The Wulvers

The Wulvers

    The Scottish legend of the wulvers tells us about a race of beings who resembled wolves, walked on two legs, and had hands like a human. They were a warrior race who wielded a bow and arrow or sword, enjoyed fishing, and occasionally helped the Scots fight when they were at war. Just about every ancient peoples had some sort of legend of similar creatures of either dog or wolf headed warriors who were for hire; even the Egyptians had Anubis who looked more dog than wolf. We all know about Europe’s legend of the werewolf and we know wolves in many parts of Europe were hunted to extinction out of fear of these supernatural beings but, have you ever wondered if there was a grain of truth to any these old legends, or were they just silly superstitious stories told around fires, late at night? 

    With a little research you will find that the sightings of these strange beings continued throughout history, and still go on today. Most people do not research this subject until they actually see one. Like all cryptids, every region has a different name for them; in some southern states they call them, dog-faced boogers, or loup garou. I live in Michigan and I have heard of two names they go by in my state. The most well-known name is, dog man, which was made famous by the song done by a DJ and played on the radio in the 1980s but, an older name is, the witchy wolves, which comes from Arenac County area near Omer, where they are supposed to roam the Omer Plains, because of a curse placed on the land there by indigenous peoples who used to have sacred burial grounds in the plains. I lived near Omer for fifteen years, and I am pretty sure they are not exclusive to the Planes in that neck of the woods.  

Walk of Terror 

    When I lived in Arenac County, I was a stone’s throw from the Rifle River, and a couple miles from the Pine River. One year a horse farm on the other side of the river from me had some of their horses mauled and killed by a predator. The conservation officers blamed it on a crazed bear; they said it must have been injured and in pain to do this sort of thing. I found that story a little hard to swallow, and even though I had heard all the witchy wolf stories, I didn’t give it much thought because I was a few miles from the Omer Planes and I had so much going on in my life at that time that the information was filed away in the back of my mind until many years later, when I actually researched the subject and then seen one. 

    That being said, I did have a strange experience while living there. This was in the late 1980s, and I was working at a little party store about three miles from home. It was the middle of nowhere, not in a town, but quite rural. I always worked the closing shift, and one night in late summer, I closed at 11:00 PM and was stranded when my ride failed to show. I called everyone and no one answered their phone so, I started walking. It was not a big deal to me, it was only three miles and believe me, I have walked many more; little did I know, that would be the longest three miles of my life. It very quickly it became the journey of terror. 

    There was allot of woods and thick brush on both sides of the road and I could not see into it in the dark, but I could see the branches moving and something was making allot of noise, like something wanted me to know it was there and it was something large. It paced me, going faster if I went faster, slower if I went slower, and stopping if I stopped. The only thing that kept me from screaming and breaking into a run was the fact that, I knew I couldn’t run three miles, and there was nothing to run to in between the store and my home. I literally shook with fear and almost hyperventilated. I had never been that scared in my life. It stayed with me until I came to my road and turned right; I lived just around the corner. Whatever it was would have had to come across the road to follow me further, and expose itself. It did not, well at least not while I was in sight of the road. It occurs to me now that it might have crossed the road behind me and went into the swamp and come out of the trees that bordered my property, and I would not have seen it. To this day I wonder what it was, or maybe I know and just can’t say it out loud. 

Visitor in the Night

    In 2007 I was reunite with my teenage sweetheart and moved to Mecosta County, married, and bought a house in the tiny village of Mecosta. I then injured my back, which left me disabled, so I spent allot of time on the internet. As soon as I ran across the first dog man story in my county, I dove into researching and reading and listening to every story I could find. I did this for three years; I was obsessed with the subject. I would like to point out here that I think, if you dwell too much for too long on these beings, you draw them to you. I don’t understand it, but I’m not the only one who thinks this. It was late in the summer of 2015, and I had the strangest whack-a-doodle dream ever; it was so vivid and clear; I dreamt that a bunch of those dog men showed up at my house one sunny afternoon, riding bicycles. It was a spectacle of high strangeness, rather like a circus act of the cryptid variety. It was not scary at all, but pretty comical. 

    About a week later, I was sleeping with the window open because it was so hot, (which I don’t do any more), when I was jolted out of bed from a sound sleep at three something in the AM, by a very loud scream/howl. The best way I can describe it was, if a man screamed to the point of rupturing his vocal cords, meshed together with a very deep wolf howl. It scream/howled three more times, and I had my head at the window for that, trying to get a direction, and judge how far away it was. It sounded like maybe 3 blocks away and from toward the cemetery at the edge of town. It was not a sound that could be reproduced by anything I know of. It sounded very angry. I reported this to the Dog man investigator who lives in the next county north of there. He replied and told me there were three sightings right near where I lived in that same time frame, so it was conformation for me. 

    About two weeks after the strange howling, I went to the back door to let my dogs in one night, and that is when I see it. My porch light did not reach beyond the fence, but as my dogs were running up the steps, this huge black dog/wolf something, ran up my driveway, along my fence and disappeared into the black night. Its’ ears were large and pointed, and I knew that I was the only person in the village with a pointy eared dog. Everybody else had pit bulls and labs and tiny ankle biters. I have a malamute and this thing dwarfed my dog by four times over. On all fours, its’ ears topped the fence which is four and a half feet high. I didn’t get any details; it was all in shadow, but I will tell you this, I have never seen anything in my life move that fast. You would expect something that big to be lumbering, but this baby was faster than anything I have ever seen. 

    It is not the nature for a wolf to come into town by itself, so I don’t think it was a wolf. It was way too big to be anything else. We have three dogs, my mal and my husband’s two bird dogs; the bird dogs were both in season, and I believe it may have been a factor in attracting this creature to my house. I guess it was like the perfect storm, all the conditions were right and when you least expect it, bam, a wulver shows up. Nothing threatening happened, but I wonder if it could have gotten ugly, had I not been letting my dogs in just then or, was it watching and waiting because it wanted me to see it? Just how intelligent are these guys? 

    I have since moved to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  I’m not too far from Paulding, home of the Paulding lights; also known long ago as, the dog meadow lights, and I’m sure you can guess why.  It’s that time of year again; Happy howling all.