Life in Dorset, Vermont, and My Dog Murphy: Dogs Saved the Day
Story “Dogs Saved the Day.” I live in Dorset, Vermont. It’s a very secluded mountainous place, and there are lots of trails on the mountain that I like to walk or jog down. Commonly, in fact, I’m able to cut through the woods in my yard to get to a trail that I walk and run down all the time.
A Trail Run Gone Wrong
- One day after getting home from work, I changed out of my work clothes and into my running clothes. By 6:45, I was ready to get on the trail.
- On this particular day, I took along my coonhound, Murphy. We did five minutes of walking, then we started with a slow jog.
- Murphy is always a joy to walk with because she doesn’t pull. She always just stays calm at my side.
- I was always looking up when I ran, which is why I didn’t notice that Murphy stopped in her tracks until I felt the leash pull her neck. At that point, I stopped and looked back at her to see what was wrong.
- She was looking behind us, and her ears did that little bouncing thing that hound dogs’ ears do when they hear something.
- I tried to pull her forward to continue our run, but she seemed persistent and reluctant to move forward. I played along for a few moments to let her see that she was curious over nothing, but it wasn’t nothing.
Suspicious Figures on the Trail
- Because I finally saw what she was looking at, there was a man back down the trail in the direction we came from. He was clearly not hiding the fact that he was looking at Murphy and me. I waved at him to try and be friendly and then looked down at Murphy as I pulled her and told her to come.
- It’s happened before, though. Usually, they’d be out earlier in the day, though at this point it was on the darker side, and usually there wouldn’t be other people out.
- I also noticed if the man waved back or not, because I looked down at Murphy after waving, but at that moment, I still thought everything was normal. That is, until maybe a minute later when Murphy stopped me again. I saw who she was looking at right away. This time, it was another man walking slowly towards us. I waved to him too, but he didn’t wave back.
- I was standing still, holding Murphy close, expecting the man to eventually pass me, but the closer he got, the slower he went. When he got within hearing range, I told him that Murphy’s friendly and that he could pass.
- Now, here’s what I knew: something was up. After I said this, the man maintained eye contact with me, keeping his straight face as he very slowly continued approaching us.
- Then I noticed Murphy turn around and start barking in the other direction behind us. I turned and almost had a heart attack when I saw that man from earlier, maybe five feet away from us, slowly approaching as well. I knew now something bad was about to go down.
Murphy’s Protective Instinct
- There were only a few seconds between that moment. The moment I felt two arms reach around me from behind. Then the first man I saw earlier started falling, charging me.
- Murphy’s barks turned to aggressive growling and rabid dog-like barks. Then one of the men screamed as, apparently, Murphy bit him in the leg and wouldn’t let go.
- It took a little force to get Murphy to release her grip from the man’s leg, but when she did, we ran back down the trail.
- The man I tackled didn’t try fighting back after his friend got bitten. I think he realized they were outmatched at that point, but I was still not sticking around to find out what their intentions were.
- We got back to the house in five minutes, only because we sprinted back. I checked Murphy to make sure she wasn’t hurt or wounded at all by the man. She did, she was fine.
- I couldn’t be more grateful for her. She’s still alive and well; she’s nine years old. I still see it as a blessing in disguise that one of the few times I decided to take Murphy along with me was the same night I ran into those two men in the forest.
Kali’s Midnight Alert
- My pitbull, Cali, sleeps in my room with me. I have a loft bedroom, meaning it’s a higher level in the house than the rest of the rooms.
- My room also has a very large closet, elevated off the grounds. I keep a little stepping stool to get into it.
- Though one night I woke up to growling. I sat up and saw Cali standing in the middle of the room. She was looking up at the closet.
- Needless to say, as a 14-year-old, that scared the out of me to even imagine what she could have been growling at.
- I called her up to my bed so I could pet her and calm her down. She licked her lips and stopped growling, now looking at me.
- She stopped growling now, though, so I figured it was just her doggie imagination running wild.
- I went back to sleep pretty easily now, with Cali in the bed with me.
The Intruder
- I woke up again, God knows how many hours later. Now Cali’s barking. She was in the center of the room again, looking up at the closet.
- Cali started going crazy now, barking, trying to jump up the stepladder, clawing at the wall. I heard my bedroom door open, and my dad came up the stairs, screaming, “What the hell is going on?”
- I told them to check the closet; there’s someone in there. He ran past Cali, up the stepladder, and pulled the door open. The second he opened that door, someone dressed in jeans, a black pullover hoodie, and a black beanie pushed my dad off the stepstool, causing him to fall on his back.
- The man in the black hoodie then took off, leaving my room, down the stairs. However, Cali took off after him. I heard the two of them rushing down the stairs, but it sounded like Cali caught him because the man let out a scream of pain.
- My dad and I went down to the living room to see Cali with her teeth sunk into the man’s arm. Blood was spilled all over the carpet. Apparently, Cali bit the man in the leg and the arm. My dad got Cali off of him and told me to take her back to my room while he called the cops.
- The man was moaning in pain up until the cops calmly entered the house, looked down at the man, and picked him up together. They brought him outside, where an ambulance arrived ten minutes later. He was taken away in the ambulance.
- The next few days, my dad spent talking to lawyers and whatnot to sue the man for breaking. He ended up winning the case. Obviously, he never told me how much money he got, but he sure did make it known just how much Cali saved the day for our family.
