Speaker 1: After sixty eight years of running through the hills, hunting
Speaker 1: and hiking and exploring the back roads of Oregon with
Speaker 1: my dad, I was skeptical about the existence of bigfoot.
Speaker 1: Then in July twenty and nineteen, I had my first encounter,
Speaker 1: and it was not exactly a friendly one. When I
Speaker 1: graduated from high school, I enlisted. I ended up spending
Speaker 1: a total of twenty seven years in the Navy, the Army,
Speaker 1: and the Army Reserves. What After getting back home and
Speaker 1: a brief break, I returned to my civilian job as
Speaker 1: a licensed practical nurse working for our local VA medical center.
Speaker 1: Once I settled back down, I resumed my explorations of
Speaker 1: the back country up until two thousand and seven, and
Speaker 1: then I had a stroke. The things we were those
Speaker 1: two overseas had started to get the better of me.
Speaker 1: With my background in the outdoors, you could say that
Speaker 1: I know just about every big animal that roams our
Speaker 1: forests and hills and mountains fairly well. That was true
Speaker 1: until the summer of two thousand and nineteen, when something
Speaker 1: happened to me that changed my life. In two thousand
Speaker 1: and nineteen, my big timecat became ill and passed away
Speaker 1: as it had been our practice since the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 1: I took him to be buried in the place where
Speaker 1: we buried the rest of our pets over the years.
Speaker 1: The pet cemetery is located on the shores of a
Speaker 1: spring fed fire helipad, a place that firefighting choppers can
Speaker 1: fill their water buckets. The hill overlooking the pond is
Speaker 1: covered with beautiful trees and a mixed understory of brush.
Speaker 1: After a stop at the quarry to pick up some
Speaker 1: large rocks to cover a new grave, I drove up
Speaker 1: to the pond and pulled on to the trees where
Speaker 1: I had been burying my cats as they aged and
Speaker 1: passed away. Our tomcat was named Thomas Chatting Yeager or
Speaker 1: Thomas the shadow Hunter in the English. Thomas got extremely sick,
Speaker 1: and no matter what we tried to do for him,
Speaker 1: he just kept getting worse. It was as if his
Speaker 1: body was eating him alive. I finally could not handle
Speaker 1: watching him get sicker by the day, and at the
Speaker 1: ripe old age of five, I had the vet put
Speaker 1: him to sleep while I cradled him in my arms.
Speaker 1: I took him home, where I fixed him a box
Speaker 1: for a coffin and wrapped him in his favorite little towel,
Speaker 1: and then I drove him up to lay him to
Speaker 1: rest next to his friends, Tiger Too and Shadow. It
Speaker 1: took a while for me to dig the small grave.
Speaker 1: It was hot and it was dry, and I was
Speaker 1: having difficulty breathing that day, we were having the driest
Speaker 1: year for some time. I was finishing up burying Thomas
Speaker 1: when I heard small branches breaking, as if something big
Speaker 1: and heavy had stepped on them. About that time, the
Speaker 1: breeze changed direction and I caught a musky scent. I
Speaker 1: thought maybe a bear was circling behind me, so I
Speaker 1: drew my pistol and I chambered around, and when I did,
Speaker 1: all hades broke loose. There was a loud huff, and
Speaker 1: something took off stomping through the brush. A bear can't stomp,
Speaker 1: neither can a big cat. As the creature began stomping
Speaker 1: and crashing through the brush behind me, it stayed just
Speaker 1: out of sight. When it was across the pond, it
Speaker 1: pushed a twenty foot tall snag tree over. Whatever this
Speaker 1: thing was. It continued grunting and huffing and stomping its feet,
Speaker 1: and the sound resonated like it was hitting a drum.
Speaker 1: I finished up and I was gathering my tools when
Speaker 1: whatever this thing was through a big rock across the pond.
Speaker 1: I didn't see where it came from, but I got
Speaker 1: wet from the water and the mud that it splashed
Speaker 1: near the bank. This rock was the size of a watermelon.
Speaker 1: And I threw my tools into my pickup and I
Speaker 1: got in and started to drive out of there. As
Speaker 1: I made it to the road, an eight foot long
Speaker 1: and nearly four inch thick branch landed in the bed
Speaker 1: of my pickup truck. Now I really wanted to get
Speaker 1: out of there. I had two more intersections to make
Speaker 1: before I was on the main road out. I made
Speaker 1: that first turn without anything else being thrown at me,
Speaker 1: and I was approaching a tight spot where the brush
Speaker 1: was thick and the road was marshy. When I got
Speaker 1: to the type spot, a large rock gouged into the
Speaker 1: hood of my car, came crashing through the windshield, and
Speaker 1: finally landed on the front passenger seat. This rock was
Speaker 1: later weighed in at eighty pounds. I managed to get
Speaker 1: out of there and home without any further contact. The
Speaker 1: branch showed that it had been work by hand. One
Speaker 1: end looked to have been sharpened by rubbing against an
Speaker 1: abrasive rock. When I got home, I went to see
Speaker 1: my insurance agent about getting my windshield and hood replaced
Speaker 1: or repaired, and I had to share what happened with him. Well,
Speaker 1: they replaced both the windshield and the hood, and the
Speaker 1: adjuster rolled it up as if I had hit a
Speaker 1: large animal. Well, I went back up there to check
Speaker 1: on the graves of my pets and to plant some
Speaker 1: wildflower seeds nearby, and when I got there, I found
Speaker 1: a large flat piece of river washed rock sitting on
Speaker 1: top of Thomas's grave. The nearest place to find such
Speaker 1: rocks is nearly five miles away as the crow flies. Well.
