by Linda Godfrey

a proud member of The Grand Order of Weird Writers

Think a bipedal canid is impossible? See this article on Faith the Dog. Video on YouTube

Faith the bipedal dog

9-27-06 Another Lima Marsh Monster Sighting - Bigfoot?

LIMA MARSH MONSTER- BIGFOOT? ANOTHER SIGHTING

In Hunting the American Werewolf, there's a lengthy report of a creature sighting on Hwy. 59 in Rock County, WI near Lima Marsh Wildlife Area. It was made by a 22-year old female college student on March 9, 2005. Because she didn't get a clear look at the head, I couldn't definite it as other than an upright furry biped. But a married couple who own a popular area restaurant, The Richmond House in rural Delavan, have come forward to say that they also saw an upright furry biped cross a road in the vicinity of the Lima Marsh. Their sighting was at the end of April or beginning of May, 2005, just five or six weeks after the college student's. And at the time, they knew nothing of her sighting.

The pair, aged 43 and 39 at the time, had kept fairly quiet about what they had seen, telling only their three children and a few acquaintances. But the husband, Lenny Faytus, recognized my husband's name when he stopped in to pick up our Friday night fish fry carryouts the week before last, and asked if I would call him to talk about a sighting. I did, of course, and was excited about it because it does help corroborate the first sighting to have another so similar and so close in time and location.

Lenny and his wife, Stacie, both life-long area residents, had not yet purchased the restaurant at that time. They were on their way to a pet-sitting job on McCord Road, to the east of Lima Marsh, in later afternoon. It was still light out, with about an hour left before sunet, he estimated. It was a clear, pleasant day and visibility was still good as they headed north on McCord. They noticed a farmer out in his field, and both remarked that they thought he had an unusual number of lights on, especially since it was still light. "My wife and I both said he must be scared of something," said Lenny. "He must have had at least 15 lights on, pointed in 360 degrees around the tractor."

It was only a few minutes later that Lenny noticed something moving out onto the 20-foot wide road from the east, or right sight of the road, about 1/4 mile away. At that distance, he at first thought it was a deer. It was emerging from a densely wooded area backed by a swamp. On the other side of the road lay a cultivated field, fronted by a shallow ditch that dropped off into a patch of weeds and bramble that lay about four feet lower than the roadway.

As the creature stepped onto the road and Lenny continued to drive toward it, he realized it was no deer. "What is that?" asked Stacie in alarm. Lenny had realized this was no deer. "I thought then it must be a person," he said, "but it was a medium brown color, like a deer in fall. It was upright, but I still didn't think anything of it until it went across the road and then I knew it wasn't normal. It went in quick, easy strides but I couldn't see any arms. I was probably only 1/8 mile away by then. He was behind a stop ahead sign. When I got to the spot I slowed down and rolled the window down but I couldn't see him anymore. When I looked at the field and didn't see him, and I was looking all over, the hair stood up on the back of my neck because I realized he was hiding. He knew I was looking for him. I looked the field over pretty good, I'm a hunter too, and he just wasn't there to be seen. Stacie wanted me to keep going."

Stacie's hair had risen on her arms and neck too, she said. Both of them said they felt they were receiving some kind of message, a definite warning that they should not be there. "I had the impression to 'get out,'" said Lenny.

He estimated the creature to stand at about 7 feet, judging by its relation to the sign, and to weigh about 350 pounds. "It was definitely bigger than a human. It didn't look like it was jumping or stretching but it crossed the road in just two steps. With each step it covered a lot of ground. (We later tried to simulate it with a six-foot tall man, and the best he was able to do to cross the 20-foot road without jumping was four steps.)

Lenny said the creature was "muscular, stocky for its size, not like a gorilla, not a lot of girth. The head was humanlike in shape, there was no muzzle. It hesitated when it came out on the road." Stacie also noted that the neck wasn't visible, that the hair came straight down on its shoulders. No ears or other facial features were visible from that distance, either.

Since the incident, the Faytus' call McCord "Spooky Holler Road." Stacie says she kept a camera in the car for 4-5 months afterward, in case they saw it again, but they never have although they often drive down that road. Since the sighting, a new house has been erected to the left of the field where the creature "disappeared." Lenny thinks the creature may have dropped down into the lower elevation behind the ditch. On the day we visited the site, that area was overgrown with ground cover, including a viney area that looked like it had a hole frequented by smaller animals.

