While living in rural Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, a former resident recalls an encounter his family had at home with a massive hyena-like canine after hearing a loud ruckus on the front porch.
The following account was recently forwarded to me:
"This occurred in 1977, in the Madera community of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. I was a young teen at the time. We lived in a house in the heavily forested hills above Madera. There were very few residences in our neighborhood. The location was incredibly isolated.
My grandfather would frequently go on patrols with the local officer who worked for the Game Commission. I bring this up because of his reaction when we had our encounter, which is the reason why I am bringing this out. He was a large man, and it took a lot to shake his confidence. When grandpa would walk outdoors at night, with nothing but a pitchfork to frighten away a bear, we would often just shake our heads at him. He was familiar with the local wildlife, understood what their routines were, could predict whether, and so on.
On one particular evening, we were awaken by a loud ruckus that took place close to our front porch. We had outdoor cats who liked to hang out on the porch, and if a raccoon or other animal came near the front of the house, they would run away. The noise they made as they dispersed was rather loud, which is why we were awakened by it. I can still hear my grandpa giving one of his signature irritated sighs because he was forced to get up and check out what was going on outside We were all listening closely for the sound of the door being closed. Instead, we heard our grandpa let out a loud roar. This sent everyone of us scurrying for the stairs. He was keeping his distance from the entrance while holding the rifle in his hand, and the expression on his face might best be described as fearful. As I've already said, nothing seemed to frighten grandpa, so the sight of that expression on his face caused all of us to stand there feeling unsure.
This monster, which was outside on the porch, was gazing straight back at us, displayed absolutely no fear at all. In fact, I recall having the thought that it was furious. But upon closer inspection, it merely seemed cruel. It was definitely not a dog, but rather a canine of some kind. It had the appearance of a hyena from the front shoulders all the way up to the head, but the rear end was much smaller than the front shoulders and the head. I don't think I ever noticed there was a tail there. The fur had an unusual appearance that was patchy and shaggy all throughout. It simply didn't look like fur. It is difficult to describe. The nose was neither very long or very narrow; rather, it was short but somewhat large. The whole of the body was enormous. It was nearly as wide as our porch from the rear of its head to the front of its body. Taking this into account, it would be at least seven-feet long. It stood there staring in at us, then turned and looked towards our barn, then back at us again. After that, it went a few steps very slowly, before turning and running away. It happened so quickly that all I could see was a smear of color, and then it was gone.
We all stood there for a moment before our mother asked our father what was going on, at which point our father shouted for all of us to hurry up and go upstairs. He did not even bother to go outside to check on the animals, since he remained awake the whole night. Strangely enough, we never brought it up in conversation. After that, nobody ever mentioned it again.
It was a really special place to live, and I was fortunate enough to spend the most of my life there. But I was relieved to leave the area when I became older, since many of the occurrences that took place there were puzzling to me and could not be explained." NM