Speaker 1: I went ahead and planted the seeds and the bulbs,
Speaker 1: using the water from the pond to moisten the ground,
Speaker 1: and then I headed back out. I reached that same
Speaker 1: tight spot in the road going out, and another rock
Speaker 1: hit my windshield. This time it took a two inch
Speaker 1: divot from the windshield on the passenger side. I have
Speaker 1: not been back up there since, nor have I heard
Speaker 1: any stories coming from the many hunters and loggers who
Speaker 1: hunt that area. I can't say that I'm a complete
Speaker 1: believer but at least I now believe that there are
Speaker 1: some very big and strong creatures living somewhere in those hills.
Speaker 1: Or maybe they were just passing through. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: Maybe they were angry because I was near the only
Speaker 1: water source in the area. There are many what ifs
Speaker 1: on this subject. I never saw the creature during this encounter.
Speaker 1: I did smell him, I did hear him, and I
Speaker 1: was on the receiving end of its anger. I don't
Speaker 1: believe these creatures are all that friendly, and I think
Speaker 1: they can be extremely dangerous. After my stroke, I have
Speaker 1: had some mobility issues. When I'm up in those hills
Speaker 1: indulging in my hobby of nature photography, I go fully loaded.
Speaker 1: I may be in my seventies now, but I will
Speaker 1: not be run out of the mountains I grew up
Speaker 1: running around in with my dad by man or beast.
Speaker 1: I will be making a trip up there this winter
Speaker 1: to check on things, maybe plant a few more bulbs
Speaker 1: and wildflower seeds. Take care and be safe and stay healthy.
Speaker 1: As for those who do not believe what I have
Speaker 1: related here, all I have to say is I was
Speaker 1: there and you were not. This is signed Shelley of
Speaker 1: the Pacific Northwest Shelley. That's a great story. I really
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Spend a lot of time in the military,
Speaker 1: got out, had a stroke, and then you deal with
Speaker 1: a bigfoot while you're burying a pet. Oh man. Terrible luck,
Speaker 1: terrible luck. But I hope things are going good now.
Speaker 1: And I love your attitude at seventy when you say
Speaker 1: you ain't being run out of those woods, no way.
Speaker 1: I agree with you. Appreciate you sending the story. Thanks, Hey,
Speaker 1: thanks for clicking on the video or the podcast and
Speaker 1: whatever app you're using. I really appreciate it. Two quick announcements. One,
Speaker 1: I've got a friend of mine whose father passed away recently.
Speaker 1: The man was I believe in his late seventies, maybe
Speaker 1: early eighties. He had two Border colligues, two female Border
Speaker 1: colleagues that are about four years old. His widow, his
Speaker 1: wife who he left behind after death, she can't keep
Speaker 1: up with these dogs. He was able to keep up
Speaker 1: with them, and he loved Border colleagues, and these are
Speaker 1: good dogs. I'm gonna try to put a picture of
Speaker 1: them in the video here so you can get an
Speaker 1: idea of what they look like. But he's wanting to
Speaker 1: find a good home for these border collies. So if
Speaker 1: you are interested in a couple of free border collies,
Speaker 1: send me an email, and I don't know, put put free,
Speaker 1: put border collies or colleagues in the subject line, so
Speaker 1: it'll catch my eye and I'll put you in touch
Speaker 1: with the owner's son, who is trying to find a
Speaker 1: new home to get the responsibility of these dogs off
Speaker 1: of his mother. So that's the first thing I wanted
Speaker 1: to announce. Second is Today is July twenty four, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. Tomorrow night, I'm going to Gatlinburg Saturday, the
Speaker 1: twenty six, I will be at the Smoky Mountain Bigfoot
Speaker 1: Conference in Gatlinburg. I'll have a little booth there and
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to speak at one o'clock, not really speak,
Speaker 1: but kind a host of storytelling hour for people to
Speaker 1: stand up and give their own experiences. And I talk
Speaker 1: to the organizers. They don't I don't know if they
Speaker 1: have anybody lined up or I probably don't, so we'll
Speaker 1: ask for hands and if they're no hands, go up,
Speaker 1: which is likely to happen. I'm going to tell a
Speaker 1: couple of stories. I guess. I don't know. I'm not
Speaker 1: a real good public speaker at all, so I'll give
Speaker 1: it a whirl. I ain't scared to do it, but
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you ahead of time. I'm not very
Speaker 1: good at it. So if I stumble on my words
Speaker 1: or half of what I say makes no sense, just
Speaker 1: forgive me. Give me some grace on that. So, if
Speaker 1: you can make it out to the Smoky Mountain Bigfoot
Speaker 1: Conference in Gatlinburg this Saturday, July twenty six, I think
Speaker 1: it goes from nine nine in the morning until six
Speaker 1: in the evening, come on out, love to see you,
Speaker 1: and my oldest son's coming with me. I don't have
Speaker 1: hardly anything to sell. I've got some really good books.
