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The bobcat that led me into the fog

A homesteader went out with a gun and a 150-pound guard dog to protect the chickens. A bobcat walked calmly into the woods as if leading the way, the pistol wouldn't fire, and back at the house someone was screaming for help in the homesteader's voice.

A homestead in the woods of southern West Virginia · January 2024, two nights running · 2 min read

It felt like something was holding my trigger back.

The homestead sits deep in the Appalachian woods of southern West Virginia, an hour and a half from anything you'd call a city and another half hour from the nearest Walmart. One day in January 2024 the homesteader came home with a strong feeling of being watched. Coyotes, probably, after the chickens. So they sat outside with a gun and their livestock guardian dog, a 150-pound animal, and waited.

The dog was clearly onto something. He'd lift his nose, catch the scent and charge toward it, but every time he got close, whatever it was seemed to vanish. Nothing ever turned up.

The next night the same feeling was back. The homesteader took a light outside and shone it along the edge of the woods, and eyes looked back. That was strange in itself: the dog was going nuts, barking and hunting for the thing, and it just sat there, perfectly still. The homesteader walked right up to it and found a bobcat, staring back from ten feet away. Then it looked away and calmly walked around a tree, paying no attention at all.

Bobcats are rare to see out there, never mind one that lets you walk up and shine a light in its face. The homesteader drew a pistol and pulled the trigger. Nothing. Racked it and tried again. Nothing. It felt like something was holding the trigger back.

So it was back inside for the shotgun, then off after the bobcat into the woods, about a quarter mile in. It never once ran. It just walked, slowly, like it was leading the way somewhere. The moment the homesteader crossed the tree line, fog rolled in thick, like someone was aiming a fog machine at them, until it was impossible to see five feet ahead. Time to turn around.

Heading back, the homesteader could just make out, through the trees, their fiancée standing on the porch, looking back and forth between their light in the woods and a spot far off behind the house. She was terrified. She'd heard the homesteader screaming bloody murder, calling her name and begging for help, from more than a quarter mile off in the other direction. She'd come out to help, then spotted the flashlight somewhere completely different from where the screaming was coming from.

The homesteader never heard any screaming, and never screamed. The whole time there was only that constant sense of being followed and watched, by something that could never quite be found. It was still early when they posted. 'The night's young,' they wrote, 'and I expect it to get weirder.'

Where it happened. A homestead in the woods of southern West Virginia. The account doesn't say exactly where, so the circle is only a rough guide. See other sightings nearby

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