; Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Florida Girl Describes Strange 'Hopping' Deer

A Florida girl and her friend encounter a male deer that stands on it back legs and hops across the road. After many years, she is still troubled by what she saw.

I recently came across this interesting account:

"I've never shared my story, as I'm not sure what it was. I don't live anywhere near a reservation; I live in Florida. I cannot think of any rational explanation for what I saw. I am wondering if I may have seen a skinwalker. Here is some backstory. 

I lived in a city nearish Orlando and went to school with a girl who i will call cindy. m\My mom worked at a different school nearby as a teacher. We were going to move towards central Florida in a very rural, absolute middle of nowhere area after school ended. So it was Cindy and I’s last day of school, but my mom still had to teach for another week. She drove us out to the new house to stay there on our own for a week while she finished work and would stay with my grandma in that town.

So Cindy and I are so excited to have the new house to ourselves for a week and get to set up my room and stuff. We decided we wanted to still go on late walks like we used to and thought about going that night. We agreed we should go while its still light out because we don't know the area very well. All my area was a giant square shaped road or “block.” It wasn't really a block though because any houses there were just a mailbox and a gate on the road with a driveway that went out for like a half a mile until you saw the house.

So were walking on this square road around dusk. We get to the corner of the road and go to turn and watch this absolutely MASSIVE deer walk out of one side of the road from the trees like maybe 50 yards ahead of us. We kind of just stopped or slowed to look for a second because, although I'm from up north, she'd never seen a deer being from the city and I had never seen one so close. This deer also was a buck and again huge, so I told her not to get too close as it could be dangerous. All this happened in like 5 seconds while it walked to the middle of the road. Then this deer stops in its tracks, turns its head to look at us and just stared for what felt like 10 seconds realistically. We just kind of watched this deer like a starring contest. Then it turns its head forwards again, STANDS UP ON ITS HIND LEGS and starts limp walking into the other side of the trees. Then we just watched the trees rustle a ton and she goes “did you f*cking see that!” I was like “yeah,” and we turned around and quickly walked home.

We hadn't walked the rest of the week and mom came home earlier than expected, so we felt better. So here's where I'm not sure of anything. This deer's legs were not what they should look like. A deer's legs are opposite of ours or a dogs. When they stand on all fours their back knees point behind them instead of in front (hocked). This deer's legs didn't point behind them. its knees faced forwards as if they had been twisted around perfectly. My mom worked in her family butcher shop as a kid and had seen deer brought in with ankles that twisted and broke and healed completely in a new position. It makes sense as they can walk on 3 legs as that one heals. I cant see how this could have healed both of its legs or how they'd both twist so perfectly, or especially how it would walk on those legs alone. I think the fact that its legs were backwards is why it somewhat limped forwards although it clearly didn't have any broken or twisted bones. It didn't seem to be in pain, just stumbled. It had antlers. No idea if it had ears or a tail.

I had no idea what skinwalkers or any cryptids were at this point, all i paid attention to was its size, which had to be at LEAST 8 feet tall standing with a slight hunch, and its legs. I remember we mentioned it smelled like rotten eggs as well. i don't recall a coppery scent. It could just have been sulfur, I'm not sure. Despite looking this thing right in the eyes it was too far away to even see them (my horrible vision) so I can't tell you what those looked like either. I didn't look for all the telltale signs you look for in a skinwalker because again I'd never heard of them.

i have so many questions about this experience. Why didn't it try and attack us? Why was in in the middle of Florida? What the f*ck did I see? Cindy and I are no longer in contact, so I'm not sure if she'd even remember. I think the only reason it stuck with me is when I heard stories about skinwalkers, I felt my heart sink into my stomach and remembered this. I have a Navajo friend who refuses to speak about this with me, and I fully believe skinwalkers exist even if that's not what i saw. I've heard of fleshgaits but I have trouble believing other things because they don't have Navajo ties, which my friend does and clearly believes in. Maybe this deer was just severely deformed. Have you ever seen anything like this? This was about 5 or 6 years ago." GM

NOTE: I really doubt that this was a skinwalker, since that would involve a native witch transforming into another malevolent entity. Was it an apparition, or even a thoughtform? I believe that is very possible. Lon