Speaker 1: I've got about twenty books that a friend had written
Speaker 1: and sent to me. Matter of fact, if I have
Speaker 1: to talk take up time in my hour on stage,
Speaker 1: I may read a couple of stories from his book,
Speaker 1: and I got stickers to give away. I think I've
Speaker 1: got some key chains left from the last time we
Speaker 1: went there. Anyway, the point of me going to start
Speaker 1: to sell you stuff and make money, but the YETI
Speaker 1: brother sent me some soap to sell because I know
Speaker 1: people enjoy the soap. Anyway, I'm just rambling on. I
Speaker 1: want to let you know I'm going to be there,
Speaker 1: and if you can be there, come on by. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you a story. It's we used We used to
Speaker 1: goose hunt up in western Kentucky and southern Illinois, and
Speaker 1: I goose hunted one year with the UH, a former
Speaker 1: governor of the state. I can't remember his name, but
Speaker 1: I knew I know he was a governor. I didn't
Speaker 1: live in Kentucky at the time, so I didn't know
Speaker 1: who the governor was, but I met him, hunted with him.
Speaker 1: Went back to Western Kentucky four years later, walked in
Speaker 1: the clubhouse way before daylight, and that governor was there,
Speaker 1: and he walked right up to me and said, cam,
Speaker 1: how you doing. My friend? Now, it's a politician. He
Speaker 1: didn't know me from Adam, but he remembered my name
Speaker 1: from four years ago. I'm sitting in a duck bline
Speaker 1: with him for about eight or ten hours one day.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. You could tell me your name right now
Speaker 1: and fifteen seconds later, I forget it. I don't have
Speaker 1: that ability. I probably should develop it, but it's sixty
Speaker 1: three years old. I'm probably it's getting kind of hopeless
Speaker 1: that I'm going to develop that ability. So anyway, the
Speaker 1: point is, if I've met you before and I don't
Speaker 1: remember your name, don't take offense to it. Just remind me.
Speaker 1: It'll jog my memory. But I'd love to see y'all
Speaker 1: out at the Smoky Mountain Bigfoot Conference this Saturday, July
Speaker 1: twenty six. Pretty sure you can buy tickets online. Gatlinburg
Speaker 1: is a great place to go, So come for the
Speaker 1: weekend or come for just the day, doesn't matter. All right,
Speaker 1: let's move on with the podcast. Thanks for indulging all
Speaker 1: those announcements. All right, here we go. In the year
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, my boys played on the same
Speaker 1: little league team with the girl who lived next door.
Speaker 1: They played for the Pirates. The coach of the Pirates
Speaker 1: was a wonderful man, along with his wife who always
Speaker 1: provided snacks to the kids after the game. His dad
Speaker 1: was also involved with the team. He kept the score
Speaker 1: and kept the kids in line in the dugout. The
Speaker 1: mother of the little girl next door and I would
Speaker 1: always sit together on the bottom row of the bleachers.
Speaker 1: This particular may day started out as usual. I got
Speaker 1: the kids off the bus, did their homework, and I
Speaker 1: met my neighbor at the bleachers for the game. We
Speaker 1: got ourselves situated in the stands when we noticed the
Speaker 1: coach's dad walking our way. He had his green windbreaker
Speaker 1: and his pirates had on, with his clipboard in his hand,
Speaker 1: looking like he was ready to get the game underway. Hello,
Speaker 1: mister Inn, how are you, I greeted him, but mister
Speaker 1: N walked by without even making eye contact. I kind
Speaker 1: of shrugged it off, and my neighbor said, he looks
Speaker 1: like he's in a mood today. He probably didn't hear you.
Speaker 1: A few minutes later, the coach went to the dugout
Speaker 1: and got the kid's attention. He told them to sit
Speaker 1: down and that he had a very important announcement. He
Speaker 1: turned to the bleachers with tears in his eyes. I'd
Speaker 1: like you all to know that my dad passed away
Speaker 1: in his sleep last night. This game is for mister N.
