Original artist conception by Linda S. Godfrey, copyright 2018 all rights reserved.
Do dogmen, Bigfoots and other cryptids select and follow certain humans…sometimes for years? One Michigan man wrote me about several dogman encounters that began when he was a child. The biggest question in this case may be: will the sightings someday end? The incidents occurred near Alto and Lowell in Kent County, starting when the man was just 11. These communities are just east of Grand Rapids, but both are near rivers and some small lakes, with numerous wooded areas and a rural feel.
Here is the main story as he wrote it (includes the first one and the latest), edited for length and punctuation:
The First Encounter: 1986
“It was summertime, my childhood had a great group of very normal everyday kids and we played war a lot with each other. Normally about six of us played together through the day with kids rotating back home for chores etc. This particular Saturday we decided to play War behind the Alto Elementary School in the woods and creek area. Anyways I was trying to get in the woods ahead of the other kids before they showed up, to have the advantage. We were using squirt guns and water balloons.It was like 10 am. As soon as I ran into the woods which I knew very well–this was my stomping grounds literally–I felt uneasy, like I was being watched… not by a friend, either. This feeling lingered and got stronger and stronger like whatever was watching me was moving closer.In this small stretch of woods there was a creek behind me that ran the stretch of the woods. There is a train trestle/ rail road tracks as well.I was crouched in the tall grass facing the play ground and the road when I heard a splash and very fast movement going behind me. I jumped because I was startled at the height and suddenness of the shadow flashing behind me. When I whipped around I saw a large black/grey, wolflike creature that was running down the creek bed bank alongside the creek behind me. It was shifting from four to two legs and jumped after about three seconds into the brush away from me into the trees. It seemed to have disappeared and I didn’t hear it [any more]. I was a country/woodsy kid. I had no comprehension other than fear for what I saw at that moment.I ran home which wasn’t far, about 1/4 mile. I didn’t tell anybody what I saw. I was afraid of being teased, or made fun of about it by other people.When I ran in my house and got to my bedroom, it had only been like a few minutes but I remember thinking it resembled the werewolves in The Howling movie I had seen few years before that. It was, I’d guess, 7-8 ft. tall, and a very muscular 300 lbs? Its head resembled a timber wolf with long canines, long clawed hands, its legs bent backwards like a canine. It glanced back at me. It didn’t want me to see it. It didn’t SMELL AT ALL. It’s face was not feral or ferocious, its eyes were blue. Its presence was powerful, overwhelming.I didn’t go outta my own yard for several days, which my neighborhood friends thought was odd. I had childhood asthma though, so they assumed that was my issue when they didn’t see me much. I used that excuse when my family wondered why I was so home-bound. I never told a soul what I saw for fear of not being believed. I stayed close to my friends when we played, but I didn’t go close to that creek stretch of woods for 3-4 years. And never alone….Being an eleven year old kid then, I remember thinking about it quite a bit over the summer but fear of not being believed kept me from telling my friends and family what happened behind the school I attended. I was glad that middle school was coming for me that fall. I remember my concern that I was going to see this creature elsewhere that we played in the Alto area but I didn’t. Over next few years I rationalized to myself that I didn’t know really what I saw and the wolf-like creature image in my memory was better left there.
The Roof Wolf“Flash up to 2008. I’m 33 years old. My profession at this time was personal fitness trainer and recreational bodybuilding was my lifestyle. We resided in a quaint house about a mile north of Lowell, MI. It had a very pretty welcoming woodsy area behind our home and we all enjoyed walking the trails in the woods as well.”
“It’s wintertime 2009. It’s a blizzard of snow outside.
