Every dog in the area was going insane about 15 min ago. My dog that was outside was barking in a near frantic tone, , and when me and the other dog went out, she joined in just as something took off like a bato out of hell behind the house. I couldn't make out any footfalls over all the barking and brush crashing, but from all the noise, I bet even I should be able to pick up a trail tomorrow.

Also, coincidentally, the neighbors had their big yearly hogroast tonight. I was going to ease down there about 5:00am and discreetly see if the pan had been messed with again but now my spotlights's dead till it can recharge

it's quiet now, I think I'll go out on the porch and listen for awhile.

-Sarge

Cool..let us know what you find out in the AM

Some odd stuff going on- the dogs started up again about 5-10 min after the first post, and they'll running to one corner of the front yard, barking for a few min, then they'll run to the'll run to the other corner and bark. I can hear brush popping once in awhile, but nothing like vocals yet. It's almost like whatever it is, is trying to get around the house and head south, but the dogs keep heading it off.



-Sarge

Very interesting stuff.....didnt you have vocal sounds a few months back?

OK, 5:55 am, everything finally got quiet again 90 minutes or so ago, and after a little trip down the drive and back with both sets of lights going, a couple minutes ago, the pan looks undisturbed resting on a big 5 gal. bucket.

Sunrise is supposed to be 7:20am, so if it's still there then, I think we've got a non-event.

-Sarge

SARGE! Where are you? Anything new? This is exciting, even if the pan's not touched... verrrry interesting that it coincides with the pigroast again!

freeeeeeeeeeaky

i cant wait to hear the scoop
gael

Alright! play by play action!

Bright animals (BF) cretures of habit for the most part.
Put together with an annual event of outdoor roasting pig, and things will be interesting as long as the event continues

*morning* Sarge, what-cha-find !?!??!!

Sarge...

I know it was a long night, but we're hanging by a thread here

Any updates?

-The QW

And then it reached through the window and pulled him from the computer.....

4:53pm, just got up. coffee beckons. back with more in a bit. :yuck:

-Sarge

Remember, like the quarry we all seek, Sarge is a nocturnal animal

Heh, ok, it got dark on me while I was drinking my coffee, but I'll see if I can add any to what happened last night.

No smells or vocals, just the sound of crashing brush during the initial encounter.

No noticable footfalls, but the subject(s?) made a lot of noise going through the brush and left me and the dogs in the dust. I wasn't going overly fast though, because I was shining that spotlight into EVERY dark notch on that trail! None of that "Scooby Doo, getting grabbed from the side" stuff for me!

I'm inclined to think, it may have been just a couple of really brave coyotes, to come that close to the house. Two or more, would have made a lot of racket if they all ran at once.

I am still a little puzzled by the dog's extreme reactions though. They've dealt w/ coyotes before, and always came back with a smug, victory grin. Last night, they kept watching the door with a "suspicious" look, sometimes with the fur on their back raised.

So far as I can tell, the hogpan remained undisturbed until about 6:00am, when my roomate Bill slipped down there and came back 10 minutes later w/ about 10 lbs of naturally refrigerated pig butt.

Who had the link for the really good satellite photo site? I want to try to make a map of sorts to show where all the activity occured, so this will make more sense.

-Sarge

http://terraserver.microsoft.com/

ok, here's a couple pics.

the first one shows my overall property in red, the general path the subject(s) took in green and the path me and the dogs took in blue. As you can see, we declined to venture very deep into the brush at the back of the property. My spot light wasn't fully charged to begin with and was beginning to get dim.



And here's a closer view showing where the dogs were crisscrossing the yard in response to crackling brush on either side of the house. The top red square is my house, the second my barn, the third the neighbors place and the forth, the hogroaster.



and finally here's a map I need to update, showing areas of past sightings in red.. I'm in the NW corner of Morgan County.




-Sarge

Interesting read and good pics.

I don't think it was BF though. Is there any water sources near your house(streams, rivers, lakes?)

With BF the one consistent thing is water. Plus your dogs seemed to get excited. From what I read and hear most dogs cower and become frightened.

Yeah, until anything new comes up, I'm not going to get too excited about this one. We do have a small waterway nearby though- here's a pic I scribbled Sycamore Creek onto-



-Sarge

I live in Florida now Sgt but I am from not to far from you in Green county. Most of my family still live up there and I still consider it home. We moved away from where when I was 10 but I spent every summer there (With grand parents) and holidays and all. And my Mother and sister move back up there years ago as well. If I could just get the wife to move up there we would be living there now lol.

Anyway great post as it was a interesting read :-)

Oh and here in my Mothers place, Used to be one of my grand parents place. If you zoom out a little you will see not to much around there lol.

http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.asp...=21595&z=16&w=2

I like the visuals! gives a good Idea of what's going down

That's neat Sarge, it seems to appear from the sattelite pics that your house has the most brush and/or trees. where the other surrounding areas appear to me to have mostly fields and more buildings, barns, or houses. It looks like whatever it was was leaving the hog roast, or going to it, through the cover your brush provided. There seems to be a direction there, as if your house stands right in the way between the hog roast and the waterway. In that area your place seems to provide the best coverage for an animal to travel, and from the events you've described in the past on your property that would seem to support that. BTW, nice big plot of land you got there! And man, those satellite pics can get pretty close, reminds me not to walk outside naked!