Speaker 1: Let's win this, he said to the kids, riling them up.
Speaker 1: My neighbor and I stared at each other, both of
Speaker 1: us puzzled. We did just see him, didn't we, I
Speaker 1: asked her. She sat there with her eyes wide and
Speaker 1: her mouth hanging open, and when she could finally speak,
Speaker 1: she said, yes, we just saw him. Clear as day. Okay,
Speaker 1: well that was a h That was a little ambiguous, sir.
Speaker 1: That's not the word. Hard to figure out whatever the
Speaker 1: word is for that, but I think I get it.
Speaker 1: It's a ghost story. It's one of those stories that
Speaker 1: just kind of makes you think very good. Thanks to
Speaker 1: the writer for sending it. My husband and I have
Speaker 1: had many dogs over the years, and we have loved
Speaker 1: all of them. In twenty sixteen, we got a husky
Speaker 1: German shepherd puppy that was thirty three percent wolf. She
Speaker 1: was a wonderful puppy from the very first day. She
Speaker 1: was easy to housebreak, and she was smart. She never
Speaker 1: met a person she didn't like. Her name was Luna.
Speaker 1: She would take walks up our road with my husband Roger,
Speaker 1: and people would stop and talk to her and pet her.
Speaker 1: Roger taught her to get out of the road when
Speaker 1: a car was passing. She loved kids, and she loved
Speaker 1: riding in a car, and sometimes we would take her
Speaker 1: to McDonald's to get her a hamburger. We would go
Speaker 1: outside each night she and our other dog, Gypsy. They'd
Speaker 1: get out of the yard and run the hills from
Speaker 1: time to time. Eventually we put a shot collar on
Speaker 1: them to keep them in the yard. They didn't get
Speaker 1: out much, but when they did it was because the
Speaker 1: fence was down or their collar batteries needed changing. We
Speaker 1: were watching them one day and I saw Luna go
Speaker 1: through the fence. Gypsy couldn't figure out how to get through,
Speaker 1: so Luna reached through and grabbed her collar in her
Speaker 1: mouth and she pulled her through. One day, my husband
Speaker 1: and I got food poisoning and we didn't know the
Speaker 1: fence was down. And when I was feeling a little better,
Speaker 1: I checked outside for our dogs and saw they had
Speaker 1: gotten out. We knew if Luna heard our vehicle, she
Speaker 1: would come running for a ride, so I drove around
Speaker 1: and searched, but I couldn't find her anywhere. After three days,
Speaker 1: Gypsy came running through the gate and ran under the porch,
Speaker 1: scared to death. We knew something bad that happened to
Speaker 1: them because she hid under the porch for three days.
Speaker 1: We kept waiting on Luna, but she never showed up.
Speaker 1: I put up signs and all the stores around us
Speaker 1: showing her picture and where she was lost. I posted
Speaker 1: her on ten or more sites on the internet too,
Speaker 1: and had several leads that unfortunately led nowhere. She was
Speaker 1: in heat when she disappeared. We were going to breed
Speaker 1: her one time before having her fixed, but we never
Speaker 1: got to. My husband thinks someone may have shot her.
Speaker 1: I think someone took her and dropped her far enough
Speaker 1: away that she couldn't find her way home. It's been
Speaker 1: four years now and I still post once in a
Speaker 1: while and I look everywhere on the off chance that
Speaker 1: I see her. It's terrible not knowing. I hope that
Speaker 1: if someone has her there, good to her. She was
Speaker 1: such a loving dog and we still miss her. We
Speaker 1: were her pack, and we knew that she loved us too.
Speaker 1: You can use my name if you want. Who knows.
Speaker 1: Maybe someone will hear and respond and we will finally know.
Speaker 1: And she signs Debbie Hankins. Uh, I'm trying to find
Speaker 1: If she says where they live, No, I don't see it.
Speaker 1: If you guys heard it in the story, then you know.
Speaker 1: But this is a tough, tough, tough thing to go through.
Speaker 1: Our dogs kind of run wild out in this area,
Speaker 1: but they stay close. We only have little dogs left.
Speaker 1: We used to have big dogs. Well, we have one
Speaker 1: big dog left, but my other two big dogs they
Speaker 1: stuck around. There was really no other place for them
Speaker 1: to go to eat, so they just kind of stuck around.
Speaker 1: But man, if my lab or my little pit bull
Speaker 1: that had passed on now had gotten out and run away,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Anyway, I don't want to tell stories
Speaker 1: about me. I'm just kind of comparing the way I
Speaker 1: would feel to her. Let's go talking about my dogs
Speaker 1: and concentrating on her dog. This is a horrible thing
Speaker 1: to go through, and you spend the rest of your
Speaker 1: life wondering where that dog went, what happened to it,
Speaker 1: And you know, sometimes we never know. Maybe she'll show up.
