BFRO #60924: Homeowner across the street from East Fork State Park (30mi SE of Cincinnati) describes possible encounter at night

📍 Location

📝 Description

One night this past Spring at about 10:00 PM, when it was warm enough to be outside at night without a coat and with just shorts and a t-shirt on, and when the leaves on the trees were budding but not fully grown-in, our Border Collie/Australian Shepherd was out near the front of our property which is just across the street from the East Fork State Park woods, barking his head off. Often, even at night, I will just ignore him because he barks at every little thing. But this bark definitely sounded like he was saying there�s something HERE and I want to let the whole world know. I was in an outbuilding, went inside, and grabbed my high-powered flashlight. When I came back out our dog was still barking loudly and remained laser-focused as he stared at something in the woods across the street. I shone my light between some trees, and bam, got some bright eyeshine right back � not the red eyeshine you so often read about, but bluish-white, I think. Now, at no point did I have my glasses on which I use for driving at night, but, here�s my point � the eyeshine was at a height that I guessed to be about ten to twelve feet up. The eyes stayed fixed on me at that point, blinking � sometimes both eyes at once, sometimes one eye then quickly the other. My wife came out and said �Oh, it�s just an owl,� but I wasn�t convinced. My voice was trembling a bit because I�ve read the other stories on this website about sasquaches living in the area, especially the one pertaining to the bigfoot standing along the entrance road to the park being only about two miles from our little property below the lake. Besides, I thought, �Why would my 11 year old dog be going crazy over an owl perched on a branch fifty feet away from our fence? How would he even hear an owl gliding so silently onto a branch in the woods at night?� It�s also hard for me to believe that he would have happened to see an owl gliding onto a branch at night, but . . . maybe. It just seems far-fetched. Well, at that point I went inside and grabbed my b.b. gun. Probably not the best idea, as I do not yet own a handgun or other weapon that could actually provide some protection if things went south. So, I went to our front door, opened it a crack, held the flashlight in my teeth, kept a fire extinguisher next to me just in case it came rushing out of the woods at me � at least I could try to fill its face with something it would definitely not like to be breathing in � and aimed my b.b. rifle at the eyes still shining back at me. I pulled the trigger and waited. About 1 to 2 seconds later (I don�t think I hit it), whatever it was clearly reacted to the b.b. which must have passed nearby. Then, for about 2 and a half seconds I heard it start to crash through the woods from right to left, with left being in the direction of our mailbox, driveway, and the road we take to access our street . . . then silence. However, what interested me was that our dog was still super-focused and barking, no different, but even after the crashing went quiet, he continued to track something to the left, barking as furiously as ever. So, if my location was the apex of a triangle, and the creature was at the farthest point away, and its movement to the left represents the base of the triangle, my dog had to run full speed to keep up with it even though my dog�s trajectory would have represented a shorter �base� distance of a smaller triangle. In other words, kind of like when in a marching band the people on the outside fringe of a circular-moving formation have to march at double- or triple-time to keep up with the people who are barely shuffling their feet at the center of the circle, the creature was moving so fast that my dog still had to run full-out to keep up with it. I�d say my dog ran about thirty or forty feet to my left in about four seconds, which means that the creature ran about 100 to 150 feet in that time . . . through somewhat dense woods (which is where I always harvest kindling for our Buck Stove, and I can tell you, this section of woods are not impassable by any means, but there is still plenty of undergrowth to have to push your way through). My dog�s gaze then remained focused as he continued to bark at a location in the woods across the street about 15 feet to the left of my driveway, so, I presume that that�s where the creature probably took a turn and headed back deeper into the woods. Lastly, I have been doing a lot of projects in my yard out front all Summer long. I can tell you that whenever my dog would be outside with me, about 85% of the time I observed him to be staring at that location 15 feet to the left of our driveway. And, even though our neighbors and their dogs and other activity around our property would and still do capture his attention very easily, when the distraction goes away, my dog still very often will return to his spot and continue his vigil. In the 20 months that we have lived here, I have never seen him keeping such diligent watch on t

🔍 Circumstances

My wife saw the eyeshine but immediately labeled it as that of an owl.

🌤️ Weather Conditions

Fully dark, between 10:00 and 10:30 PM. I can't remember if there was any significant moonlight, but I do know it was definitely not a clear night with a full moon.

ℹ️ Additional Details

Fully dark, between 10:00 and 10:30 PM. I can't remember if there was any significant moonlight, but I do know it was definitely not a clear night with a full moon.

🔗 Sources (1)

👥 Community Contributions

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