Dogs: they’re called man’s best friend. They’re loyal, loving, can be hunting partners, and will protect their owner to the death. Sure, not every dog is a saint (some are closer to Cujo), but by and large, dogs are great animals and are fantastic with people of all ages. Well, so long as they aren’t pit bulls.
That said, dogs have a lot of superstition and enigmas around them. Whether they be the infamous Black Shuck or the fantastically named “Snake-Headed Dog”, you can count on there being something strange involving our furry-friends if you look long enough into anything cryptozoological or paranormal/supernatural.
Today’s story has to do with the latter; this is a supernatural story through and through. I call it the Dog That Jumped Out of the Wall. What drew me to it? Well, the name; you can sell me on nearly anything if the name is crazy enough. Now that you know that one of my friends will send me the craziest possible story and say, “please write about this”. Ah well, whatever; let’s begin!
The Story
Today’s story was originally found on the ObscUrban Legend Wiki (I should’ve made a drinking game where you have a glass of water each time I say that; it would’ve been very healthy). With that said, the original source for this story is the Forteana Forums, which appears to have a plethora of stories that I’ll have to go through one day because holy smokes, there are some real good ones.
Anyways, let’s get into the story itself. On January 16, 2004, an anonymous user went to the forums to tell his story, which they claim to have previously sent to the Fortean Times “many moons ago”. As for what the Fortean Times is, it’s a magazine that appears to only be sold in the United Kingdom. Because of that, I’ve tagged this story as being from England, even though the user never states where they live.
Moving on, the user claims that this story happened when they were either 5 or 6-years-old. They never say how old they are in the actual post, but I’m going to hazard a guess that this was in the 20th century since I don’t see a child typing all of this up. Anywhoozle, the OP says that they were playing with their brother “in our front room” (which is apparently another way of referring to a living room). Meanwhile, during this, the poster’s mother was upstairs using the bathroom. I’m guessing the father was either at work, the pub, or working at the pub.
Man, I could go for a drink now that I’ve typed that.
Drinking can wait though; the OP goes on to state that what they were playing was a game they called “foot fights”. How it worked is/was simple. Two chairs would be pushed together and presumably, they would get on one chair while their brother would get on the other. After that, the duo would “wrestle by using their feet”. I’m not sure if the two of them were on the chairs, or if they were sitting on the floor with their legs around the chair legs. If they were on them, I hope neither of them ever got a concussion.
Anyways, during this “foot fight”, the OP’s brother pushed extra hard, causing his sibling’s chair to get pushed back a bit. As it did, the poster saw what they describe as a “small black dog”, which the user later speculates may have been a Scottish Terrier with a black coat (you can see what it looks like up above; it’s the header image). The dog had leapt out the wall where the chair originally was. Sounds like some Matrix type stuff. Simulation.exe has malfunctioned; the dog is now in the front room.
The dog, for its part, looked around in utter confusion. Likewise, the OP and their brother were also confused. Exactly how long this went on for isn’t stated, but that doesn’t appear to matter. According to the poster, their own dog—which they say was a “mongrel dog”—wasn’t confused though. In fact, it didn’t even appear to sense or smell the other dog. Instead, it simply continued to sleep on the couch. Reminds me of my previous dog. Good old couch potato that one. Rest in peace; I miss you to this day.
After some period of time, the OP says that they bolted out of the chair, ran by their dog, and went upstairs screaming for their mother. What exactly they said, and what happened afterwards, isn’t stated, but I suspect that someone got in trouble for making up stories about mysterious dogs invading the house. No tea and crumpets for a month!
All joking aside, the user does claim that their brother denied that the event ever happened. However, sometime later, at a party (which supposedly happened not long before the OP posted their story), the brother did say it happened. When asked about what happened to the dog, the poster’s brother said it simply disappeared. Not sure if that means it faded out of existence, walked away and vanished, or if it jumped back into the wall. I personally hope it’s the third one though. I like the idea of the wall being a portal to another world.
With that, however, the story ends. The user’s post ends there and as far as I can tell, they never responded to any question[s], though that makes sense. Most of the questions in the thread were asked 7 years after the original post. Why this is, I have no idea, but I’m guessing someone else on the Forteana Forums found the post, someone made a video about the topic, or another forum found the post.
Whatever the case may be, there are a fair number of theories that have been put forward as to what this strange dog may have been. So let’s get to them!
Theories
1. It was a Door Dog
Our first theory is one that was actually very close to being a write-up for this year’s Decemystery. You can find it on the conspiracy iceberg (and on the first megalist), though I wasn’t intending on covering the conspiracy angle so much as the superstition angle. For those curious though, the conspiracy behind Door Dogs is that they’re genetically modified and enhanced canines that work with law enforcement. They’re then trained to sniff out drugs, weapons, and various other things. Once they’ve found what they’re trained to seek out, they’ll kick the door down. This incredible power supposedly extends to their bite, which is so strong that it can crush bone. Ouch.
