Greene County, PA resident James West had 2 horrendous cryptid canine encounters, near his home, when he was in his late teens. I had recently interviewed him, supplementing his written descriptions of these incidents:
1st Incident
In 2002, just 2 weeks before Christmas, I decided to go coyote hunting by myself. I was having trouble sleeping. No one knew I had left, as it's around 11:30 PM. No cell phones of any kind. Bad idea. I started my trek as always, down a well used trail, until I reached a steep section covered with multiflora rose bushes. However, I had previously cut a path and it wasn't hard to navigate, even in the snow that had been falling. I continued down the hill until reaching the large ravine that sets not too far behind my house. Then moving to my left, I went about another hundred yards or so to where the terrain plains out and you can cross a shallow stream. I crossed the stream and proceeded to walk up the long, snow covered hillside trail.
After reaching the top, I went into action setting up all of my gear and finding a spot with a good back rest and nice firing lanes. My back rested against a large pile of crushed slate. My was shotgun leveled across my knees. I quietly sat there, getting colder and colder as more snow covered by the minute. After forty-five minutes to an hour I decided to quit and pack everything up. This is when things got scary.
I grabbed my red filtered 1 MIL candle power field spot light. When I turned it on I saw 'it' around 10 feet away, nose to the ground in my direction on all fours. The light coming on didn't even startle or phase the creature. It's like it knew right where I was and knew the light would be on it at any second. It then took a step toward me and lifted up onto two legs. It didn't creak or crack when standing up. The only noise that I could note was a low, deep sounding 'pop' in the ribs/sternum area. It stretched out and puffed its chest as if it wasn't big enough. I would have to say that I was at least 7-8 feet tall, with 5 finger hands with 2 inch claws.
This Dogman / cryptid canine never did open its mouth, so I can't comment on teeth. It took a step toward me as I had my shotgun already leveled. I fired a shot that hit it in the right mid-upper portion of its ribs. Mind you, that hitting something this close with a .12 gauge shotgun usually causes a major hole and nothing could walk away from it. I was using #2 shot and the wad would have barely opened by the time it hit the creature. The shot let loose a mist of blood in the red tinged light of the spotting lamp. It let out a loud yelp, then tucked its ears and ran to my right. It made it out of the light circle in two strides. I fired two more times at it but it was much too quick and I missed. I got up and started walking in the direction it ran, forgetting momentarily to reload my shotgun.
I walked for about 10 feet and found a large pool of blood. Then walked a few more feet and found less blood. This process repeated until I was around 30 feet from where I initially started and there's no blood to be, just foot prints. It's as if this thing could quickly regenerate or something to heal itself of such a massive wound. I stopped and realized how stupid I was for going after this thing after it just got wounded.
I didn't know if there may had been more of these creatures in the area or if they hunted in packs. I just thought I had encountered a real-life werewolf. I then trudged home in the night with a surely wounded God knows what potentially circling me the whole way as I go. I took my time getting back. It took me two hours to walk what normally took 20 - 30 minutes.
I made it back home, went to bed and never spoke of that night again until 2019. I hardly hunt anymore due to health problems, but even if I was healthy, going back out there you would always be looking over your shoulder. However, I am working on getting a group of professional cryptid researches to come take a look. James West
NOTE: This incident occurred in Nemacolin, Greene County, Pennsylvania. I was impressed with James' description of the incident over the telephone. I believe, and maybe James does as well, that this creature may have 'appeared' suddenly before him and vanished by the same supernatural means. Tracking the creature was somewhat easy since there was 4-5 inches of new snow.
He described the creature as 7-8 foot in height. It had a somewhat short snout with a heavy brow ridge with oval eyes. The ears were set high and pointed. It also had human-like hands with long curled talons. Since it was night, he couldn't distinguish the actual color of the fur.
I truly believe his account and plan to interview James on Arcane Radio within the coming months. I will post his 2nd encounter description very soon. Lon
