 pressed her nose into my fingers. Her tail gave one 108 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:25.720 tentative sweep, just one, as if she was checking whether 109 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:28.839 this was going to work before she committed. Her nose 110 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:31.160 was cold and wet, and I could feel her breath 111 00:06:31.160 --> 00:06:34.680 on my knuckles, quick little exhales that matched the rapid 112 00:06:34.680 --> 00:06:36.600 beating of the pulse I could see in her throat. 113 00:06:37.480 --> 00:06:41.920 I said, hey, there, softly, the way you talk to 114 00:06:41.959 --> 00:06:44.560 anything that's afraid and doesn't know yet that it doesn't 115 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:47.439 need to be. She leaned her head into my hand. 116 00:06:48.079 --> 00:06:51.639 The sweep of her tail widened slightly, not a full wag, 117 00:06:51.720 --> 00:06:55.800 yet a negotiation. I put her in the truck. She 118 00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:58.560 jumped up without hesitation, which told me she'd been a 119 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:02.000 house dog before. She ended up the gas station. Strays 120 00:07:02.040 --> 00:07:04.160 that have never been in a vehicle don't jump into 121 00:07:04.199 --> 00:07:07.279 truck cabs. She sat on the passenger seat and looked 122 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:10.279 out the window the whole drive home, her one good 123 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:14.720 ear swiveling at every sound, cataloging the new landscape. And 124 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:17.279 when we turned onto the gravel road and started climbing 125 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:20.040 toward the cabin, she put her paw on my arm, 126 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:24.639 not her head. Her paw a deliberate placement, like a 127 00:07:24.680 --> 00:07:27.360 hand on a shoulder. I don't know what that meant 128 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:31.399 in dog language, but in human language it felt like, Okay, 129 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:35.240 let's try this. I named her Ruby because of the 130 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:38.639 color of her eyes in certain light, not red exactly, 131 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:42.199 a warm amber that shifted toward rust when the sun 132 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:44.879 hit them from the side. She had the kind of 133 00:07:44.920 --> 00:07:47.240 eyes that looked like they'd already seen more than they 134 00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:50.720 should have. Bowie's reaction to Ruby was the closest thing 135 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:53.720 to a personality test I've ever seen a dog administer. 136 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:56.360 He met her in the driveway when I opened the 137 00:07:56.360 --> 00:07:59.839 truck door, and instead of the usual bark and sniff routine. 138 00:08:00.360 --> 00:08:03.360 He just stood there, looked at her, looked at me, 139 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:07.639 looked at her again. She dropped low, belly almost to 140 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:10.800 the ground, tail wagging in that fast, tight wag that 141 00:08:10.920 --> 00:08:15.240 means please like me. Bowie walked a slow circle around her, 142 00:08:15.519 --> 00:08:18.079 sniffed her from head to tail, and then turned and 143 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:20.759 walked back to the porch and lay down in his spot. 144 00:08:21.519 --> 00:08:26.560 That was it. No aggression, no excitement, no territorial display. 145 00:08:27.279 --> 00:08:30.959 He'd assessed her, determined she wasn't a threat, and returned 146 00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:35.080 to his post. Over the next few days, the dynamic solidified. 147 00:08:35.720 --> 00:08:39.279 Bowie was the senior officer, Ruby was the new recruit. 148 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:43.240 She deferred to him on everything. She let him eat first. 