That, naturally, isn’t the theory here. The OP didn’t end up getting arrested for possession of illegal substances at the age of 5, nor did Krypto the Superdog break down his front door. No, the theory to Door Dogs in this case is rather morbid, but a lot less fantastical. You see, Door Dogs are said to be rather small dogs that will follow people around in the time (typically days or weeks) leading up to someone’s death. They get their name because they’ll usually follow someone into their home.
These dogs are not seen by the person they’re following; only those around the person can see the dog. As such, your precious Door Dog cannot be patted on the head, given a treat, or loved. No, you’ll have to wait until after you’re dead. Anyways, what exactly these dogs are is unknown. Some say they’re servants of Nefertiti, while others say they’re generic soul collectors (in spite of the dogs supposedly not resembling a dog of the Retriever family). The origin of Door Dogs is also in dispute; some say the stories originate from Europe, while others say they come from western Africa.
I’ve personally never heard of a Door Dog leaping out from a wall. In all instances, they’ve followed someone in through a door, or from a doorway. Also, given that the OP doesn’t say that anyone died in the days or weeks afterwards, you can almost certainly disregard this theory. Though it is possible that someone did, and they omitted it because they didn’t think it was important. If that’s the case, then this theory would make a lot more sense if not for the fact that the dog didn’t follow anyone into the room/house.
Still, if there are versions of the story out there where the dog simply needs to appear somewhere where someone is to die, then this theory makes a lot more sense (which hinges entirely upon if you believe in things like this).
2. It was a hoax
The second theory we have is that the entire thing was made up as a joke to troll the Forteana Forums. It’s really common for stories to be made up, be it to troll people the posters see as schizophrenic, or just for fun (sometimes to encourage a debate about whether or not something truly enigmatic can exist).
With this story, it sounds more like it would’ve been rather harmless, and might have been done just as a light-hearted prank. If that’s truly the case, this story is only remarkable because the event portrayed in the story is certainly not something I’m familiar with.
One way the theory could feasibly be debunked though is if the Fortean Times did cover the story all those moons ago. I, personally, cannot find the story; I tried looking up the story with various phrases related to “dog jumping out of a wall”, but I can’t get anything. Given how long the magazine’s been in circulation, and the fact we don’t know the age of the OP, I don’t want to comb through dozens upon dozens of magazines (especially since I’ve run behind schedule for this month). It’s also entirely possible the story was never covered in the magazine.
If it was, however, do let me know. I’d love to read it (even if it’s just a carbon copy of what was posted on the Forteana Forums). As for the theory at hand, it’s the most popular among skeptics, though there is one other that’s
3. It was a dog from another dimension
The day before yesterday, I went over the story of the Gargantuan Globulous. If you didn’t read that write-up: three kids encountered a spherical glob that was spinning in circles until it vanished in a cloud of dust. Amusingly enough, this story also involves something that vanished into thin air. However, this dog wasn’t chasing its own tail and kicking up dust and dirt. I only mention this because I think it’s funny that the creatures vanished and whatever, this is pointless.
The idea here is… a bit weird. For some, the idea is that our dimension/reality/universe overlapped with another, and the dog sorta “walked” into ours. For others, the wall in the house was/is some sort of portal into our world. There are theories that certain areas in the world are special and can act as gateways into (and out of) it. I believe there’s a special name for them, but I can’t remember it (I know for a fact it isn’t leylines though, that’s something different). As for how the dog vanished, the idea is that the overlap ended, and it was dragged back into its own dimension.
This theory, as is the case with any theory about alternate universes, relies entirely on whether or not you believe in that concept. If you don’t, you can throw this theory out and move on. If you do believe in them, I think it’ll just depend on whether or not you can take the word of an anonymous user on the Internet. If you can, then this may be your ticket to an answer.
4. It was a hallucination
This theory is very weird. Hallucinations are extremely serious and can be a sign of something that requires immediate medical attention. Yet, there’s a theory on the ObscUrban Legend Wiki that posits it could have been one.
The only reference on the original post to hallucinations comes from two posters: one named “henry” and the other named “dan_uid0”. The former mentioned that seeing black dots and “insects” out the corner of your eye can be a sign of depression and psychosis. Neither of those come anywhere close to seeing a Scottish Terrier. However, it’s thanks to “dan_uid0” that this theory makes a fair bit more sense.
Up to a few years ago, I had in my front room one of those rather garish 1970s carpets with what I can best describe as a repeating pattern of sunbursts on it, each consisting of a centre with rays radiating out from it, the whole unit being about 10" across, repeating over all the carpet.