Speaker 1: Stranger things have happened with dogs. I hope they do.
Speaker 1: There's a good story, is a good true story. No
Speaker 1: reason to doubt this, like some of the Bigfoot stories.
Speaker 1: But thank you Debbie for sending this. I really appreciate it,
Speaker 1: and I hope you find your dog. I have always
Speaker 1: believed in Bigfoot, but I also believe that it lived
Speaker 1: far away from me. Recent incidents have led me to
Speaker 1: think differently. I have a hunting camp four hours north
Speaker 1: of Toronto now. I've been going there for forty years now,
Speaker 1: and I've been hunting there for twenty five. I've seen
Speaker 1: everything that the bush has to offer for game and tracks,
Speaker 1: or so I thought. Last fall, while moose hunting, my
Speaker 1: brothers and I were sitting on a large beaver pond
Speaker 1: close to our camp. We were hanging out watching the
Speaker 1: sun go down and we were just having a talk.
Speaker 1: When it was almost sundown, we heard a loud, screaming roar.
Speaker 1: It lasted ten seconds. Thirty seconds later it repeated. This
Speaker 1: happened for a full ten minutes. We talked about what
Speaker 1: it could be, but none of us could explain it. Later,
Speaker 1: I found a scream online that sounded like it. It
Speaker 1: was a recording from northern Ontario in Sue Lookout in
Speaker 1: the spring of twenty twenty. There's a trail in our
Speaker 1: camp that does a fun four mile loop. It was
Speaker 1: mostly muddy and swampy and full of tree litter from
Speaker 1: a long winter. There are no year round homes in
Speaker 1: this area, only cabins and hunt camps. To ride this trail,
Speaker 1: we had to winch many trees off of it and
Speaker 1: sometimes cut them to do so. At the halfway point,
Speaker 1: we came across two sets of bipedal tracks that went
Speaker 1: for fifteen yards in the melting snow. I joked and
Speaker 1: said there were bigfoot tracks, but I couldn't get them
Speaker 1: out of my mind all day. By that night I
Speaker 1: was obsessed. Why were there giant bi beetle tracks that
Speaker 1: far back in the bush. Who would have climbed over
Speaker 1: all those trees in snow shoes? It ate me up
Speaker 1: all night, and by morning I had to go back
Speaker 1: and see for myself. When my family and I found
Speaker 1: them the next day, I measured them against my own
Speaker 1: foot and found that they were nearly an inch longer
Speaker 1: than my size eleven hunting boots. The strides were unusually
Speaker 1: long too. I was able to mimic the step, but
Speaker 1: only very awkwardly. At three point thirty am, strange things
Speaker 1: started happening. There was no wind and the sky was cloudy,
Speaker 1: making for a dark, moonless night. To access the barbecue
Speaker 1: on our porch, you have to either scale the half
Speaker 1: wall five feet off the ground or come through the
Speaker 1: screen door. The barbecue moved, waking all of us up
Speaker 1: from a deep sleep. As we sat there listening, we
Speaker 1: heard it move again. We kept listening, and then everything
Speaker 1: went quiet. A couple of minutes later, it moved again.
Speaker 1: In the past, i've experienced when a bear miss us
Speaker 1: with our barbecue and it will clumsily knock it over.
Speaker 1: We didn't have any guns with us this time of
Speaker 1: the year, but there was an led night lamp on
Speaker 1: the table for nighttime emergencies, so I turned it on,
Speaker 1: but from my bed it caused a reflection on the
Speaker 1: window and I couldn't see through. We were all freaked
Speaker 1: out from talking about Bigfoot before bed, and none of
Speaker 1: us was brave enough to leave our bunks to check
Speaker 1: it out. But we settled into the stillness again, and
Speaker 1: to my horror, my young son said that he saw
Speaker 1: a large man looking in the window. He said he
Speaker 1: must have a black hoodie on, because all he could
Speaker 1: see was the large outline of its shape and the
Speaker 1: lighter color of its face. My son said he looked
Speaker 1: inside the cabin for a minute and then he walked
Speaker 1: out of view. Well, that couldn't be. There was no
Speaker 1: one for miles. A few minutes later, we heard scratching
Speaker 1: noises under the cabin. If I had to describe it,
Speaker 1: it sounded like fingernails scratching on a floor joist. Well.
Speaker 1: This happened about every three or four minutes for the
Speaker 1: next hour and a half and finally at four point
Speaker 1: thirty am, it all stopped. By daylight, we all had
Speaker 1: to pee, and thankfully the sun had come up. We
Speaker 1: were all scared to leave the camp at first. After
Speaker 1: opening the door, I immediately saw a strange track in
Speaker 1: the driveway. It was right behind my pickup. My dog
Speaker 1: went straight to it and I pushed him away to investigate.