149 00:08:43.720 --> 00:08:46.000 She waited for him to choose his sleeping spot before 150 00:08:46.039 --> 00:08:49.039 she chose hers. She followed his morning root at a 151 00:08:49.080 --> 00:08:54.000 respectful distance, never passing him, never cutting his line, and 152 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:57.799 Bowie slowly, over the course of about two weeks, softened 153 00:08:57.840 --> 00:09:01.039 toward her. I'd catch them lying on the porch together, 154 00:09:01.480 --> 00:09:05.399 not touching, but close, both facing the meadow. They're breathing, 155 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:09.000 synchronized in that unconscious way that animals match rhythms when 156 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:12.120 they've decided they belonged to each other. I'd see him 157 00:09:12.120 --> 00:09:14.600 sniff her ear when she was sleeping, and then look 158 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:17.799 away like he hadn't done it. One afternoon, I came 159 00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:19.919 around the corner of the workshop and found them both 160 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:23.639 chasing the same groundhog across the meadow in a coordinated 161 00:09:23.639 --> 00:09:28.000 pursuit that suggested they'd been strategizing behind my back. Bowie 162 00:09:28.039 --> 00:09:33.279 went left, Ruby went right, the groundhog went underground. They 163 00:09:33.320 --> 00:09:37.679 both stood over the burrow entrance, looking extremely satisfied. Ruby 164 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:39.879 also brought something out of Bowie that I hadn't seen 165 00:09:39.919 --> 00:09:44.080 in a while, playfulness. He'd been a serious dog since 166 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:50.879 the encounter started, focused, watchful, always scanning, always processing, But 167 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:54.600 with Ruby around, i'd occasionally catch him doing something purely frivolous, 168 00:09:55.320 --> 00:09:58.159 tossing a stick in the air and catching it, rolling 169 00:09:58.159 --> 00:10:00.919 on his back in the grass while Ruby ounced around him, 170 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:03.799 running a lap of the meadow at full speed for 171 00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:07.159 no reason other than the joy of running. She reminded 172 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:09.879 him that being a dog was allowed, that not every 173 00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:13.159 moment had to be a vigil For my part, watching 174 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:15.240 the two of them together was the best medicine I'd 175 00:10:15.240 --> 00:10:18.559 had since moving to the mountain. There's a particular kind 176 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:21.559 of happiness that comes from watching two animals choose each other. 177 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:28.000 It's uncomplicated, no negotiation, no terms, just a gradual, natural 178 00:10:28.039 --> 00:10:32.000 merging of two lives into a shared routine. They ate together, 179 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:36.039 they slept near each other, they patrolled together, and at 180 00:10:36.039 --> 00:10:38.320 the end of every evening they'd lie on the porch, 181 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:41.360 shoulder to shoulder and watched the dark come down over 182 00:10:41.399 --> 00:10:44.159 the meadow, like two centuries at the end of a shift, 183 00:10:44.360 --> 00:10:47.919 who trusted each other enough to share the quiet. By 184 00:10:47.960 --> 00:10:53.679 April they were inseparable, and the cabin felt different, fuller, warmer, 185 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:57.840 two sets of breathing instead of one, two tails wagging 186 00:10:57.840 --> 00:11:01.559 when I opened the front door, pressed against my hand 187 00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:04.360 at the end of a long day. It was good. 188 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:07.399 It was the best thing I'd done since buying the property. 189 00:11:08.360 --> 00:11:11.559 Ruby adapted to the mountain quickly. She was a natural 190 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:15.559 outdoors dog, comfortable in the woods, surefooted on the slopes, 191 00:11:15.799 --> 00:11:17.759 with a nose that could track a scent trail. A 192 00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:21.080 day old. She figured out Bishop Creek in about three 193 00:11:21.159 --> 00:11:23.799 days and made it part of her morning route, wading 194 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:25.879 in up to her belly and standing in the current 195 00:11:25.919 --> 00:11:29.480 with her face pointed upstream, snapping at minnow's She never 196 00:11:29.559 --> 00:11:34.080 caught She discovered the groundhog den obviously, and took over 197 00:11:34.120 --> 00:11:37.600 Bowie's year's long campaign of patient staking out with a 198 00:11:37.639 --> 00:11:41.519 more energetic approach that involved digging, which Bowie watched with 199 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:45.000 the resigned expression of a veteran officer whose new partner 200 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:48.600 has too much enthusiasm. But she also adapted to the 201 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:51.879 other thing, the thing I couldn't explain to her and 202 00:11:51.919 --> 00:11:55.360 didn't need to. Within a week of arriving, she'd adopted 203 00:11:55.399 --> 00:11:59.000 Bowie's boundary rules. She