Javier and I occasionally look in on Jason Offutt and his blog site “From the Shadows”. Most of what Jason publishes there are (allegedly) true stories from submissions.

I was over there just this morning and found an interesting story about a boy, his family and their lengthy encounter with what amounts to a Devil Dog or Hellhound. The boy, S. Costea, lived with his family in a Romulus, Mich. farmhouse at the time and has never forgotten the strange red eyed dog creature that stalked and taunted them.

We’ve all heard or read about animals that defy logic. Dogs that are said to originate from the very depths of Hell. I’m sure some of you have seen the made for TV movie “Devil Dog: Hound from Hell about a family that buys a puppy which turns out to be possessed of Satan. Still others swear there are werewolves roaming the foggy dark places that humans fear to tread. Wisconsin is well known as a location of frequent Werewolf activity for those who believe in such things.

To define what a Devil Dog is, we need only look to the Hellhound. This animal of darkness is said to have black fur, glowing red or sometimes glowing yellow eyes, super strength, speed and at times a ghostly or phantom like appearance. Other characteristics include a distinctively putrid odor, and sometimes even the ability to talk. These supernatural beasts are often assigned to stand guard at the gates of the dead and many believe that encountering a Hellhound is a sure ticket to imminent death.

Those that submit stories to Jason are on the honor system but it’s not hard to see that whatever happened to Costea and his family is something real and terrifying.

The Lurking Dogman
Thick trees surrounded the property where seven-year-old S. Costea met the strange dog, a dog with red, glowing eyes – a dog that sometimes walked on two legs.

Costea lived in a Romulus, Mich., farmhouse with his mother, his uncle, and his mother’s boyfriend. They raised chickens and rabbits, with farm cats roaming the crumbling old barn on the small acreage. But it was the woods that separated the house from a nearby major road, woods that kept the house and the family hidden, that marred Costea’s childhood.

Those woods harbored something dark.

“We had this really strange dog creature that would hang around the property,” Costea said. “I say dog creature because this thing was far too big and intelligent to be a stray dog.”

The dog, as big as a Great Dane, seemed to have the upper part of a German Shepard and the lower part a Doberman pinscher. However, its eyes are what haunt Costea.

“It had very pronounced red eyes,” Costea said. “I’m not saying it was a werewolf or a dog-man but it was very werewolf-like.”

Everyone who lived in the house saw the beast.

“The dog would frequently stalk the edge of the woods on our property in the day,” Costea said. “It seemed to have no fear. My uncle would yell at it or throw things towards it to try to scare it off but it would simply rear up on its hind legs like a ram and charge at (him) for a short distance.”

The dog never reached Costea’s uncle, or anyone else who lived in the house. However, it did reach other things on the farm.

“We would frequently find dead chickens or rabbits after thunderstorms,” he said. “We knew it was that dog thing because it would leave huge paw prints in the mud and claw marks on the window ledges.”

The thing eventually turned its attention to the house.

“Sometimes we would find the screens ripped from our screen doors and windows,” Costea said. “It would never outright attack us, but it did seem to enjoy taunting us and harassing us.”

The taunting quickly became dangerous when the “dog” spoke.

“One summer night my mom had left the window open in my bedroom to cool the room off so I could sleep,” Costea said. “She was on her way to the bathroom and went by my room and heard me talking to someone.”

Stopping by her son’s door, well after his bedtime, she thought he was playing. She opened the bedroom door, turned on the lights, and saw the dog.

“When she opened the door she saw me standing in my bed and I had apparently wet my pajamas,” he said. “I was talking towards the window. I wasn’t screaming or freaking out but seemed to be transfixed and talking in a low voice towards the window.”

Costea didn’t notice his mother, nor did he notice the tungsten light that suddenly poured a yellow glow through the bedroom. His focus was on what was at the window.

“When she looked towards the window the dog had its two front paws pushed through the screen and was looking through the window at us and making a low growl,” Costea said. “Its eyes glared red.”

Costea’s mother threw the beer bottle she carried into the beast’s face. Startled, it backed out of the window. She slammed the window shut and closed the blinds.

The dog-thing’s presence, however, was not gone.

“My mom told me that for about a week or so after that I acted very strange,” he said. “Like the way the kid acted in the movie, ‘The Shining’. I would say things like, ‘we don’t want you here,’ ‘our ghosts are food,’ or ‘God thinks you’re bad.’”

The housecats would run, terrified, when Costea entered the room for that time of madness. That wasn’t the only thing wrong.

“For some reason I would take sewing needles or anything sharp I could find and prick my fingers till they would bleed then finger paint all over the walls with the blood,” he said. “The house also had a very strong septic tank smell to it for a few days. Lights would burn out and pop and weird things would just happen.”

Two weeks after the dog tried to coax Costea out of his room it all stopped.

“My uncle was out back working on his truck when he saw the dog at the edge of the woods making its way in towards the rabbit pen,” Costea said. “At this point he was tired of dealing with it and went into the house to get his .22. Apparently he fired at it and hit it in the rear. The dog turned and ran into the woods. We didn’t see it anymore after that and everything cleared up.”

But the dog-thing will be with him forever.

“I always recall its eyes,” Costea, now 40, said. “You could see its eyes out in the woods sometimes at night. I have bad dreams about it from time to time.”

Source: Jason Offutt’s From the Shadows

I’m not sure what this beast was or if it even existed but based on the way the story reads I have to say that I do believe something very sinister was taking place in and around that farmhouse. One thing that stands out is the family itself and the people that make it up. We often hear of terrible and sometimes even supernatural occurrences surrounding families where the mother has a live in boyfriend. Could there have been more going on behind the scenes? Did Costea experience abuse of some sort and in his mind the memories are of an evil dog rather than someone in the house? By no means am I saying anything of the sort took place nor am I casting aspersions on anyone that was there, It’s just a matter of looking at all the possibilities.

It could be that what this family encountered was in fact a Devil Dog from Hell. Does such a creature exist? Far be it from me to answer that question.