Speaker 1: It was a large, barefoot track. I could see the
Speaker 1: five imprinted toes, and when I looked closer, I could
Speaker 1: see it was actually three different footprints, all crossing each other,
Speaker 1: one large, one medium, and one small. Well, this seemed
Speaker 1: like a sign, as these tracks were right outside the door.
Speaker 1: We went to where my son had seen the man standing,
Speaker 1: and sure enough we saw tow prints there too. I
Speaker 1: asked my son to go to his bunk and tell
Speaker 1: me what the height of it was. Using my dog's
Speaker 1: ball throwing a launcher, I held it above my head
Speaker 1: to try to figure out the height of whatever this
Speaker 1: was at the window at full extension. My son said stop,
Speaker 1: that was where he could see the black eyes. This
Speaker 1: put the creature at nine feet tall. Twenty four hours before,
Speaker 1: my wife was a non believer, but that night changed
Speaker 1: her mind the barbecue had indeed been moved. For me
Speaker 1: to reach the barbecue over the half wall was nearly impossible.
Speaker 1: I would have had to be another two feet taller
Speaker 1: to be able to grab on to it. Well, we
Speaker 1: stayed away from that trail that day in hopes that
Speaker 1: we wouldn't get another visit. Luckily, the next night was
Speaker 1: without incident. Oh man, that's a scary night. The scariest
Speaker 1: part is that thing crawling under your cabin and you
Speaker 1: can hear it under their clawing at the floor joist
Speaker 1: probably moving around grabbing floor joyce and pulling itself along.
Speaker 1: Whoo man. And you can't run because if you run,
Speaker 1: it's dark outside. You can't see anything. If there's something
Speaker 1: aggressive out there, it's gonna catch you. So you just
Speaker 1: have to sit there and wait it out. It's like
Speaker 1: the classic cabin in the woods story. I love this story,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad everything's okay. Appreciate the writer for sending it.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. All right, here's another dog story.
Speaker 1: Hope you guys like this. This is a pretty encouraging story.
Speaker 1: The writer says, I was eighteen years old. I was
Speaker 1: naive and inexperienced in the ways of the world. I
Speaker 1: had just graduated high school and left home to move
Speaker 1: in with my boyfriend in the south side of San Jose, California.
Speaker 1: I had a nineteen seventies model Toyota Silica that was
Speaker 1: very worn out but still road worthy, and I had
Speaker 1: bought it for six hundred and fifty dollars that I
Speaker 1: earned at my after school job. And I loved that car,
Speaker 1: and I was very proud of my new wheels. After
Speaker 1: I drove it for a few weeks, my ignition switch
Speaker 1: went out, but my greaser boyfriend had an old one
Speaker 1: laying around, so he wired it up and it dangled
Speaker 1: down below the steering wheel. It worked, and my car
Speaker 1: was on the road again. My passenger side window was
Speaker 1: broken and it didn't roll up, but it was summer,
Speaker 1: so I didn't care well. One Friday night, my boyfriend
Speaker 1: and our group of friends were partying in our studio apartment.
Speaker 1: Every one had gotten pretty drunk, but me. I wasn't
Speaker 1: much of a drinker even then, and that night I
Speaker 1: was fairly sober. I think it was around one am.
Speaker 1: The group decided that someone needed to go to the
Speaker 1: seven eleven for some munchies, so I volunteered because I
Speaker 1: was the only sober one in the group and I
Speaker 1: could drive, so off all went. I got into my
Speaker 1: car and I was fumbling with my awkward ignition switch
Speaker 1: to start the car went. To my surprise, a black,
Speaker 1: fluffy chiwd dog jumped into my car through my open
Speaker 1: passenger side window. I had never seen this dog before
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood, but it was friendly and it let
Speaker 1: me pet it. I decided I wanted to get it
Speaker 1: out of my car because I was certainly not gonna
Speaker 1: kidnap my neighbor's dog at one am, so I got
Speaker 1: out of the car and opened the door and tried
Speaker 1: to get it to exit. This dog refused, so I
Speaker 1: went so far as to grab it by its fluffy
Speaker 1: fur that had no collar and pull it out. This
Speaker 1: dog held its ground, digging in so hard that I
Speaker 1: finally gave up and decided that it was going to
Speaker 1: ride with me to the store. I went to the store,
Speaker 1: and I went in and bought some snacks that my
Speaker 1: people had asked for. Everything was uneventful, and I left
Speaker 1: the store when a beat up old car with four
Speaker 1: men in it pulled up next to me. The rough
Speaker 1: and dangerous looking men got out of the car. As
Speaker 1: I was getting into mind, two of them pulled out
Speaker 1: pistols and went into the store, and the other two
Speaker 1: came toward me, one on either side of my car.