wouldn't cross the northern tree line. 204 00:11:59.480 --> 00:12:01.799 She wouldn't go near the back of the cabin after dark. 205 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:07.240 She'd freeze mid stride, sometimes one paw, raised ears, locked 206 00:12:07.279 --> 00:12:10.360 on something I couldn't hear, and stand like a statue 207 00:12:10.360 --> 00:12:13.840 for thirty or forty seconds before shaking herself and moving on. 208 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:17.279 She picked up a faint scent on her first morning 209 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:20.720 patrol of the meadow, stopped dead, worked it with her 210 00:12:20.759 --> 00:12:23.440 nose for a solid minute, and then backed away from 211 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:25.519 the spot, the way you'd back away from something you'd 212 00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:29.679 identified as dangerous. She'd learned the invisible geography of this 213 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:33.120 property in seven days. The lines and zones and no 214 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:35.759 go areas that weren't on any map, but were as 215 00:12:35.840 --> 00:12:39.240 real as the fence around the cemetery plot. I didn't 216 00:12:39.240 --> 00:12:43.000 teach her those boundaries. Bowie did, or the mountain did, 217 00:12:43.639 --> 00:12:47.399 or both. I've always suspected that the creatures leave scent 218 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:50.840 markers the same way wolves and big cats do, and 219 00:12:50.919 --> 00:12:53.320 that dogs can read them the way we read signs. 220 00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:57.440 Bowie had been reading those signs for three years. Ruby 221 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:00.639 learned to read them in a week. Whatever the snee said, 222 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:04.759 both dogs agreed on the interpretation this far and no further. 223 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:09.080 The spring and summer of seventeen were relatively quiet. The 224 00:13:09.159 --> 00:13:12.799 knocking came and went in its usual pattern, sporadic in spring, 225 00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:17.720 more frequent by June, nightly by July. I'd stopped logging 226 00:13:17.759 --> 00:13:20.639 it with the same obsessive detail as the first two years. 227 00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:23.720 The notebook was still in the kitchen drawer, and I 228 00:13:23.759 --> 00:13:27.799 still made entries, but they were shorter now, more telegraphic. 229 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:33.120 Knocking eight twenty two pm n e Ridge, two strikes. 230 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:36.759 I didn't need paragraphs anymore. The phenomenon was part of 231 00:13:36.799 --> 00:13:39.879 my life. You don't write a paragraph every time it rains. 232 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:43.720 I went to the bluff twice that summer. Both times 233 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:47.120 the creatures were absent, though the stone arrangements had shifted, 234 00:13:47.159 --> 00:13:51.039 and the margin soil held fresh tracks. The riverstone I'd 235 00:13:51.080 --> 00:13:53.559 found on the sitting slab in August of sixteen was 236 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:56.799 gone when I visited in June of seventeen. I don't 237 00:13:56.840 --> 00:13:59.240 know if it was removed or if it simply rolled off, 238 00:13:59.799 --> 00:14:02.759 but it's absence registered as a message, even though I 239 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:06.480 couldn't decode it. Bowie and Ruby developed a routine that 240 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:10.799 included a dust patrol. Every evening, Right around sunset, they'd 241 00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:13.480 leave the porch together and trot the perimeter of the meadow, 242 00:14:14.200 --> 00:14:17.799 not the full property, just the open ground, staying twenty 243 00:14:17.879 --> 00:14:20.279 or thirty yards from the tree line on all sides. 244 00:14:21.080 --> 00:14:24.159 Ruby would range a little wider than Bowie, her shepherd 245 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:27.559 instincts pulling her toward the edges, but she always circled 246 00:14:27.559 --> 00:14:30.879 back to him before going too far. They'd complete the 247 00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:33.360 loop in about fifteen minutes and return to the porch, 248 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:36.440 where they'd lie side by side and watch the dark 249 00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:42.000 come in. It was a good routine, comfortable, safe. Until 250 00:14:42.039 --> 00:14:45.559 October fourteenth, I've put off telling this story for the 251 00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:49.039 entire time I've been writing to you. The other encounters, 252 00:14:49.320 --> 00:14:52.840 even the mimicry, even the bluff. I could describe them 253 00:14:52.840 --> 00:14:56.679 with a certain distance. They happened to me. I was scared. 