Illustration Update: On July 2, this witness sent me a sketch by her artist son, Marc, and I’ve added it below. He did a great job, and her only notes on it were that it needed the “mane” around the neck and shoulders and also more varying lengths of fur. She said both his drawing and mine looked much like what she and her friend had seen. Here is what she described:

Time and time again, Michigan dogman sightings seem to center around the mid-Eastern area of the state, near the huge Manistee National Forest. Some of the best known sightings in that area include those near Reed City and Big Rapids featured in the TV show Monsterquest, and in nearby Luther, where owners of a family home returned from vacation to find canine claw marks in the house’s siding seven feet off the ground, and large canine prints on the ground.

Shelby, a small town in Oceana County that lies halfway between Ludington and Muskegon, is only a couple of miles from the western edge of the forest, and six or seven miles from the Lake Michigan shore. In February, 2009, at about 11:30 pm, recently retired law enforcement officer Laura Love was a passenger in a car headed north on Highway US-31 near the West Webster Road overpass. Her friend,“C,” was driving. In Laura’s own words:

“We were just talking about general things…there was a small truck in front of us, no other traffic on the road, in either direction. The road itself was mostly clear, but did have areas of snow/ice spots. The weather was cold but there was no snow falling, and it was a cloudless night.

We saw a large, tall, dark, and oddly shaped creature run out from the left side of the overpass and hit the rear quarter panel of the small truck in front of us, causing the truck to fish-tail. Luckily the small pickup did regain control, but it didn’t stop to see what collided with it. If anything, it seemed to speed up as if it got a view of what hit it, and wanted to get the heck out of Dodge.

It looked like a giant dog or wolf. It was bipedal, not on all fours. It was at least 7-7.5 feet tall. It had a kind of mane around its head ( much like a lion’s mane) the hind legs looked like dog legs when they are up on two legs…like the knees are backwards, which seemed more pronounced as it was running across the two-lane highway left to right. The front legs were swinging freely as it ran.

The face was definitely canine, much like a collie face….elongated with a snout and nose protruding from the face. The mouth was slightly opened as it ran…and the creature was covered by longish dark hair, but in varying lengths. It had pointy ears that seemed to be more on the top portion of its head rather than on the sides. We watched as it ran off to the right side of the highway and disappear into the small trees and weeds along the road. It seemed to pay us no heed whatsoever, as if it was unconcerned that we were fast approaching it.

‘C’ kept driving, but was silent.

I asked her “Did you just see….?”

She replied, “Yes, I did.”

I said, ‘OK.’

We drove the next ten minutes in silence until we got to my driveway.

We went into my house and I made us some tea. We sat and discussed what we had seen. I am not sure if it was a relief to have the other confirm what was seen, but we agreed on all aspects that I have described.

I was concerned about her trip back to her house, as she naturally was… so we decided she would call me from her cellphone and we would talk as she drove so if anything happened I would know as it happened, and she gave me frequent location updates as she drove. Thankfully she made it home without incident.

Our encounter was brief, but it was fully illuminated, affording us a good profile view of the creature. We have always heard the stories, but normally from someone who knew someone who knew someone that saw something. Now, I can honestly say, WE saw something, and it wasn’t a man in a costume, nor a large dog nor wolf… it was a dogman. I can still see it clearly in my mind’s eye like it happened just last week.

Thank you for replying back, it was nice to see an actual email from someone…

I am fine with you sharing my encounter. I am also fine if you want to share my name…  I retired from law enforcement 2 years ago, so I am not worried about the backlash anymore.”

There are a couple of aspects to this sighting that make it quite remarkable. There is the “mane” or thick hedge of fur around its neck and back. This feature is not found on all upright canines but does get mentioned from time to time and is something that shows up in wolf populations as well.

The real shock factor of this sighting, however, is that the creature actually bashed into the truck just ahead of the two women, nearly sending it veering off the road. It seems odd that something with such obvious power and control of movement would hit the truck accidentally. From listening to Laura’s description of its trajectory, the move seems purposeful to me. My mind then goes toward what might happen if such a vehicle left the pavement, which Laura described as icy in patches, and rolled or was otherwise damaged. Would the creature have stayed on site to check out the truck’s occupants?

We will never know, of course, but since we truly don’t know yet how these creatures view humans and what their true intent may be, it’s not unreasonable to ask these questions. In the meantime, I’m thankful that both Laura and her friend made it home safely.