I took photos of the area and the Faytus' but strangely the ones from my new digital camera did not come out, so I will have to wait until I can develop the backup shots on the disposable film camera I brought just in case. Watch for shots of the Faytus' and the sighting area.

Also, I'm now inclined to think that the college student may also have seen a Bigfoot, although the creature she saw was smaller and had "glowing yellow eyes." But she described the same easy, long strides.

The Lima Marsh Wildlife Area is a public preserve but very dense and boggy. Entrance is off Hwy. KK, just north of Hwy. 59 between Milton and Whitewater.

8-23-06 -Upright Timber Wolves or Yooper Madness?

While on vacation recently in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, I couldn't resist talking shop with a few of the characters from the tiny town of Gay while my husband and I enjoyed a beer in the berg's only tavern, named The Gay Bar of course. The gent I was talking to was a lifelong resident of the Gay area, which is located on the Keweenaw Peninsula, and he told me that sometime in the 1960s, while out trapping on his family's land, he encountered what he was sure was a timber wolf, except it was walking upright! He had heard they did this when feeling threatened, he said, but this was the only time he witnessed it himself.

Can wolves do this, digitigrade walkers that they are, or was he just pulling another tourist's plantigrade-footed leg?

Well, I have no doubt that a wolf would be physically capable of the feat. Witness Faith the Walking Dog on the YouTube site noted above. But would a wolf saunter bipedally as a form of aggressive posturing? I have not been able to find any examples in the literature I have available to me at the moment, but will be consulting some experts. In the meantime, if anyone can point out a documented example, I would be grateful.

8-17-06 Maine Madness - related to PA-Ohio creature?

Oh yes, I have seen the photos of the "Maine Hybrid Mutant," and I do thank everyone who emailed me to make sure. We've been chatting about it on Unknown Creature Spot since the story broke. I felt immediately that it was not any sort of exotic or unknown creature although the head looked admittedly strange. But death will do that to a critter. And there are some plug-ugly canid mixes in this world. I do think that all of those journalists who used the word "mutant" in their headlines were guilty of what I call "silly-sizing" a story. As I've said in the Yahoo group, my main regret is that no one saved the head so that its identity could ultimately be proved. (Loren Coleman did hint in one of his Cryptomundo blogs that the Maine discoverers may have saved it secretly, after all)......

Was it worthy of all the hoopla? Unfortunately, we can't ever make that final judgement about any anomaly until it's pretty much too late. It must have been very frustrating for those who made the Maine discovery that they couldn't get any officials there until it was only a skeleton. But even if this was just a dog, who knows what strange creature may show up in the woods one of these days? And the Maine animal's photo did remind at least one person of something very strange he saw in Western PA, actually near Hubbard OH. His witness sketch is below.

I think it's intended to show shaggy fur rather than tentacles or many legs, but I'm not sure I see the resemblance between this and the mixed breed dog. This drawing has a face and ears that fall more into the great ape camp, I think. The witness gave permission to post his drawing but not his name. Now a carcass of this thing might be something worth seeing! I have not been able to get a date on this incident, but the account as emailed to me is as follows:

this is a drawing of the animal as seen in the headlights of the car. it had crossed the street slowly and stared into the headlights before entering the woods. it looked very strong. the animal had no snout and could not be mistaken for a dog. its hair was very thick and knotted together. twigs and leaves were stuck and tangled in its hair. its walk looked more like a crawl, as a human would crawl. it also had a strange presence to it as it stared at us;it was not like looking into the eyes of an animal; you could see that there were thoughts inside its head. on all fours it could have stood about 3 feet high but it could have been larger. it looked quite large at about 20 feet away.

8-14-06

More shapeshiftiness

For some reason, everything seems to be coming up shapeshifting lately. This will not please the crypto crowd, I know, but neither will it elate the Lycan purists. I just found it interesting and a tale worth retelling.