Dogs Saved the Day: My First Dog, Calvin
The first dog I ever got was back in 1992, when I was ten years old. My parents finally agreed to let me get my German Shepherd, my lifelong favorite dog only thing they made me walk him twice a day as the one condition to owning him once in the afternoon and once at night. His name was Calvin.
The Night Calvin Saved Me
- This happened on a snowy December night. I begged my dad to let me just let Calvin in the yard, but he insisted I walk him. I threw on my snow boots, sweatshirt, and then a jacket over that, and finally my snow hat. I was ready for the cold snowstorm.
- We set out into the neighborhood streets, Calvin pulling ahead as usual. There were no cars on the road at all on this night; there was simply way too much snow. We walked down the edge of the neighborhood by the woods.
- We came to an intersection between two very quiet roads by the woods at the edge of the neighborhood. That’s when I ran into him. I heard the sound of footsteps crushing the snow behind me. Calvin turned first and barked a couple of times. He had a scarf covering half his face, so all I could really see were his eyes, but I could still tell he was on the older side, 40-plus.
Calvin Voice
- His voice was muffled through a scarf as he called to me in a friendly voice. Then he did something unexpected—he picked up some snow, patted it into a snowball, and seemingly playfully threw it at me. I dodged it. Now, not knowing his exact intent, he came closer and started to pet Calvin. I was pretty uncomfortable, to be honest. The man stood back up after petting Calvin, then put his shoulder on me, saying I shouldn’t be alone out here on a night like this.
- I think I remember telling him I wasn’t I was with my dog. There were some more words exchanged. I don’t remember what, but I do remember eventually walking away from that man without saying bye. Even though I didn’t look back, Calvin kept looking back, and I slightly heard footsteps in the snow behind me again. So I knew he was following me.
- I figured he was following me home, which is why I was caught off guard when I heard the footsteps behind us increasing in speed and intensity, causing Calvin to turn and start barking. The man grabbed me with one arm and covered my mouth with his other arm. I think Calvin started biting at him, but he was wearing so many layers that he was able to ignore the pain only for so long.
- The man finally let go of his grip on me. I aimed his attention at Calvin by kicking him over and over. Eventually, the man gave up and took off for the woods. Calvin pulled so hard after him, his leash snapped off the collar, and off Calvin dashed, disappearing into the woods. Calvin was my first dog, and losing him was my first real heartbreak.
Life on the Farm with Jesse
- I live on a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It’s just my wife and our infant son living there, oh, and of course, my Rottweiler, Jesse.
- It serves as an extra form of protection and intimidation to potential burglars, but also allows him to do his business freely without having to wake one of us up. Jesse always has a mount attached to his collar that connects to the doggie house, so that he can’t run away or get lost.
- Very seldom at night, we hear Jesse barking. Given that he’s a guard dog, he’s trained to bark at suspicious people, so I always go out and check when we hear him barking, but again, it’s very, very seldom.
A Night of Suspense
The Bark That Broke the Silence
I’m gonna skip the fluff and get right to the night that my wife and I woke up at like 1:30 a.m. to Jesse’s barks outside.
Into the Crops
- I told my wife, who was also sitting up with me, to wait in the bed; I’ll go have a look.
- I slipped on my shoes and went outside with my robe.
- Jesse took notice of me for a second but resumed barking in the direction of our crops.
- I had to go back inside for a flashlight and Jesse’s leash because I planned on going in the crops with him.
- After clipping Jesse’s leash onto his collar, he knew right away to take the lead.
- He led me into the crops. I had the flashlight on, giving him a basic view of the miniature cornfield.
- I didn’t really see much in front of me besides crops in my face, regardless of the light.
- Jesse stopped barking but was still pulling me through the crops as if he knew exactly where he was going.
- Then, out of nowhere, he stopped sniffing and just stopped.
- He looked up, but I didn’t know if he heard something, if he was looking at something, or if he was just lost.
- The two of us stood in silence right there for a little bit.
Panic Sets In
Suddenly, Jesse’s head was all over the place. He was looking left, then right, left again, as if he were hearing sounds coming from everywhere. He started barking and pulling together, but this time I yanked him back to stay put.
The Scream
It’s like more bravery calling that out than you may think, and of course, I was gonna yell out a threat like that, what else could I say?
The situation felt so surreal, and then it was the scream of a woman, a distressed, manic, deranged, cop scream. Jesse started pulling in the direction of the screams, but the more we ran, the further the screams seemed to get until they completely stopped. Then Jesse once again stopped running and started looking around in different directions. Suddenly, there was the sound of someone zooming past us, rushing through the crops.
The Chase and the Terror
This time, I let Jesse off the leash. I told him to go catch them. Jesse disappeared in seconds. I heard his barks, though I was getting further away with every passing second.
I was sitting in the middle of the crops alone, shaking. Here I was, so scared I didn’t even want to move in fear of making noise and giving away my position. I was as scared as a young child.
The Grip in the Dark
I don’t mean a friendly light tap on the shoulder, I mean something grabbed my shoulder tight and squeezed to the point of hurting.
I screamed and, without looking back, ran in the direction I was 90% sure led back to the house. On my way back, I could hear Jesse’s barks in the far distance. I wasn’t about to go looking for him, though.
Aftermath
There wasn’t much the deputy could do other than take down my description of what happened. He said it himself, he wasn’t about to go searching around that cornfield.
We let Jesse sleep inside for the next few nights for his own safety. After almost a week of uneventful nights, things went back to normal. There hasn’t been a similar incident since.
