"Later that week, I set up some trail cams around the property to see where the cougar likes to hang out. But every single time, they were broken and smashed."
The following account was forwarded to me by my friends & colleagues Kyle & Cam at Expanded Perspectives. This is a recent series of incidents:
"My name is RJ and I own a small piece of land just outside Ellensburg, Washington. It is not a large city by any means and is definitely on the smaller side, but it is very spread out. There are farms and ranches all around the town, and this happened on a property I recently bought on the outskirts of the city.
I purchased the land from an older man who mentioned keeping cows on the property, but I hadn’t heard much because I was just proud of my accomplishment. I should've listened to him more because I later found out that he had moved into an assisted living facility and died shortly thereafter.
This all occurred around a year and a half to two years ago. The first year was fine; the cows were fattened by winter, and we fixed the porch awning, which we shouldn't have done because it broke under the weight of the snow in winter. We also painted the barn red and white, classic colors. We set up a rabbit hutch for my kids to practice raising animals.
But everything started in the summer of the next year. We lost one or two calves, but we thought it was just coyotes—nothing major since they were on the weaker and smaller side anyway.
One day, while taking a walk on the property during a pleasant, cooler evening, we found a cloak made of various animal skins. My kids were very intuitive and could identify some of the skins, mostly coyotes. I thought it was just a project that the farmer had, which got blown away in the wind. So, we brought it back with the intention of asking him about it, but we never got around to it because we got so busy.
But that was when the rabbits started going missing. We initially thought they had just escaped or something, since the cage was intact and nothing was out of place. At first, we lost two, then two more, and then two more—until we had none left.
When they started disappearing the first time, I set up some simple traps, just the way I set them. By then, I thought it was just some clever coyotes, so I decided to hunt them.
I grabbed my headlamp and my .22. I didn't particularly like guns, but it was necessary to have one for this kind of thing. As the sun began to set, I started wandering the property, searching for signs of coyotes—such as scat, trails, and the like. I spotted some signs but found no coyotes. I heard a couple of owls hooting, crickets chirping, and coyotes howling, but there was no trace of actual coyotes.
Around 11 PM, I turned around and headed back home. When I arrived home, I glanced over at the tree that the kids love climbing when they aren't on their tablets. There, I noticed scratches on the bark, higher than I could reach. Maybe it was a bear, but then I heard a scream behind me—it sounded like a woman. I remembered that cougars can scream, so I thought it was a cougar.
Later that week, I set up some trail cams around the property to see where the cougar likes to hang out. But every single time, they were broken and smashed. The only reasonable explanation I could think of at the time was that it was some hunters who weren't supposed to be there. When some SD cards were intact, I reviewed what they captured, but it always came up blank—maybe a coyote walked across the screen, but otherwise, nothing led up to it being smashed.
The next thing that happened was in November: we lost two cows, both pregnant and mangled, almost murdered. The only thing missing from both of them was the calf inside. You could piece both of them together—just without the calves.
We were losing money at this point. The calves we were supposed to sell in the spring and summer months were going missing, and by mid-winter, I felt like I was grasping at straws for reasons why they were disappearing—coyotes, cougars, bears, and even the thought of some psycho hunters. But there was always something wrong with that reasoning for each.
One night, I couldn't sleep; I kept thinking about cougars and how they sometimes prey on cows, so I went downstairs and looked up encounters of cows and cougars. Eventually, I somehow ended up on alien conspiracies and cow mutilations. But that was ridiculous and almost unbelievable.
While I was researching that night, my eldest child (then 13) came down the stairs, shaking in fear. He said there was something outside his window, looking at him. I immediately got up and checked through the sliding glass door. I remember it taking a moment for my eyes to adjust. But there it was in the snow—clear as day. The black skin of the creature contrasted against the white snow.
A deer, but wrong. Larger and skinny. The only thing that came to my mind was the picture of a Wendigo.
I knew about Wendigos and thought they were just a Native American tall tale, like Paul Bunyan. But here it was, right in front of me, with a cloak made of rabbit fur.
I understand when you think of a Wendigo you think of the interpretation built upon by pop culture, and the original was far different, and I respect that.
However, I know what I saw, a creature with black skin, the body, and the skull of a deer, which unusually was hornless.
My son and I stared at it for some time, but then it walked away, away from our view. And a few moments later I heard the scream, the same one that I heard when I found the scratch marks on the tree. But it sounded like my son.
Neither I nor my son have seen it much since then, but the signs of its existence are everpresent. Scratch marks on fence posts, and screams in the night, I have some photos from my phone but they aren't good.
When it turned to spring I began to sell the calves that survived and weren't taken. I was forced to sell all the calves and make some profit, but not much.
A few months passed and I saw it (and its signs of existence) less and less. But with my frequent trips to town, I have seen more and more missing pet posters. I don't know if they were always there but I feel like there is some connection to that and the Wendigo. I have looked at a few of these posters, and they are smaller animals, maybe a golden retriever as well.
I think it was trained to eat the calves on my property, but once they left, it began expanding its hunting grounds, hunting farther out.
Now it’s in town. Hunting dogs. Cats. Maybe livestock on the edges. But if it fed on calves before, what happens when it runs out of animals entirely? I have heard it mimics friends and family that we had over for a barbeque once. I put up posters around town warning of the creature, I just hope that people believe it, I even think to myself about how far out it sounds.
Thanks for reading my story." RJ
NOTE: What are your thoughts on these incidents? A mimicking creature, possibly a Wendigo? Maybe a Skinwalker? Something else? Let me know. Lon
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