I received a call from a man who identified himself as a Cheyenne medicine man, who told me of an incident that happened this past June, 2006, as he attended a small Medieval reenactment in a northern Wisconsin town. His town and name are withheld by request. But being biracial, he enjoys both European reenactments and traditional powwows.He was engrossed in the festivities, he said, when he noticed a strange-looking man standing on the edge of the crowd, staring. The man was about five foot nine, hairier than most, and didn't seem to be part of the event. The medicine man walked over and introduced himself, then sensed something was really wrong. "I came right out and asked him," the man told me, "are you a vampire?" He said at that, the stranger's pupils dilated and his eyes went black. He shook his head and said no, I think I am what you would call a werewolf."

At this point, the medicine man glanced around for a friend to help him, and when he glanced back, the strange man had vanished. He felt this was a shapeshifter, he said, but not a human who changes into animal form but the opposite. Something that is older than man. Sounds eerily like the "spirit master" the telepathic animal communicator described in "Hunting the American Werewolf." Which, the man said, he hadn't read although he had perused "The Beast of Bray Road," and that is why he called.

This story also reminds me of some earlier blog entries about the widely spread folk tale of the girl who dances with a handsome man only to find the devil's footprints on the dance floor. And I also received an email from a person who encountered a snake down south in Hoodoo-practice territory, only to have the snake vanish and an elderly African American man appear seemingly out of nowhere.

It seems, for some reason, that this type of story comes in during the lulls in flesh-and-blood sighting reports. Almost like a balance, or an ebb and flow. But I don't remember having such a pile of them at once...maybe that means we are in for a real sightings flap soon. Could be. The cornfields, or as I like to call them, creature highways, are high.

LG

7-31-06

The Dog Man Ate My Camera

Well, he could have. There was no other explanation I could come up with for the fact that my camera disappeared (loaded with photos of a sightings site) off the passenger seat of a van in the wilds of northern Michigan with no one around who could have taken it. This was just after I saw yellow eyes in the brush, witnessed a gray, vertical, tall thing cross the road just out of the reach of our flashlights, and heard something large and furry shake its coat out exactly like a wet dog about 30 feet from where I was standing. Not to mention having just heard a long, eerie howl from a single canid in the woods, seeing a motion detector on a nearby building turning on although none of us were near it, and hearing a very large branch snap on the ground in the woods quite close by.

We were about an hour south of Traverse City, and I was on site because Michigan is the hotspot for upright canids right now. Check out the sightings log, and I'll be adding more as time permits.

I don't know if I actually experienced the Dogman or Manwolf, but I have to say it was probably the closest I will ever come. And I wish him, her or it luck with that Minolta; the flash is always a little bit touchy.

Note: The drawing at right is by Gilles Arondeau, copyright 1992, may not be reproduced elsewhere. See sightings for a full and side view. Looks like many Michigan Dog Man descriptions.

7-21-06

When Werewolves Attack: An Update on the Canadian Manwolf Assault: First-Ever Photo of Attack Scar?

More on my 7-17 entry about the possibility of Manwolves actually attacking humans after all. The Canadian correspondent who was rushed by a Manwolf near his cabin in a remote location replied to me with a photo of his 10-inch hip scar that was left after the creature slashed him with its claw. Yes, I know, the gent appears to have a generous amount of hair himself, but the nature of the scar is what I'm interested in. If any forensic specialists would like to weigh in on what sort of instrument might have caused this scar formation, I'd very much like to hear it. He has now given me permission to post his details as long as I change the name of the town (I'll just leave it out.) Here is what he had to say: (note, his native language is French)

