Bizarre Sighting in Woods - Dan and Ian Freaked Out!

[SaginawIan]

Okay - this is 100% true. In fact, I just returned home and I'm still very confused about what I saw. My wife doesn't beleive me. I drew a sketch of what I saw right away so that I could have the best memory. What the HECK did we see?

Story:
After work this afternoon, Dan and I did a little scouting deep in the woods of Lapeer County. Dan has come up with a lead for a small neighborhood of early 1800's houses in the middle of nowhere. When I say no where - I mean deserted - gone, forget about it. There are no remnants whatsoever. This is the deepest wooded site I've ever detected.

So we drive down 15 miles of one lane dirt roads and park. We basically can see off the edge of the main road where a long overgrown side road winds through the woods. The road is completely overgrown and has 2 foot ruts everywhere - you aren't getting back there without a 4 wheeler. So we hike it - and we hike it. It's about 1.5 miles into the deep woods and nearly 3 miles from ANY house. We arrive on the site at about 6:15pm - so it's still bright and sunny. There is a swamp and small pond nearby. As we are walking up an embankment Dan and I are walking side by side and Dan is pointing out a depression where a house once stood. We are both looking at the depression when Dan says " WHAT THE F*** IS THAT!!" At first I didn't notice what he was talking about - then I ducked down to see around some brush and I saw it. Whatever it was. This thing was about 25 feet from us, coming down a hill off to the side of us.

This is my best description from my limited view: It walked on four legs. It appeared to be about 3 feet tall at the hind legs. It had short glossy WHITE fur. Yes white! IT DID NOT HAVE A TAIL! It was sleek and muscular - and I could only see the back half of it because a bunch of brush was in my way. It was walking or trotting about 4 miles per hour and it's hind legs were muscular. It made no sound at all. Dan saw the whole thing and I'm hoping he posts on here what he saw.

So the thing trots down the hill and I retreat back and pull up my shovel. Dan - crazy man - runs down to where it went - the thing VANISHED. I can hear Dan talking to himself - looking in the bushes and looking for a hole or anything - the thing was GONE!! Did it go in the ground? I have no idea - but it didn't make a sound and it was gone. We basically spent our whole hunt looking over our soldiers wondering where it went. The thing was too big to dive into a hole!! That's the strange thing.

Guys, I gotta tell you that I'm no hunter - but I've spent thousands of hours in the woods. I've seen most every native animal. I've never seen something like this before. Please don't call me crazy here - but it looked like a large cat, but that's impossible, right. Dan said he thought it was the size of a small pony! I started thinking - was it a pig? Too big to be a silver fox - plus the fur wasn't bushy. I have no idea. It was not domestic - 100% positive on that. Albino mutated Coyote? I have no clue.

So everyone - please don't make too much fun of me. I just wanted to post this for your amusement and maybe you can help me out here. Maybe this is a good place to post your own bizarre animal story. . .

Dan - post what you saw - you saw the whole animal so I'll let you tell the rest of the details. Here is my crude sketch.

Ian

[Mich. Wolverine]

Hmmm. Maybe an albino bobcat? Bobcats don't get much over two feet high and that's a big one, but they are stealthy. The only reason that I bring up bobcat is because they have a short stubby tail that you wouldn't be able to see. Without seeing the head it's hard to tell. I wouldn't worry if it was something that wanted to get you it would of done it.

Wolverine.

[SaginawIan]

Are there bobcats around here? Dan said he thought it was a cat and I agreed, but we thought that was crazy talk. I am scratching my head over this one. I googled photos of foxes, coyotes, pigs, etc. and nothing seems quite right. It really seemed like the tail end of a large cat that I saw.

[K-Man]

could it have been a cougar

[jeff of pa]

Do not take for Granted they don't exist in your area
just because the game commission says so.

[nova treasure]

With Michigan having Bear,I will agree it was probably a Blonde Black bear.The tail would be hard to see and the hair would be very lite and probably a sow.

