Black Dog

My name is Vanessa, and I am 17. I will be turning 18 this Thanksgiving. I wish I had found a site like this sooner because, frankly, I was a little confused and scared at the time. A few years back, things happened (Family-wise) and we ended up caring after an elderly black Labrador. He was the sweetest and most gentle dog I've ever come across. He was also blind. My father didn't like him, and would only be okay with him (Grudgingly) if he lived in the yard. My father was CONSTANTLY complaining about this poor soul, and he didn't even have to care for him. It was my mom and I who would clean his doghouse, feed him and groom him. (I'm sorry this is a little off-topic, but it ties into the first meeting with Specter hounds)

I've never been a very religious person, and to be honest, I don't really think much about it. (At the time I was sure spirits and religion went hand in hand.) So it was a few days before Christmas. It was a Friday evening (Around 5 to 6, I believe. It was dusk.) I remember because I was excited to go see the dog. Just to clear things up, I've visited this dog many times before -- So I knew he didn't get along well with other dogs or strangers.

While I was out there with him, I turned my back on the front gate and just stood, petting, to comfort him. (Of course he was keeping a heavy paw on my toes, ouch!) I felt miserable for him, but something must have caught his attention at the time because he left my side. (He never left anyone's side!) He was walking toward the front gate, and then when I was following him (I guess I wasn't paying attention?) I looked up and just freaked out. There was this giant - and I mean HUGE -- dog standing with his face just inches away from the fence. At a glance (Which is all that I got) I'd say he looked like an American White German Shepherd (If you want to look it up for reference!) With big pale eyes. The fur was too short and dense to be a husky. The snout was nothing Husky-esque, either. It was so quiet outside, that I guess it surprised me that I didn't hear it when it came walking through the grass. It just sort of, appeared.

I was scared because I'd seen the Lab get into fights before and at the time I had been unable to pull him off the other dog. So I was scared something would happen if he caught the smell of the other dog. So I turned around to pick up a pebble to throw at the gate to scare it off. In just seconds, when I turned around the dog was gone. I was in shock. I just kind of stood there and dropped the pebble thinking, did it run away? But I didn't hear it run away! I didn't hear anything, in fact. So I went out onto the lawn through the front gate and ran to check the corner. I looked left and right on the street. (Mind you, the street I live on is a very long street. Even if he did run, I still would have caught a look at him before he reached the corner. Remember, this was just seconds!) I was a little spooked. I mean, it still boggles my mind a bit. I can't understand how that could've been possible at all. Just like the blink of an eye. Not a crunch of grass, or tapping nails against the concrete of the driveway.

Anyway, so that was my "first time" I guess. It was the day before Christmas, and it was chilly out. I wanted to go say an early Merry Christmas to the dog. But he was gone. My dad told me he'd taken him to a "farm". I've never forgiven him for that. How could anyone abandon an animal in so much need, just because you had a bad day? A few years after that, strange things started happening. (I'll get to that in another post, this one will stick to the Black Dog apparitions) One day I was sitting in my brothers room watching T.V. Now that I think about it, it was around the same time I had seen the white do. (I'll just call him Houdini for now, haha.) Half past 5 in the evening, around dusk. I could hear this sudden and weird noise but I couldn't tell where it was coming from. Then I can finally make out that it's snarling -- Not barking -- Snarling. Kind of like snorts, yips, growls and barks all jumbled together.

My seat was right beside the window, so when I turned to see what was going on. There were these three noticeably HUGE dogs, standing up on two legs. Two of them were pinning one to a tree just outside my house. [NOTE: This tree stands well over 6 feet tall and these dogs were just about the same height on two legs.] They stood up remarkably straight, which looked really weird to me. To sum it up, it was a 2 on 1 fight. The two dogs on the same "team"? Snow white to the last tail hair. The other one? So black that I didn't even see the ruffles in it's coat. Of course, I'm not thinking right off the bat, SPIRIT DOGS! No way, I had pets all my life! I was worried sick there was going to be bloodshed. So I ran to the living room (Not really thinking... How was I supposed to pull three giant dogs apart from each other, anyway?) But the front door was wide open. My dad and two neighbors were chatting half inside and half outside of the house. I'm here panicking, and these three are looking at me like I'm crazy. I told them what I saw, but they all made faces at me.

I looked outside and there was not a soul around. That's when I started feeling strange about this whole dog thing. I decided to look up ghosts on the internet, but I could never find anything on animal spirits. Until later, when I found a webpage regarding a legendary animal in folklore. It was called the Black Shuck. Others referred to it as a Black Dog, or specter hound. I read they've been "witnessed" in different colors, but all have one thing in common. They're all friggin' huge! They say, they've been seen standing up on two legs like a man -- And most have very bright eyes (Usually described as glowing) For a long time, I've been wondering if it had just been coincidence, that a dog would just appear out of nowhere and disappear without a trace. That Specter Hounds were considered to be messengers of Death. Like a bad omen, sort of. That death may be near. And what had happened? My father dumped the poor dog somewhere, never to be found. (My mother and her friends at work searched high and low for him.)

The last time I ever saw those dogs was when I saw the fight. Not too long after, give or take a few painful months, my great aunt passed away due to cancer. It's a silly assumption to key them together, I know, because there's so much time between them. It still bothers me, more-so because I've never seen them again. I would walk my Min-pin with me around the block, thinking that they might have been a neighbor's dog. I would've thought they were strays, but white dogs living on the street don't look much like shining pearls, either. I can't understand why they would be fighting if they were what I now think they were, and I still wish I knew why I heard them the last time and not the first time. Either way, they still disappeared faster than I could even register they were gone. Am I the only one? Has anyone had any experiences with animal spirits or the like? Please tell me, I'd like to know.

Thanks for reading through that all, I appreciate your interest!