Speaker 1: I realized that I was in terrible danger and frantically
Speaker 1: fumbling with my dangling ignition switch to get my car
Speaker 1: started so I could get out of there. The black
Speaker 1: child dog on my passenger seat transformed into a savage
Speaker 1: beast in an instant. He jumped from side to side
Speaker 1: of my front seat, barking and growling so fiercely that
Speaker 1: the men leapt away from my open windows. I was
Speaker 1: able to get the car started, and I peeled out
Speaker 1: of there as fast as I could. I was shaking
Speaker 1: when I got home, but I hugged that dog because
Speaker 1: I knew it really was an angel that had just
Speaker 1: saved me. I ran inside and I grabbed it some
Speaker 1: meat scraps, and I gave him a meal. And he
Speaker 1: still refused to leave my car, so I just let
Speaker 1: him stay in there. I thought he would jump out
Speaker 1: the open window when he was ready. In the morning,
Speaker 1: he was gone. I looked for him in the neighborhood,
Speaker 1: but I never saw that dog again. I didn't own
Speaker 1: a dog at that time, but one showed up just
Speaker 1: in time to protect me anyway from a horrible fate.
Speaker 1: God works in mysterious ways, and it's no mistake that
Speaker 1: that dog and God are the same words, spelled differently.
Speaker 1: I'm now fifty one years old and I have four dogs,
Speaker 1: and I have lots of other stories about the importance
Speaker 1: of dogs. I love your podcast, and I have seen
Speaker 1: it bigfoot, so I am a knower. My encounter was
Speaker 1: not very dramatic, so I haven't bothered to share it.
Speaker 1: But I did see a bigfoot in broad daylight picking
Speaker 1: berries in the woods. I thought it was a hippie
Speaker 1: because I live in Humboldt County, but I soon realized
Speaker 1: it was way too hairy even for most unkempt hippies.
Speaker 1: Thanks for telling our stories. I really enjoy your channel.
Speaker 1: Oh that was a great dog story and a little
Speaker 1: bigfoot encounter thrown in for good measure. But dogs will
Speaker 1: do that first. I would say that was an angel dog.
Speaker 1: When those dogs come along and they just help you
Speaker 1: out of the middle of nowhere, then they just vanish.
Speaker 1: I have no doubt God sends those dogs to help
Speaker 1: us every once in a while, and sometimes they just
Speaker 1: stick around. Sometimes they stay, but sometimes he sends them
Speaker 1: to other places and other people to help. That's what
Speaker 1: I think. Who knows what the truth is, but this
Speaker 1: was a great dog story. I love these dog stories.
Speaker 1: If you guys have it an I've got several. I've
Speaker 1: got I'm looking at about six here in my list.
Speaker 1: One of them is a fictional story, but the writer
Speaker 1: told me it's based on a true story. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do that in a week or two. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: drop these dog stories in here and there. I asked
Speaker 1: for them. I love them, and I've got enough to
Speaker 1: have a little bit of a series going. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna start doing those and dropping those in podcasts. So
Speaker 1: thank you to this writer, both writers in this podcast
Speaker 1: for the dog stories. And we've got more coming, so
Speaker 1: thank you guys. Okay, listen in the regular part of
Speaker 1: this podcast, up with a Bigfoot story, and then we're
Speaker 1: gonna have some archives after this. So this is a
Speaker 1: pretty good one. This is in North Alabama story that
Speaker 1: I think you guys are gonna like. It was December
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety six in northwest Alabama, and I had
Speaker 1: gotten off work early, as I often did. I decided
Speaker 1: to go deer hunting on some family property before dark.
Speaker 1: I had a tree stand set up that I left
Speaker 1: for the season, as there was now for anyone else
Speaker 1: out in my spot but me. I parked the truck
Speaker 1: at my uncle's house and began to walk in and
Speaker 1: I went down the hill, crossed a small creek, and
Speaker 1: made my way to an old logging road that hadn't
Speaker 1: been used for several years. This road was on the
Speaker 1: side of the hill that followed the creek all the
Speaker 1: way to my stand. The creek was to my right,
Speaker 1: with the ridge to my left. At my stand, the
Speaker 1: land flattened out in a bottom, almost like a bowl,
Speaker 1: and there was always something moving in there. I made
Speaker 1: it to my stand, pulled my rifle up, and I
Speaker 1: settled in. It was unusually warm and very comfortable. After
Speaker 1: a while, I noticed the woods had gone totally quiet,
Speaker 1: and still nothing was moving and there were no sounds
Speaker 1: at all. It was dead silent. Well. This kind of
Speaker 1: concerned me for reasons I didn't quite understand, and I
Speaker 1: began feeling creeped out and uneasy. It got to the
Speaker 1: point that I decided to I'm down and make my
Speaker 1: way out. I hadn't walked more than a few yards
Speaker 1: on the old logging road when I heard something on
Speaker 1: top of the ridge. It was somebody or something walking
Speaker 1: with heavy footsteps, but much louder than mine. When I
Speaker 1: stopped to see what it was, it stopped too. I
Speaker 1: couldn't see it, so I kept walking slower than before.
