The sun was dipping below the horizon, painting the sky in reds and purples. I was sitting on my back deck looking out of the rolling mountains of NorthEast Georgia with only my two ridgeback hounds Thor and Odin for company. The air still held a chill in early March and I had a fire burning in the pit as I sat sipping a Jack and Coke while enjoying a smoke. The radio was playing softly in the house with the mellow streams of old jazz drifting on the air. The dogs had been out earlier and were content to lay at my feet sleeping as we enjoyed our home. About twenty minutes had passed and the sky had darkened into night and I had slipped into a contented lull of drowsiness when the dogs leapt to their feet. The sound of their warning barks filled the air as they shot off the deck and down into the darkness on the other side of the fire which was still burning strong. I could hear their growling then the flat thud of flesh being struck and the yelp of pain as one of them was hurt and I jumped to my feet and looked into the darkness, seeing nothing,
I might not be able to see anything but something had slapped one of my dogs hard enough to hurt it, perhaps seriously. I was sober now, the adrenaline was coursing through my system and it had burned through my buzz. I raced towards the sliding door, its glass reflecting distorted images of the fire pit as well as myself. The wooden decking bouncing dully under my feet. The glass door rattled in its frame as I slammed it open and raced to my gun rack. I returned moments later with a flashlight mounted old production Bushmaster chambered in .300 blackout and my .454 Casull chambered Ruger Blackhawk riding on my thigh. I called sharply to the dogs once more, trying to get them back in the relative safety of the house. I heard one of them growling around 20 yards from the fire pit and when I stared into the darkness behind the fire pit I thought I saw large eyes staring back in a rage from beyond it. Keeping the gun trained on the fire pit I drew over to the sounds of the dog and found Thor standing over the fallen body of Odin. He was scared, you could read it in his body language but he was determined to defend his litter mate to the end.
I moved over to them on a run. My eyes swept the darkness in vain but then I turned as I heard something behind me but even as I did I knew I was far too late and far too slow. A giant, misshapen hand reached out and grabbed the rifle by the barrel and wrenched it from my hand. It was so strong that I didn’t have time to release it as it was just ripped from my hands. I like to think I backpedaled out of harm’s way but in reality I stumbled and it was blind luck that took me out of the path of the rifle that was now whistling through the air like a cave man’s club. I drew the pistol at my side and triggered three rounds into the large mass looming above me.Three shots that sounded like one clap of man made thunder deafened me. Then a sound carried above the shots. The air was filled with a howl somewhere between a bull ape’s and a demon from the deepest pits of hell.
I didn’t think there was any way I could have missed but either I did or this thing had just absorbed three rounds of .454 Casull, almost twice as powerful as a .44 magnum and all I had managed to do was make him mad. He growled deep but it sounded as if maybe I had struck something vital afterall and then it was gone. There was no more noise or stumbling. It was there one second and gone the next. I shook my head in disbelief. If it weren’t for the demolished rifle and the dog fighting for its life I would think I had imagined the entire thing. I scooped up Odin and called Thor to me and we retreated into the house and straight through to the front drive and my F250 pickup. I laid Odin in the front seat and secured Thor in their carrier in the back and called their vet on the way into town. I just told him something had attacked Odin and he was in rough shape. I pulled into the Vet’s office and he met me to get Odin in an exam room. I had him board Thor as well and paid him for the early start and left to find a hotel as this was really starting to get to me. I was suddenly bone tired and I needed sleep. I pulled into the lot of the Holiday Inn and booked a room for 2 days so I could sleep through check out and fell across the bed.
Everything worked out ok. Odin lived through his ordeal and I found a blood trail next to the busted rifle but I was neither brave nor dumb enoigh to follow it into the woods. We settled into a watchful wait as the summer dragged on. This was the first but certainly not the last of my encounters with the strange beasts that lived near my home but they weren’t going to run me off. That was twenty six years ago and we established an uneasy truce along the way.
Submitted by
Kit Reader
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