254 00:14:57.159 --> 00:15:00.440 I processed it. I moved on. Stay tuned for more 255 00:15:00.440 --> 00:15:06.200 Backwoods Bigfoot stories. We'll be back after these messages. But 256 00:15:06.279 --> 00:15:08.159 the night the dogs went into the woods hit a 257 00:15:08.200 --> 00:15:11.200 different nerve. It hit the part of me that's responsible 258 00:15:11.240 --> 00:15:14.360 for something other than myself. The part that took in 259 00:15:14.440 --> 00:15:17.679 astray from a gas station and promised her without words 260 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:21.399 that she'd be safe. The part that had watched Bowie 261 00:15:21.399 --> 00:15:24.320 grow from a four year old shelter dog into the bravest, 262 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:27.879 most loyal animal I'd ever known, and had silently sworn 263 00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:31.200 to protect him from anything that threatened him. That night, 264 00:15:31.559 --> 00:15:34.440 I couldn't keep that promise, and the guilt of it 265 00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:39.000 has lived in my chest for seven years. October fourteenth, 266 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:43.799 twenty seventeen, a Saturday, I'd been doing some work on 267 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:46.919 the workshop roof, replacing a section of flashing that had 268 00:15:46.919 --> 00:15:50.360 corroded over the forty plus years since Earl had installed it, 269 00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:53.000 and i'd knocked off around five when the light started 270 00:15:53.039 --> 00:15:57.440 going flat. The flashing job was finicky work, bending sheet 271 00:15:57.480 --> 00:15:59.759 metal around the roof edge and sealing it with roofing 272 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:03.120 so meant, and my hands were sore, and my patience 273 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:05.440 was thin, and I was looking forward to a beer 274 00:16:05.720 --> 00:16:08.600 and the porch and the last of the daylight. It 275 00:16:08.679 --> 00:16:10.960 was one of those October days where the sky looks 276 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:15.519 like milk, overcast but not raining, the air cool and damp, 277 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:19.360 and still no wind, no bird noise to speak of. 278 00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:23.120 The whipper wheels had already migrated, and the winter birds 279 00:16:23.159 --> 00:16:25.759 hadn't fully arrived yet, and the mountain was in that 280 00:16:25.799 --> 00:16:29.159 acoustic gap between seasons, where the only sounds are the 281 00:16:29.200 --> 00:16:33.440 ones you make yourself. The trees were shedding, hard leaves 282 00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:36.120 were ankle deep across the meadow, and the sound they 283 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:39.200 made under my boots was that dry papery crunch that 284 00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:43.080 belongs exclusively to the last two weeks of autumn. The 285 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:46.960 ridge was gray against the gray sky, barely distinguishable, and 286 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:50.399 the whole landscape had that muted, drained quality that comes 287 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:52.639 right before the mountain goes to sleep for the winter. 288 00:16:53.519 --> 00:16:55.679 I was on the porch cleaning up my tools when 289 00:16:55.679 --> 00:16:58.759 the dogs started their dust patrol. They hopped off the 290 00:16:58.759 --> 00:17:02.919 porch together, Zoie leading Ruby a half step behind, and 291 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:07.079 trotted toward the meadow. I watched them absently, the way 292 00:17:07.119 --> 00:17:09.880 you watch your dogs do something they've done one hundred times, 293 00:17:10.519 --> 00:17:14.119 not really paying attention, just to wear. They made it 294 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:17.440 about halfway across the meadow, heading toward the eastern tree 295 00:17:17.480 --> 00:17:20.400 line in their usual arc, when both of them stopped, 296 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:26.279 not slowed, stopped mid stride, simultaneously, as if they'd hit 297 00:17:26.319 --> 00:17:30.160 a glass wall. Bowie's head came up first, his ears 298 00:17:30.279 --> 00:17:34.440 rotated forward, his whole body went rigid. That posture I'd 299 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:37.319 been seeing for three years, the one that meant something 300 00:17:37.400 --> 00:17:40.799 was in the trees. Ruby copied him a half second later, 301 00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:44.920 her body dropping into a crouch, her good ear pointing east, 302 00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:48.759 her tail going straight and stiff behind her. They held 303 00:17:48.759 --> 00:17:51.880 that position for maybe five seconds, long enough for me 304 00:17:51.960 --> 00:17:54.119 to set down the wrench I was holding, and stepped 305 00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:56.599 to the edge of the porch, long enough for me 306 00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:59.359 to open my mouth to call them back. I didn't 307 00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:03.119 get the words out out. Ruby broke first. She bolted 308 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:06.240 toward the tree line in a dead sprint, her body low, 309 00:18:06.599 --> 00:18:10.400 her stride open and flat and fast. Bowie went after 310 00:18:10.440 --> 00:18:13.680 her a beat later, not sprinting but running hard, his 311 00:18:13.799 --> 00:18:17.079 mature legs eating ground in that efficient No wasted motion 312 00:18:17.240 --> 00:18:20.920 gait that healers use when they're herding or chasing. They 313 00:18:21.039 --> 00:18:24.480 hit the tree line together, side by side, and disappeared 314 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:28.680 into the forest. And then I heard the barking ruby first, 315 00:18:28.839 --> 00:18:32.039 high pitched and rapid, the staccato alarm of a dog 316 00:18:32.119 --> 00:18:34.599 that's found something and wants the world to know about it. 317 00:18:35.400 --> 00:18:39.319 Then Bowie a beat later, his bark deeper and more rhythmic, 318 00:18:39.759 --> 00:18:42.200 the methodical cadence of a healer who's been bred for 319 00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:47.559 centuries to communicate urgency without losing control. Not alarm barks, 320 00:18:48.119 --> 00:18:52.119 chase barks, the fast, rhythmic, breathless barking of dogs in 321 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:55.799 pursuit of something that's running. The sound echoed back through 322 00:18:55.799 --> 00:18:59.240 the trees, bouncing off the slope, layering on itself as 323 00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:03.039 the acoustics of the forest amplified and distorted it. The 324 00:19:03.079 --> 00:19:09.240 barking was moving, getting fainter, heading up ten seconds twenty thirty. 325 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:12.960 The sound receded up the slope behind the cabin, moving 326 00:19:13.039 --> 00:19:17.839 northeast toward the ridge, the direction that every approach, every sound, 327 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:20.920 every piece of evidence for three years had pointed to 328 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:24.759 as the primary corridor. My dogs were chasing something up 329 00:19:24.799 --> 00:19:26.880 the same route the creatures used to walk down to 330 00:19:26.920 --> 00:19:30.920 my cabin at night, up the highway into the territory. 331 00:19:31.880 --> 00:19:35.880 I stood on the porch and shouted their names, Bowie Ruby. 332 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:38.680 The words tore out of my throat with a force 333 00:19:38.759 --> 00:19:41.839 that surprised me, raw and ragged, the shout of a 334 00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:45.640 parent whose child has just run into traffic. Bowie Ruby, 335 00:19:46.119 --> 00:19:51.000 come here now. The barking didn't slow, didn't turn, didn't 336 00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:54.839 acknowledge me. They were gone, running full speed up a 337 00:19:54.839 --> 00:19:57.960 mountain after something I couldn't see, into a forest I 338 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:00.559 knew was inhabited by things that outweigh made both of 339 00:20:00.559 --> 00:20:03.759 them combined by a factor of five or six, Things 340 00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:06.039 that could peel bark from an oak at eight feet 341 00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:09.680 and walk through frozen creeks barefoot, and circle a depression 342 00:20:09.720 --> 00:20:13.240 in the dark with the coordinated precision of a military unit. 343 00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:17.079 My dogs, my family, the two living things I was 344 00:20:17.119 --> 00:20:21.079 responsible for, had run into that. I want to describe 345 00:20:21.079 --> 00:20:23.559 what happened inside my body in the next thirty seconds 346 00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:26.759 because it's relevant to understanding the decisions I made afterward. 