In the evenings, watching TV by dim lighting, I would be continually annoyed by thinking I could see small dark things moving about by the edges of the room, about the same size and speed of motion as large house spiders. I even went looking for these a few times; no joy (except for the very few times when there actually was a spider about).
Then I changed the carpet to a lighter, brownish-beige mixed texture one; much more neutral with no striking pattern to it. The visual hallucinations of small moving objects ceased and have never returned; I can only conclude that it was this striking sunburst pattern which directly caused the illusion of moving objects.
None of the typos were fixed; everything is as it was written. Anyways, your mileage will vary very heavily on whether or not you believe that one’s mind being tricked into thinking they saw a full-blown dog leap out of the wall onto the carpet is possible, but given that kids have very active imaginations, it’s possible. I mean heck, it could help explain why I think I saw a dragon-like thing in my dining room. Could’ve been the light making my old Golden Retriever look scarier than I thought. That said, I don’t think these would’ve hallucinations so much as simple tricks of the light.
5. It was a demon
Reports of Hellhounds and other mysterious, black dogs (like the Black Shuck, which I mentioned way earlier) are very common. Whether it be in Mexico, the United Kingdom, United States, or really any country in the world, you’re bound to find a story about a mysterious dog that’s a harbinger of bad luck—or even death.
On the Forteana Forum, someone mentions that the dog certainly wasn’t of a Holy/Divine nature, but rather something else. That “something” is no doubt demonic; a lot of people claim that creatures such as Black Shuck are demonic dogs from the depths of Hell, sent to Earth to bring about, as stated just above, bad luck.
While the OP doesn’t state anything bad happened afterwards, it’s possible this dog was just passing through, on its way to its destination to make someone’s grandmother die, or to try and maul someone and eat their ribs. Whatever you may want to believe, these stories are ridiculously old, dating back hundreds upon hundreds of years. I’d like to one day cover them, especially since some of them are straight out of Cujo.
6. It was doge
My Take
First things first: if there are versions of the Door Dog story out there where the dog simply needs to appear and doesn’t have to follow anyone into the house, then sure, I can believe this was a Door Dog. I do believe in things like that and as such, that’s perfectly within the realm of reason for a person like me. However, given I have no knowledge of such stories, I’m really torn on this story.
When I look at it through the eyes of an outsider, this story reeks of nonsense. Even when I try to be open-minded, I have a hard time taking it seriously because it’s so short and the original post is written very sloppily (there are a ton of grammatical errors, and I feel like it’s missing a lot of details). That, to me, is indicative of trolling, though it’s possible the person just didn’t care for grammar. I guess all of those Fleshgait/Crawler/Reddit stories have spoiled me with decent grammar.
It also doesn’t appear that the writer ever responded to the few comments they got after the story was posted. Given that this is a forum post, and on a forum dedicated to the strange and supernatural, that you’d want to interact with people who may have some answers for you (even if you don’t believe in that stuff, I imagine you’d want to at least see what someone has to tell you). Though I guess you can argue to the bitter end on something like this, it’s perfectly reasonable that someone would maybe just want to get it off their chest and leave.
I’ve also personally never heard of a story like this. A dog leaping out of a wall is something I never would’ve imagined outside of either a cartoon or some sort of weird Sci-Fi movie. Because of that, a part of me thinks this was all made up, designed to just trigger some supernatural believers into talking amongst themselves about weird stuff. No real rhyme or reason, just early 2000s nonsense.
At the same time though, I do believe in some weird stuff. Interdimensional beings aren’t too crazy the more I think about it, so I guess it could’ve been someone’s dog that crossed over briefly, then went back to an owner who was really confused as to why their precious dog disappeared into thin air near a wall/walkway/whatever.
With all of that said though, one thing that really perplexes me is that nobody appears to have put forward the idea that it was a ghost. My mother and I both claim to have seen the spirit of the family dog, so I kinda wonder if this was the spirit of a dog that died on the property. It’s kinda depressing to imagine that the dog didn’t follow its owner as a spirit, but if the owner had died long ago, and the dog stuck around for whatever reason, I can see that being the explanation.
Oh well, I digress. My take is that it was either some interdimensional dog or the spirit of a dog. I lean towards the latter. Hopefully the dog’s found peace and has reunited with its owner. If not, it’s time to move on little buddy. Go find my dogs over the Rainbow Bridge. They’re waiting for ya.
Conclusion
Dogs are more than just pets; they’re friends and loyal partners to the bitter end. While I’m not someone who values their lives over other humans, I do believe that some folks out there underestimate how important a dog can be to someone. So if you own one, give him or her a hug. Let them know how much they matter.
Just make sure they haven’t jumped out of a wall recently.
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