It was last summer... I was at my cottage in Quebec (province)... I had never heard of a werewolf except in movies. It was a Sunday night and as I was preparing to head back to (home)... I heard loud noises coming from my shed... My cottage is very near a Regional parc and alot of wildlife comes around oftenly... I didn't bother. All happened when I went to put my garbage bags in the garbage cabin beside the road. As I was heading back.. I saw a large shape between me and the cottage. Because of the strong lights of the cottage.. I could distinguish what it was... I quickly guest it was a large wolf or a small bear... I stopped, hoping it hadn't seen me... but wrong I was when it started making small noises with his throat... I figured if its a bear or a wolf .. if I start walking rapidly in its direction it would run off... Wrong again.. As I walked towards its direction... it stood up.. realizing it was way taller than I guest... not a wolf... not a bear.. not anything I suspected... I stopped... I figured... If I run... thats it.. I'm done... The closer I get to the door or my car or any obstacles... the bigger the chances I have. It howled exactly 4 times... I will never never never never forget that howl... It froze my blood. Then it fell back down on its 4 feet and started forwarding towards me... faster and faster... it struck me.. but not with his claws or teeth.. but with its shoulder as a football player would have done... with his swing it stumbled upon me.. Now I was between him and the cottage... so I stood up and ran to the door... Beeing way faster than me... He got me again... this time with his claws... and this time I got a good look at his face...

It's not a wolf ... its not human... The physicality isn't animal nor human... The body is half half... but the face struck me so much... It has touches of human and animal in the same time. Big big eyes... not a long long nose as a wolf would have but not too short enough to deform the mouth again not human nor animal... It then swinged its ''arm'' at me... its claws tearing my flesh on my upper hip... I kicked with my left foot stricking him on its knee... it rapidly took off a couple of feet... giving me time to enter the cottage and locking the door... I immediately called for assistance... the police came... while waiting I thought that I couldn't tell the real story... they would lock me up! so I said it was a wolf.. they took me to a hospital... only one claw entered my flesh enough that I would have stiches... the rest was not that bad... Still today I have a scar. I never returned during the night. I sold my cottage in that summer. I went to the local library... no sightings or stories or legends were mentionned. I know what I saw... It was a wolf because it stood up very quickly... It was a little bit taller than me maybe 6 foot 3 and it was very muscular. No infections or complications occured because of the scratch on my upper hip. ... the howling I will always remember... very very very loud. I want to remain anonymous and please excuse my bad writing I usually write in French...

Here is the picture of my scar... it looks small but it's about 10 inch... from top to bottom. I did notice a smell... it was a foul foul smell of human transpiration... HEAVY transpiration mixed with an odour of wet dog. Since I wrote to you last time... I returned to my old cottage in the evening... (WITH a gun) of course nothing happened... I took a walk in the woods.. Saw nothing unusual. But that night... that thing wasn't a bear nor a wolf... It stood tall and was way too skinny to be a bear and way way too big to be a wolf. And its face... if you have any further question... please do not hesitate... you can post my storie but change the name of the town... thank you

It's a creepy tale, for sure. Strange how the Bigfoot stories get sweeter and the Manwolf tales grow meaner. Two paths...diverge in the woods...

7-19-06

GUEST BLOG: A Native American's Perspective on the Michigan Dog Man...Related to Dog Soldiers? And, I must say, correlating well with the apparent no-kill philosophy on the part of the creature:

By permission of David Walks As Bear, former Michigan game warden and a member of the Shawnee Nation. Now an author, he has a web site at Walks-as-Bear.com

Bear's Den by David Walks-As-Bear

Ordinarily I work Halloween every year. It just seems to happen that way. It's never been a biggy for me as I don't get spooked by modern-day monsters. But man, sometimesŠ when I¹m driving deep in the dark woods, on a full-mooned nightŠ I fret a little about things changing, eh. November is American Indian Heritage Month. It doesn't get a lot of play like Black History or Hispanic Months do but I figure that's okay. Squeaky wheels get the grease and heck, we're not alone. Folks with Polish, French, Hungarian and other ancestry don't have rusty axles, either. Still, since I am Shawnee, I thought I'd delve a tad deeper into Indian outdoor stuff.

So, there's the Legend of the Dogmen here in the Michigan north woods, eh. There's even a nifty song about them, eh. It seems like a shape shifting deal to me so, here we go. But first, if you want to learn more about this Mitten State mystery, go to Google and punch-in "Michigan Dog Man". Now, as a rule, Indians are pretty generic. Like Americans, British or Lithuanians, their cultures and languages will vary a bit from region to region. But overall, everybody follows similar modes. That goes for Indian Warrior societies, too. Now these groups are made up of braves whose primary job is protecting their nation. And they often take the names of animals that they feel most symbolize their warrior prowess.