347 00:20:27.640 --> 00:20:31.839 My vision narrowed, not metaphorically. The peripheral edges of my 348 00:20:31.960 --> 00:20:35.079 visual field actually dimmed, the way they do when your 349 00:20:35.079 --> 00:20:38.319 blood pressure spikes and your brain redirects resources to the 350 00:20:38.359 --> 00:20:44.079 central field. My hand started shaking, not trembling, shaking, the 351 00:20:44.200 --> 00:20:47.119 kind of involuntary oscillation that makes it hard to pick 352 00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:50.680 up a key or turn a doorknob. My stomach dropped, 353 00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:52.440 the way it drops when you miss a step on 354 00:20:52.480 --> 00:20:56.079 a staircase and your body falls before your brain catches up. 355 00:20:56.839 --> 00:21:00.759 And a sound started in my ears, a high wine, 356 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:03.920 like the tone you hear after a loud noise, except 357 00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:07.319 there hadn't been a loud noise, just the silence left 358 00:21:07.319 --> 00:21:10.799 behind by my dog's barking as it faded into the forest. 359 00:21:11.680 --> 00:21:14.559 The fear wasn't for me. I'd been afraid for myself 360 00:21:14.599 --> 00:21:17.519 plenty of times over the past three years, and I'd 361 00:21:17.559 --> 00:21:20.519 learned to manage it. I'd learned to function through it, 362 00:21:20.920 --> 00:21:23.559 to walk when my legs wanted to lock, to think 363 00:21:23.640 --> 00:21:26.799 when my brain wanted to shut down. This was different. 364 00:21:27.319 --> 00:21:30.640 This was fear for someone else, for two someone else's 365 00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:33.519 who couldn't understand what they were chasing, who didn't know 366 00:21:33.559 --> 00:21:36.640 what lived on that ridge, who were operating on pure 367 00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:39.839 instinct in a situation that instinct alone wouldn't get them 368 00:21:39.839 --> 00:21:43.000 out of. And the worst part The part that made 369 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:44.720 the fear feel like it was going to buckle my 370 00:21:44.839 --> 00:21:48.559 knees was that I'd let it happen. I'd been standing 371 00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:52.480 on the porch twenty yards away watching them patrol, and 372 00:21:52.519 --> 00:21:55.200 I'd seen them freeze, and I'd opened my mouth to 373 00:21:55.240 --> 00:21:57.960 call them back, and I'd been one second too late, 374 00:21:58.759 --> 00:22:02.079 one second the margin between keeping them safe and losing 375 00:22:02.119 --> 00:22:05.920 them into the forest, and I'd missed it. I went inside. 376 00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:09.759 I grabbed the heavy flashlight, the big maglight that doubled 377 00:22:09.759 --> 00:22:11.880 as a club if you gripped it by the narrow end. 378 00:22:12.680 --> 00:22:15.799 I grabbed my jacket. I almost grabbed the handheld radio 379 00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:17.759 Cliff had told me to carry, but it was in 380 00:22:17.799 --> 00:22:19.640 the daypack on the shelf, and I didn't want to 381 00:22:19.680 --> 00:22:22.400 waste time digging for it. I should have taken the 382 00:22:22.440 --> 00:22:26.359 extra ten seconds. Hindsight is full of should halves that 383 00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:30.359 cost nothing to identify in everything to miss. I was 384 00:22:30.400 --> 00:22:33.599 off the porch and into the meadow in under a minute. 385 00:22:33.680 --> 00:22:35.720 The barking had faded to the point where I could 386 00:22:35.720 --> 00:22:40.279 barely hear it. Intermittent now not the continuous chase bark 387 00:22:40.359 --> 00:22:45.799 from before, short bursts separated by silence. They'd stopped running. 388 00:22:46.319 --> 00:22:49.119 Whatever they'd been chasing had either outrun them, or they'd 389 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:52.279 cornered it, or they'd lost the trail. I hit the 390 00:22:52.279 --> 00:22:54.839 tree line and plunged it into the forest. It was 391 00:22:54.920 --> 00:22:58.279 darker in the trees than I expected. The overcast sky 392 00:22:58.400 --> 00:23:00.960 had blocked the last of the daylight, and under the 393 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:03.960 canopy the world was shades of gray and black, with 394 00:23:04.039 --> 00:23:08.039 no definition between them. The transition from meadow to forest 395 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:10.359 was like walking through a door into a room with 396 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:14.000 the lights off. My pupils hadn't adjusted, and for the 397 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:17.240 first fifteen or twenty seconds, the maglight beam was the 398 00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:20.559 only thing keeping me from walking into tree trunks. I 399 00:23:20.599 --> 00:23:23.519 switched it on and swept it ahead, the white cone 400 00:23:23.559 --> 00:23:26.599 of light cutting through the dark and throwing hard shadows 401 00:23:26.599 --> 00:23:30.359