Bear-dog! Man-bear-wolf!

No, I'm serial guys.
About two weeks ago, there was this whole hubbub up in Washington County, Wisconsin, about a mysterious creature sighting.

Krueger estimates he looked at the creature for about five seconds before flooring the gas pedal. "It had pointy ears, triangular shaped," he said, "and they looked like big wolf ears standing up on end. That was the main feature that made me realize it was not a bear. It had a longer muzzle than a black bear, and its head was more like a wolf than a bear. It almost looked like a very large black bear standing on its feet, if you took a wolf's head and enlarged it and set it on the bear's body." Krueger guessed the creature's height at six to seven feet, but only was able to see it from the chest up. The fur was about two inches long, black, and fairly smooth, he said.

The story has updates all the way up until yesterday, which tells of a sighting two years ago of possibly the same creature:

"It started up over the top of the road, looked at me then kept running across the road in frontof me and into the brush. I see a lot of deer and it seemed the top of its back was as high as a deer's. I could see long tufts of hair coming off its chest and legs but not much of a tail. It had a short snout and pointy ears on top of a round head. The head was round like a pumpkin, but its ears were pointy like a dog's on top of its head pointing straight up. It had to weigh between 150 and 200 pounds."

Over on Scott Maruna's blog, he postulates the creature might be the same or similar to the Whoahaw, seen in Nevada all the way back in 1879. Of course, the Whoahaw is a bear-coyote, rather than a wolfbear.

The whole region round Deeth is dominated by a mysterious beast known locally as the Whoahaw, an animal supposed to be a cross between the grizzly bear and the coyote. As the mule combines the bad qualities of the horse and the ass, so does this hybrid display the courage and ferocity of the grizzly joined to the cunning and treachery of the coyote. The Whoahaw has never been seen by daylight. He roams and ravages only at night. The beast has been known to carry off a horse. Cattle and sheep are often borne away by the monster. Mules he never attacks, for some unexplained reason.

One of the possibilities that keeps getting mentioned as to what this animal might be is the Amphicyon, a prehistoric beardog that roamed North America 20-30 million years ago (or 6000 years ago if you're an IDer).

Cajun werewolves and... David Blaine?

Creole Folks has an article up about werewolves in New Orleans.

Werewolves were usually identified as people who lived in secluded rural areas or villages in France. They usually had a uni-brow or eye brows that ran straight across their foreheads with hairy palms. France had accused no less than 30,000 people, which were brought to trial in the 16th and 17th century and many were executed for being werewolves.
...
The residence of these French country villages, sailed to the New World during colonization, where they were known as the Cajuns instead of just French! Cajuns are direct descendants of the French village people, whom the French rulers thought to be hiding humans who could transform into werewolves.

The author goes on to recall reports of werewolves from his childhood. Fairly standard stuff until the end, when he not only says that he's friends with David Blaine, but that David Blaine might be a werewolf!

Then again, I'm a guy whose circle of friends includes David Blaine the "Magic Man." Not many people know(not even locals) that before he got really famous-he would bum around lower Louisiana. Maybe he's the werewolf! People in New Orleans didn't even know how to get into Plaquemines but David Blaine managed to always be walking on the 1 road that ran through the area along with hidden, out-the-way roads that hugged the river curves. I've been meaning to ask him this question for a long time.

Cause he walks on roads!

Girlie Werewolf Project

Ran across some interesting artwork being done by Jazmina Cininas, called the "Girlie Werewolf Project".

Recently, women on the internet have reinvented the idea of the wolf, using it as a symbol of their both wild and passive natures.

Read an interview with her about the project, and see some more examples.

Is it because I is a Werewolf?

Is it because I is a Werewolf?
Originally uploaded by psd.

Quite possibly sums it all up.

Cynocephaly

Let's take a quick look at the condition of cynocephaly, having the head of a dog.



A Holy Dog and a Dog-Headed Saint tells the stories of St Guinefort and St Christopher among others. Very interesting stuff.

The Cryptid Zoo has a short piece on Cynocephali from a cryptozoological viewpoint. What's interesting of note is that Cynocephalids seem to have sprung from beliefs that other tribes, ie barbarian tribes, were seen as 'monstrous,' and less than human. It was only when Western writers and explorers set these descriptions down literally, rather than figuratively, that we begin to see the birth of these real-life "monsters".



That's, of course, just supposition on my point. However, there is another interesting article titled "Dogs: God's Worst Enemies?" From the abstract:

In a broad survey of negative and hostile attitudes toward canines in pagan, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, the author posits that warm ties between humans and canines have been seen as a threat to the authority of the clergy and indeed, of God. Exploring ancient myth, Biblical and Rabbinical literature, and early and medieval Christianity and Islam, she explores images and prohibitions concerning dogs in the texts of institutionalized, monotheistic religions, and offers possible explanations for these attitudes, including concern over disease.

It's interesting in the realm of werewolfery, as werewolves were heartily punished by the Church in Medieval Europe, seen as agents of Satan or worse. More accurately, those the Church wished to be rid of were declared werewolfs. Wait, there's nothing worse than Satan. In an earlier post here, I quoted Alby Stone on the entymological roots of the word warg:

This is a complex word: it is often used simply to mean 'wolf', but it also denotes an outlaw or the state of outlawry... It would be easy to assume that outlaws were called warg simply because their offences were of an especially savage kind, and that they were likened to wolves, wild, bestial, and uncivilised, as a result.

The end result of all this talk of cynocephaly, religion and werewolfery is this seemingly endless loop between dogs are evil so men who are evil are dogs who are evil who are men... whether there is an actual historic kernel as the basis to this mythology, or what this kernel might be is lost to us. But from a werwolf scholar's point-of-view, it's definitely a path worth pursuing.

True Werewolf Crime Stories!!!

Werewolf Gets Shot in Gang Shootout on Halloween!!!

He walked the eight blocks home and washed off the blood in the bathroom, believing he had been attacked with an air gun.

But a .38-caliber bullet had ripped through his left thigh, nearly hitting an artery, and lodged in about the same spot on his right leg.

Werewolf Robs Convenience Store!!!

A man wearing a werewolf mask robbed Store 24 on South Union Street last night, making off with an undisclosed amount of cash.

I know, I know, those are the worst true crime stories ever, and they really have nothing to do with werewolves. I guess with Halloween, you're just bound to get people involved in crimes while donning their werewolf costume.