Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside. Brad Steiger
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The sun was setting and Ivan and a friend were getting ready to head home after an afternoon of playing hide-and-seek. Suddenly, however, the pair was stopped dead in its tracks by the shocking sight of a ghostly “tall, dark man,” who was “accompanied by a black dog” that had materialized out of a “dense hedge” approximately ten yards from the boys’ position. Both man and beast passed by in complete and utter silence before disappearing—quite literally.
Ivan later mentioned the incident to his uncle, who then proceeded to tell him that he, too, had seen the ghostly dog on several occasions as a child. It was always in the same location: on the old road that stretches from the village of Woodhouses to an area of Burntwood, near the town’s hospital. As with the majority of black dog legends from all across Britain, this particular ghostly animal would always faithfully follow the same path and walk the same stretch of road before vanishing as mysteriously as it had first appeared.
And weird reports from the Cannock Chase of out-of-place dog-like beasts continue to surface to this very day.
It was in late June 2006 that all hell metaphorically broke loose, when reports flew around the people of the Cannock Chase to the effect that nothing less than a fully-grown wolf was roaming the area. Early on the morning of June 28, motorists on Junction 10A of the M6 Motorway near Cannock jammed Highways Agency phone-lines with reports of a “wolf-like creature” that was seen “racing between lanes at rush hour.” Motorists stared with utter disbelief as the three-foot-long beast, described as “grayish-black,” raced between lanes, skillfully dodging cars, before leaping for cover in nearby trees.
Highways Agency staff took the reports very seriously, but concluded that the animal was “probably a husky dog.” However, a spokesperson for Saga Radio—the first media outlet on the scene—said in reply to the statement of the Highways Agency: “Everyone who saw it is convinced it was something more than a domestic dog. I know it sounds crazy but these people think they’ve seen a wolf.”
The local newspaper, the Chase Post, always quick to report on mystery animals seen in the vicinity of the dark woods, stated on July 6 in an article titled Great Beast Debate on Net that: “Internet message boards are being flooded with debates on our front-page revelation last week that a ‘wolf-like’ creature was spotted by dozens of motorists on the M6 hard-shoulder.”
The Chase Post further noted that: “Our own website has been thrown into overdrive by the story, which received around 2,600 hits from fans of the unexplained across the globe in the last week alone.”
While the affair was never ultimately resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, the final words went to the Highways Agency, who said: “We have received a number of reports that the animal was captured. But we don’t know where, who by, or what it was.”
Perhaps the event had indeed been due to the mistaken sighting of an escaped Husky; however, that does not in any way come close to explaining the eerie encounter of Jim Broadhurst and his wife that occurred while the pair was out for a morning stroll on the Cannock Chase, only days before the events of June 28.
Broadhurst stated that he and his wife had seen at a distance of about one hundred and fifty feet, what looked like a large wolf or “a giant dog” striding purposefully through the woods. Broadhurst added that fear gripped the pair when the creature suddenly stopped and looked intently and menacingly in their direction. That fear was amplified even further, however, when the beast reportedly, and incredibly, reared up onto two powerful hind legs and backed away into the thick trees, never to be seen again. The Broadhursts, unsurprisingly, fled those dark woods—and have not returned since; fearful of what they believe to be some form of “monster” lurking deep within the mysterious depths of the Cannock Chase.
Interestingly, and certainly unfortunately, in the weeks that followed their sighting, the Broadhursts were cursed with a seemingly never-ending run of bad luck and disaster that did not abate until well into September of that same year.
Whether they are the precursors to doom and tragedy; ancient and paranormal entities that are somehow connected with the realm of the dead; or the spirits of long-deceased animals that have returned to watch over the living, it seems that the phantom black dogs of Britain’s Cannock Chase are here to stay.
Researcher Theo Brown has divided the phantom black dogs into three separate categories: 1) a shape-shifting demon dog; 2) a large black dog about the size of a calf with dark shaggy fur; 3) a dog that manifests in association with particular ancient festivals in various parts of the country.
Unexplained Mysteries (theunexplainedmysteries.com/phantom-dogs.html) discovered different names for the black dogs that bring death and disaster in different counties. Among the fearful names are Bogey Beast, Lancashire; Black Shuck, East Anglia; Cu Sith, Highlands (dark green in color, rather than black); Gurt Dog, Somerset; Hairy Jack, Lincolnshire; Mauthe Dog, Scotland; and Padfoot, Yorkshire.
It would seem after some study of the Hell Hound that its most common name is the Black Shuck, a truly massive dog that bodes no one any good. The Vikings brought the legends of the giant black dog to Anglia. As if the Vikings suddenly appearing on the beach one morning with their savage war cries that firmly announced their intent to raid one’s village were not terrible enough, the sea wolves left warnings of the Black Shuck behind them to keep the villagers in a state of constant fear. This gigantic dog had glowing red or green eyes, and anyone who saw it was doomed to bad luck or death. “Shuck” likely comes from the Old Norse word “scucca,” a hairy demon.
It is my own opinion that the Black Shuck is another manifestation of Fenrir, the large and terrible wolf, who is the eldest child of Loki and the giantess Angrboda. Fenrir is so strong and so threatening to the other Norse gods that they bound him with chains, which he easily broke. Finally, mountain elves created a magic chain which has managed to keep Fenrir imprisoned. All who know of Fenrir fear him, for on the day of Ragnarok, when the final destiny of the Norse gods will be decided, Fenrir will shatter the magic chain and join the giants in their battle against the gods. The Black Shuck, then, inspired the Vikings to become as wolves when they attacked others and to leave behind warnings to all people that the image of Fenrir is to be feared.
Black dogs go by many names, including Bogey Beast, Black Shuck, and Hairy Jack (iStock).
On January 14, 1971, a large, black dog received the blame when six hogs and three dogs were found slain, mutilated, and partially eaten at two farms a short distance east of Waterloo, Iowa.
The tracks found at the scene of the slaughter puzzled authorities. Some experts insisted that the prints were those of a large mountain lion that had somehow found its way to Iowa.
Later three lawmen reported that they had sighted and trailed a large black dog that they believed had been responsible for killing the nine farm animals, but the savage animal had easily escaped the hunt. “He was an extraordinarily big dog, and pretty fast, too,” said Walt Berryhill, a La Porte City police dispatcher. “We saw him jump over fences.”
Then, just as suddenly as they had begun, the attacks of the great black dog ceased. After a month had gone by, the black large dog with the voracious appetite had ceased to sample any more plump Iowa livestock. Could the monster have found its way back into the dimension from whence it had come?
Farmers in the Midwest often encounter unidentifiable