I would have Loved to seen it,after being a hunter for over 25 yrs,i have seen some very hard to explain things out in nature.

Please use caution if you go back,whatever it could have been,probably has a den close by and right now you don't want to meet up with a sow or female cat guarding it's new born young.

Nova Treasure

[oneeye]

Most likely a bobcat, but 3 feet high would be very large. I agree that there are cougars around, but they have a very distinguishable tail and their movement or gait is very unique. Either cat would be very stealthy and would not make a sound while travelling. A bobact is more likely to appear white than a blond phase black bear.

Dan

[Slipperyjack47]

Easter bunny!

[xdanthemanx]

well I must say without sounding crazy and i said it a hundred times last night that i wasn't seeing things,
I am sure this was some sort of large cat, this thing was trotting along and had to have went into the ground
when i saw it , i stopped and kinda got freaked out, about 4 seconds later i ran around the 2 huge cedar trees and thicket patch to see where it went, totally disappeared into thin air, i could see clearly for a bout 150 yards in every direction and there was absolutely no sound or sight of movement, so in 4 seconds this thing either dashed directly away from us totaly silent or disappeared into a hole somewhere, it was large i would say about a the size of a lab but it was not a dog, this thing had a funny stride as it went down the trail, i only wish at this point it had been looking our direction so i could have got a clear look at the head and face. i dont know a lot about cats but i am goinf to look at some pictures this morning and see it anything matches up
I've never seriously taken the idea that there are large cats around here but i have to tell you at this point
I know what i saw was definately something out of place!!!!

DanTheFreakedOutMan

[xdanthemanx]

ok i just got off the dnr page, was to big to be a lynx or a bobcat, it does look like the cougar picture as the dnr states they dont acknowledge the existence here but they do take the reports seriously and do a follow up on them so i filled out the report and sent it to em. we'll see what they respond with

Starting to think about carrying my 45 when i go detecting, i still can't believe we saw that ****.....

DTM

[Planet1mars (mike)]

Ian next time you go to lapeer county let me know i know where the vernor mansion was.. its was burned down but the inventor of the pop had a hud e house and i know where its at..I lived in lapeer for 5 years

[Ray S S]

Did you look to see what kind of track it made? There should have been some sort of track somewhere along the trail it
was walking.

Ray

[sniffer]

I believe you saw a mountain lion. here in Ks. wildlife and parks say we don't have them either until a guy showed them the pelt of the one he shot on his farm, after it took after his calves. now they want to prosecute him.

[camperlee]

I think you may have seen some kind of cat for what it is worth I seen a crougar in the Luther area 3 years ago but we all know there are no crougars in Michigan. you say it just dissapeared you were looking on the ground and at eye level through the woods did you ever look up it may have laying on a big limb in the trees watching you. Lee

[savant365]

Did you look up? If it was a cat it could have very easily went up a tree. If it was a cat you are lucky, seeing it once was an accident...if you see it twice you are being hunted.

[xdanthemanx]

I was looking up, down and everywhere around, I was immediatly thinking i was going to get my arm or leg chewed off, trust me i was looking everywhere,
I was simply stunned.......... there was a spot of thick bushes on a hillside opposite of where we were tha could have easily been hiding a nice size hole undertheath as there was nothing else close around to hide such a thing
I wasn't about to walk out there and look or investigate any further as you all know cornering or closing in on any kind of animal tends to sometimes create an unwanted response from it, especially if your getting close to its home.
I'll update this post if i hear anything from the DNR

Dan

[savant365]

You can look on this site and see if anything looks like what you saw.

http://www.savethecougar.org/

Seems like you are not the only one seeing things...

[fistfulladirt]

You guys shouldn't be drinking while prospecting, ha ha.....I say the creature was an albino bobcat or a cougar with a missing tail. FFD

[BigZee]

April Fools Hahahahahaha

[xdanthemanx]

april fools isnt until friday

No bs we saw it