DATE:  1973-75?

TIME:  About an hour after good dark

LOCATION: Hartburg,Texas on the Orange-Jasper county line

TERRAIN:  Wooded

OBSERVED:      I left the date up above blank,because I don't remember when it occured. It could have been in either '73,'74,or'75. I do know that it was late in the year because the weather had cooled off enough to leave the doors and windows open to cool the house. I,my wife,and two daughters were in livingroom watching the T.V. I suddenly smelt a smell that smelt,to me, like rotted flesh combined with the odor of a skunk. At the same time, our dog, Feller, went to acting up like I'd never seen him do before. Feller was a very brave dog. I saw him attack a dog twice his size just because he came too close to feller's territory. He was willing to take on *any* number to protect what was his. But this night, feller was whinning and growling and barking like he had met more than his match and knew it. He was backed up to the screen door so hard I thought he saw going to push his butt right thru it.  Being loyal to the point of being stupid, I grabbed my shotgun(stupid because all I had for it was squirrel shot) and a flashlight and proceeded to go out there on the front porch with my dog, to protect him and to see exactly what was out there. My dog, whenever a stranger showed up at our house*always* stood in between us, but this time, he stood just behind me. Having just come a well-lit house into darkness, I couldn't see a darn thing, even with the flashlight. All I know is that whatever it was moved on just as silently as it had approached. The dog settled down and the smell died away, and that was the end of it. In the following days, I asked my neighbor if he'd smelt anything that night or had seen or heard anything. He said no.
 
 

Description of Creature: 

Activities of Witness:   We were doing the usual family things. My wife had just finished cleaning up after supper and had come into the livingroom and sat down on the couch. I'd been playing with the two kids and watching T.V.(no scary movie,might upset the young'uns).
 

Other Notes:  All there was was the actions of the dog and the smell. No sound and no sighting except maybe by the dog. He keep his eyes focused on a certain spot across the road in front of the house, but try as I did,I saw nothing. Like I said above, I'd just come from a well-lit house and I could barely make out the trees from the sky.
 
 

Other Other Notes:  As far as I could determine, I(and my family) were the only ones to notice anything even slightly out of the ordinary, before or after. Oh, I just remembered. The next day, I did look for foot prints. Nothing, not even a bent-over grass blade.