Speaker 1: I made sure to make as little noise as possible.
Speaker 1: Still looking at the ridge, once again, I heard the footsteps.
Speaker 1: I could plainly tell that this thing was walking on
Speaker 1: two feet, and it wasn't trying to be quiet about it.
Speaker 1: It was trying to match my steps. There were a
Speaker 1: few trees and hardly any brush or bushes on the
Speaker 1: hillside on the ridge, and I should have been able
Speaker 1: to see something, but it was empty. It was just
Speaker 1: me and the trees. I walked, and I stopped again
Speaker 1: and again, and each time the creature stopped when I stopped,
Speaker 1: and walked when I walked. I have been in the
Speaker 1: woods all my life, and I knew nothing that would
Speaker 1: do this. I wasn't scared yet, but it was more
Speaker 1: than strange. I began to notice that the steps were
Speaker 1: slowly coming off the ridge toward me, and by the
Speaker 1: time I got to where I could see my uncle's
Speaker 1: house through the woods. This thing felt like it was
Speaker 1: no more than fifteen yards away, but I still couldn't
Speaker 1: see it. Once again, I stopped, but this time I
Speaker 1: heard something else down the hill to my left, splashing
Speaker 1: as it crossed the creek, and it came toward me
Speaker 1: as well. Now I was scared. I had something coming
Speaker 1: at me from two directions, so I raised my two
Speaker 1: seventy and I pointed at the noise. Out of nowhere,
Speaker 1: my uncle's dog jumped out onto the road in front
Speaker 1: of me, wagging his tail. He had come out to
Speaker 1: meet me, as he often did. When he got closer
Speaker 1: to me, he froze, his ears went up, and his
Speaker 1: hair bristled. He gave one small growl, and then turned
Speaker 1: and ran like crazy back to the house. Before I
Speaker 1: had time to register what had just happened, whatever had
Speaker 1: paced me out of the woods began to scream. And
Speaker 1: when I say scream, I mean it was the loudest,
Speaker 1: most ungodly scream I had ever heard. I could feel
Speaker 1: it vibrating in my chest, almost to the point that
Speaker 1: it made me sick, and I couldn't move. I was
Speaker 1: staring at the spot where it seemed to be coming from,
Speaker 1: still unable to see anything but the trees, and the
Speaker 1: scream went on and on longer than should have been possible.
Speaker 1: After what seemed to be an eternity, I finally got
Speaker 1: my feet moving one foot and then the next, still
Speaker 1: looking at where this thing should have been, and scared
Speaker 1: to the point that I had never been, and I
Speaker 1: started walking, wanting nothing more than to be out of there.
Speaker 1: I finally made it to the creek and I crossed it,
Speaker 1: with this thing scream at me all the way. When
Speaker 1: I got to the other side of the water, everything stopped.
Speaker 1: I got home and I called one of my buddies
Speaker 1: and I told him what had happened. But he just laughed,
Speaker 1: and he said that I had been followed out by
Speaker 1: a coyote. The other person I told laughed at me too.
Speaker 1: I know what happened, though, and I know that whatever
Speaker 1: it was, I should have been able to see it.
Speaker 1: I should have been able to see something, at least
Speaker 1: some kind of movement. I've heard other people say that
Speaker 1: they wished they could see a sysquatch or a dog man.
Speaker 1: I'm here to tell you to be careful what you
Speaker 1: wish for whatever it was. I'm glad I didn't see it,
Speaker 1: and going by what I heard and felt, I know
Speaker 1: it was something that I didn't want to get a
Speaker 1: look at. I had hunted those woods for years before
Speaker 1: this happened, and never had anything out of the ordinary
Speaker 1: happened to me. It used to be my favorite place
Speaker 1: to hunt. Most of the time. While out there, I
Speaker 1: would just sit there and watch deer and squirrels and
Speaker 1: occasionally a turkey or a bobcat. I wasn't really there
Speaker 1: to take anything, just to watch it in some way,
Speaker 1: just be a part of nature. It was my escape.
Speaker 1: But after that warm December day, I never went back
Speaker 1: out there alone. I don't tell my story to get
Speaker 1: people to believe me. Believe it or not doesn't matter
Speaker 1: to me. I know what happened. I know what happened
Speaker 1: to me. That's one of the best stories I've read
Speaker 1: in a long time. This guy had a real experience.
Speaker 1: People don't make these kind of stories up. That's a
Speaker 1: If he'd have made it up, he'd have said he
Speaker 1: saw it, you know, But he never saw anything, and
Speaker 1: it was just like it was right there. Eh. It
Speaker 1: just blows my mind some of the things these bigfoots
Speaker 1: can do to people, but it was a great story.
Speaker 1: Thanks to my neighbor from Alabama for sending it to me.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. I did b