Back in the 1860s, there was a warrior group of Cheyenne called the Dog Soldiers or Dog Men. For many poor US Army troopers, they were the Special Forces of their times. Like wolves or wild dogs, they were tenacious in their pursuit of their prey and would come back againŠ and againŠ and again until they won victory. Similar warrior societies using the dog or wolf can be found in almost every American Indian nation. The process for a warrior in this society is in learning how to become just as your totem, or symbol. And that lends its way into Indian shape shifting. Now I¹m speaking figuratively ­ not literally, eh.

But depending on your point of view, shape shifting canŠ "change". For Indians, shape shifting is applied in hunting, song and dance, healing and warfare. A brave will study his spirit animal for many years to learn all of its uniqueness and mannerisms, trying to become one with it or - just like it. Ordinarily, Indian shape shifting couldn't be more different than the modern horror crud. But there can be exceptions where this homily plays out close to modern day Dracs, and Frankysteins, eh. And maybe, the Northern Michigan "Legend of the Dogmen" is one such instance, hmm?

The Cheyenne Dog Men supposedly were wiped out by the US Army. But there are stories, carried over from the elders, that tell of some of the Dog Men actually shape shifting into the 'real dogs' that they mimicked in battle. Thus, these few escaped the US Army¹s planned killing of them all back in the ³Battle of Summit Springs² in Colorado. Now, be you a believer of this or not, it's worthwhile to note that unlike the horror junk you see in movies and on TV, the Dog Men are not going to rip you apart and devour you, eh. They couldn't even if they wanted to. That's because even if they were bad spirits, most Indians know that you cannot be harmed by evilŠ of any kind unlessŠ you invite it into yourself. Christianity and every other religion on the Earth Mother teach the same thing, eh.

Equally though, the Good Book and all of those other beliefs also speak of spirits that have manifestations here among us two-leggeds, too. Angels are one such example of good spirits and demons are the opposite in that they're evil. Well, Shapeshifters are usually considered as good, a tad mischievous maybe, but not evil. The same can't be said for their opposite - skinwalkers, eh. If the Michigan Dog Men are shapeshifters, then they'd be spooky, alright, as they're other-worldly. But not evil, though. So it could be that the Dog Men of Michigan are just old Michigan Indian warriors, going through their seven-year routine of shape shifting. Who can say? But speaking of routineŠ I do personally fret a bit when I'm driving deep in the dark woods, on a full-mooned night and thingsŠ changeŠ know what I mean? - David Walks as Bear

(Note from Linda: bold prints are my emphasis. I sure wish I'd had this letter to add to the sections on shapeshifting in Hunting the American Werewolf. Many thanks to David for allowing me to print this here. Lots of food for thought! And all could apply to Bigfoot as well, I might add. More on this later.- LG)

7-17-06

Beast Meaner than we thought?

More paradigms crashing this weekend...

A month or so ago I was forced to trash my oft-repeated mantra that no one who has actually gone out looking for the creature has seen it, after a Milwaukee area nurse, her teenage daughter and friend did just that...and on Bray Road! (see sightings)

This weekend, after appearing on Ian Punnett, I received the usual volume of delightful emails. One was from a woman who has posted two accounts of Manwolf encounters on someone else's website, (under Jan's tales) and in one of the stories, a person was slashed and injured on his leg. I had assumed that these accounts were fictional because they are written in the style of a good novel, but the writer assured me they are not. She wishes to remain anonymous, as did a Canadian correspondent who also asked me not to post the details of his encounter. But the gist of it was that he was rushed by a bipedal Manwolf, and ended up with a ten-inch gash on his hip after it slashed him with its claws. He says he still bears the scar.

Two leg-clawings still don't add up to the total gore immersion and people-eating mania of the Asylum's Beast movie, but they do make it seem possible that these things can occasionally attack humans for some reason.

Neither of these writers was looking for publicity. Their sole aims, they both very independently told me, were to contribute information for research.

If these accounts are true, and I tend to believe both writers, everyone who e's me to say they are out "hunting" these creatures (as well as the usual witnesses to whom sightings are a complete surprise) would do well to keep their distance if one is spotted...particularly if you are on foot or in a vulnerable position. That just makes good sense; you wouldn't cozy up to bear or timberwolf, either, if you had a penny's worth of brain between your ears.