All of my family was sound asleep. About 1 am, we wake up to a large thud sound on the roof of our home, like the weight of a person moving around on the roof of our one story home. There is a lot of scraping noises and a slow, deliberate walking sound.This goes on for about a minute. My girlfriend, our children and myself are genuinely spooked by this phenomenon happening on the roof. I recall vividly that all of us were utterly silent huddled in the hallway looking intently at each other and up at the ceiling from all of the loud creaking scraping sounds.I don’t own guns, but I certainly felt it was a good idea to grab my machete that was in the closet. That was when I realized the dread feeling in my gut was the exact same feeling I had years ago with the wolflike creature from my youth. As I struggled with this realization I quietly as possible crept up to the back slider door, machete in hand. I had genuine fear for my girlfriend and children but kept it to myself. They were still huddled and scared, watching me sneak outside. Please know that I’m rather a fearless man for most part.I ever so quietly sneak outside. It’s snowing hard big flakes outside, and it’s eerily quiet. I’m crouched in my pajamas alongside backside of the house. I’m holding my breath…looking up at the roof, listening. Slowly the clawed hands and timber wolf face with piercing blue eyes peers over roof down at me. It’s the exact same creature I saw in my youth!We stare at each other blankly for few seconds. There definitely was a weird sense of recognition between the creature and me ein those moments. I was physically frozen and shocked because the creature was only a good 8 feet or so from me on the roof of my home.It suddenly leaps off the roof about 30 ft into our backyard. It lands on all four then runs on two legs back into the treeline in what seems like a blur. It’s standing there at treeline looking at me. The contrast of the snow and it’s size and fur make it easy to spot.I hold still while the wolflike creature and myself stare each other down.We stare at each other for I’m guessing a minute. In that minute my adrenaline dumped. My fear of this creature turned to anger for it disturbing my life, my family. I made a decision as my anger grew, a reckless one….The VoiceI yelled a loud angry noise and charged, machete in hand directly at it. Pathetically, it took me like fifteen seconds to run the distance the creature had in like 2 moments. The wolflike creature didn’t budge, move or anything. It just stood there watching me run at it. It appeared mildly amused, its facial expression almost a smirk.As I got within about 30 feet, in my head loudly I hear audibly… “DON’T!!!”. It’s a deep loud voice. I swear the sheer volume of the voice stopped me dead in my run at the creature. I was instantly physically calm, confused, still afraid of the creature, my fear of it was different for me. It’s presence was still overwhelming to me…At this moment I realized this creature is intelligent?I dropped the machete in a physical plea, a gesture to not be harmed. I backed away in slow deliberate steps backwards still facing it. If it chose to be violent, it could easily kill/ harm me from physical appearance of it.After few seconds it turned and walked calm about 30 feet into the woods. Its presence faded and it felt like it wasn’t ever there…I went back to my residence looking over my shoulder whole time. I was so bewildered. It was a very vivid, surreal feeling. My reality had been spun like a top. I go back inside, but I keep looking out the slider towards the woods. I announce “It’s gone, girls!”My girlfriend (Age 31), her daughter (10), my daughter (11) walk into the dining room area from the hallway, asking questions in quiet voices. I hug our daughters, telling them it’s late. it was just an animal that ran off. They reluctantly buy it..My girlfriend and I whisper about what happened earlier. It comes out that she saw it a month or so before which then clicked to me…She had called me while I was running errands early evening. She sounded upset and scared. I was at [a store] only a mile from our residence. I was home in like 3 minutes. When I got in the house, she said she lied and chalked it off to the neighbor’s big Rottweiler. That was when I admitted my knowledge of the creature… Our daughters slept but we really didn’t. It was simply crazy, Linda.”
This man had an unusual experience, I’ll say that! But not crazy. I have had other reports of upright canines crawling on roofs and staring at people from the tree lines of their back yards. I’ve also had many, many eyewitnesses report the feeling of receiving a message in their heads that indicates a warning of some type, although the message delivery seems extra vivid in this case. I hope to stay in touch with this witness in case anything else happens, and will update if I hear anything new. I have one more case to present from my recent Michigan batch so keep an eye out here for that.
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