Your True Tales
January 2007 - Page 19
Kemper County Creature
by Evan
I've heard some of these stories second and third hand, but always from people who I know to be straight-shooters, rural folk with no habit of "telling tales". My father grew up in rural Mississippi in Lauderdale and Kemper counties. Over the years, he heard several stories from other locals, especially from his best friend's grandmother of the "Kemper County Creature".
There were several stories from hunters who had been in the dense forest after dark and heard something large moving through the woods. One hunter told of setting his dogs after the animal and followed with his gun, only to meet his dogs coming back the other way, terrified. As the hunter put it, "Anything that could scare those dogs like that was something I wanted nothing to do with."
Another hunter told of shooting a rabbit at several yards. He approached the kill and was only a few feet away when a large, furry paw reached out from the brush and drew the dead rabbit in. Again, the hunter wisely fled.
Several stories came from my father's college roommate. The most dramatic told of one night when he was in the back bedroom of his grandmother's cabin, an old house that had originally been built just after the Civil War. He had a large boxer that he described as "fearless and mean as hell". He was sitting on the bed, with his back against the wall, a window over his left shoulder, and the large dog across the room. According to him, he heard something brush up against the wall behind him, and glanced up to the see the boxer sitting stock still, on full alert, with "eyes as big as saucers". The dog was staring out the window over his shoulder at... something. My father's friend said that he couldn't bring himself to turn around and look, but after several minutes, he heard the rustling again, and the dog appeared to calm down.
The old Cherokees on the reservation used to share stories of a spirit that took the form of a large cat. According to them, it would hover off the ground and stalk travelers who were alone at night. Perhaps there was something to those old tales.
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