A number of seasoned hunters have advised me to carry bear-weight pepper spray with me on any expeditions, and that's not a bad idea for anyone doing fieldwork. I know many don't feel comfortable without toting a gun, but that's not for me. And especially if you are inexperienced with firearms, I think you are far more likely to accidentally shoot a companion or out-of-season animal than a Manwolf or Bigfoot.

And remember, just because I don't have any other reports of people being harmed doesn't mean there may have been some who didn't live to tell the tale!

7-14-06

A 10-Year Old Cryptozoologist and the Doritos Bigfoot

Book signings are always a mixed blessing for a writer. You have to promote your books because if they don't sell, it's unlikely a publisher will want to print your next one. The signings usually involve a trip to another city, and you never know if 50 people will show up or three. On the other hand, wonderful folks are likely to be among those who do make the effort to come, and that's the part I like. Last night's event at Madison's Barnes & Noble West was no exception.

The crowd was great, for starters. A big turnout is always a good sign. To begin, B&N promotions person Sherry Klinkner asked the group if anyone knew what a cryptozoologist was. About five people out of the 35 or so present raised their hands, and one of them was a ten-year old girl named Zelia. "A cryptozoologist is a person who studies undiscovered animals," she answered. Bingo! The crowd oohed and aahed. Zelia explained she began her interest by reading about Bigfoot, then graduated to sea monsters and the Beast of Bray Road. She spends a lot of time reading about unknown creatures and wants to be a cryptozoologist some day, she said. By her own definition, I think she already is one. It's heartening to know there's a new generation of crypto-enthusiasts coming up. Zelia, you go girl!

There was also a nice young man present who waited til afterward to talk to me because he had a story to tell. I love it when that happens. It's strange how often there's a witness in the crowd, and I've obtained some great sighting reports that way.

He was a student at UW-Whitewater in the early 90s, he said, and he and a buddy were taking a late night walk around the wooded area north of the athletic center. (This area used to be the farm of the Poison Widow, and was also where a UW professor and others saw a UFO which was reported in the local newspaper a couple of years ago). Suddenly, he said, they noticed that there were two red, glowing eyes staring at them from the woods. The eyes stood six feet off the ground. He and his friend were dumbstruck, not knowing whether they should try to move away or stay and see what it was. They had heard reports about the Beast of Bray Road, and were afraid that's what they were seeing, although I told him that with the red eyes and at that location, it was more likely to have been the nearby Bluff Monster, a Bigfoot-like creature. But that's merely a guess, of course. Whatever it was, he estimates they stood for ten minutes in a staredown, until finally he and his friend became too unnerved and fled.

The next day, he said, he mustered his courage and went back to the site to look for footprints or other evidence. "What I found," he said, sheepishly, "was an empty bag of Doritos stuck about six feet up in a tree." He theorized that the Doritos bag was lit just enough from the glow of the university's stadium lights to somehow look like two red eyes.

"Ah," another attendee interrupted. "But what if the Bigfoot had found a bag of Doritos, eaten it, and stashed the bag in the tree?" The first man admitted he hadn't thought of that, and that it sort of made sense.

Has Dorito's packaging changed since the early 90s? Did bags of that time feature metallic or other shiny red spots that would reflect in the shape of two red eyes? If anyone knows, please share. I do find it unlikely that a Doritos bag stuck in a tree would only reflect two matched red areas that looked exactly like an animal's eyes. And I believe it's been theorized that Bigfoot do stash things in trees. You hear stories about large carcasses being found deposited in the fork of a pine ten feet off the ground, for instance. Or maybe (tongue-firmly-in-cheek) this creature was simply environmentally conscious and didn't want to litter. It's certainly likely that a campus area would have partially eaten bags of Doritos tossed here and there for prowling creatures to find.

Or, perhaps, as originally thought, the witness' eyes were just playing tricks on them. Eyes are known to do that. On the other hand, if you believe people like Michigan researcher Lisa Shiel, author of Backyard Bigfoot, Sasquatches are also known to play tricks on people in their vicinity.

Maybe this is one case I should hand over to Zelia.

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