An officer was puzzled to find a wet stray dog on a lawn one morning who just wouldn't budge. The dog was acting strange and refused to leave where it was. That single discovery soon lead the officer on a wild chase where he discovered what the dog was guarding between its teeth and in the end, he made a fantastic discovery that uncovered the strange truth of the dog's origins.
How It All Started
It all began with the discovery of a wet dog one Monday afternoon. Curled up on the grass shivering, the drenched dog looked like it had spent a significant amount of time in some body of water or another before arriving at its destination. In its mouth was a plastic bag the creature refused to let go of and the animal growled at anyone who tried to come close to it.
Finding the Dog
The dog was found by an officer who, after trying and failing to get the creature off the lawn, had no choice but to call for backup. He knew how much his fellow officers would make fun of him requesting backup to handle just one dog, but he didn’t know what else to do.
Calling For Backup
It didn’t take long to realize that calling for backup was the right thing to do though. Because even after getting a handful of other officers to help out, there was still no moving the dog without causing themselves harm. The creature just refused to move, no matter how hard they tried to make it.
Getting Professional Help
After several attempts at moving the creature, with one officer almost losing his finger after trying to physically lift the dog, the officers concluded it was time to get the professionals on the job. Contacting an animal expert in the department, they tried to find out what the cause of the unusual behavior could be. The response they got was even more disturbing.
An Unexpected Response
“Dogs don’t normally act that way,” he said. “There’s something very wrong with that one. Give it some space and make sure no one gets close to it. Preferably, set up a perimeter a couple of feet wide. You could get some treats for it, but apart from that, I don’t think I can be of much help.”
The Entire Town Found Out About the Dog
The news of the strange dog that wouldn’t leave its spot spread through town quickly. While the officers did their best to keep the general public away from the dog, there was nothing they could do about the cameras and so pictures were taken. Soon enough, images of the dog spread across town like wildfire, and with it came strange and unusual rumors.
Rumors Begin to Spread
Some said the dog was a part of some sick government experiment aimed at splicing human DNA with that of animals. Others claimed it was a victim of some UFO abduction or the other. One rumor even claimed that the dog was actually not a dog but was, in fact, a zombie who had taken the form of a dog but was having trouble turning back. These rumors were all obviously untrue, but they made it difficult for the police to calm down the residents who lived near the feral animal.
Keeping the Crowd Away
Needless to say, the rumors didn’t help matters for the officers and their hands were full trying to contain the mob of individuals who came to see the subject of the many rumors. The officers had to take drastic methods to keep the people away. While the dog hadn’t really given them any trouble since it had been left alone, they feared that all the noise might frighten the creature and it might turn hostile.
Just Laying There
The dog on the other hand seemed to care less about everything happening around it, content with simply laying down there in the sun. It hadn’t moved since the officers had created the perimeter around it. As long as no one came too close, it seemed content on just ignoring the world altogether.
Very Sad Eyes
While the other officers tried to keep the mob of people away, the officer in charge; the man who had first found the dog, kept his eyes on it. He was a dog lover and owned two dogs himself. He fancied himself someone who understood dogs more than most people, and from this dog, he sensed a great deal of sadness.
Sudden Movements
For the next few minutes, the cops kept people away. The officers had begun to gain a bit of the dog’s trust after one of them had given it a few treats. Still, the dog refused to move, though now it didn’t growl as much when officers came close to it to hand it treats. All that changed, however, when the dog suddenly jumped up, releasing a ferocious bark.
A Puzzling Experience
The sudden reaction of the dog left the officers puzzled. What exactly triggered the animal and why was it suddenly on guard?
None of the officers knew what to make of the entire situation, but they all agreed something had to be done. Unsure of what else to do, they decided to widen the perimeter around the dog and then began questioning the crowd to see if anyone noticed anything out of place.
Finding Out What Happened
While questioning the crowd, the officers got a piece of intel. Someone had seen something unusual right before the incident. A suspicious man dressed in a hood had been staring at the dog for a while.
According to the witness, it hadn’t seemed like much at the time, but now that he thought about it, the man had been acting strange. He also seemed to have had with him some type of handheld device. It wasn’t long after the witness saw the stranger that the dog started barking.
"It All Makes No Sense"
The entire thing sounded ridiculous to the officer questioning the witness. This was not some sci-fi movie or something. Still, he couldn’t help but admit that there was something wrong with this entire situation, and with nothing else to go on, they had no choice but to look for this hooded stranger.
Finding the Suspect
Despite how ridiculous it sounded, the word spread to other officers to keep a lookout for an individual in a black hood near the region. However, there was no mention of the handheld device, as the officer didn’t want the description to sound too ridiculous. Things were already bad enough as they were.
He Was Real
The officers didn’t really expect anything much to come from the search. Even when some officers found someone matching the description nearby, they still didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t until he took off running the moment he noticed the officers approaching him that they decided they were probably unto something.
Catching the Culprit
The chase didn’t last long and the suspect was easily caught. He tried to resist but was easily taken down and cuffed by the two officers who soon after took him in for questioning.
At first, he was hesitant to answer the officers’ questions and refused to even utter a word. On hearing he could be charged with resisting arrest, however, he lost his resolve and began to speak.
An Unbelievable Story
According to him, he was one of the security personnel of a certain rich family. He had been looking for the dog the officers had been surrounding, but didn’t want to cause a scene when he saw the crowd that had surrounded it. He had been going to file a missing dog report when the officers had chased him.
Not Buying It
The officers didn’t believe his story. For one, he had run immediately after seeing them and resisted arrest. That wasn’t something an innocent person would do. Secondly, if he was telling the truth, there was nothing stopping him from walking up to the officers the moment he found them. The only reason he would have not to do that is if he had something to hide.
Tired of Explaining
The man kept trying to prove his innocence, not understanding why the officers didn’t believe him. He kept on with his story, trying to make them believe, but the officers wouldn’t have it.
It couldn’t be a coincidence, they said, he appeared at the scene right before the dog’s sudden reaction and then disappeared right after. There was also the question of why he ran from them. Only guilty people do that.
Everyone was at an impasse, the disbelieving officers and the suspect who couldn’t prove his case.
Providing Proof
Tired of being treated as a criminal, the suspect told the officers he could prove his case beyond any reasonable doubt. He told them to check his car. In there, he said they’d find two pet carriers in the trunk of his car. He had been carrying the dog to the vet before the dog had run off.
The officers asked him where his car was parked and sent some other officers to check out the spot. As it turned out, the man had been telling the truth and there were indeed dog carriers in the car..
Good Samaritan
But none of that really proved anything, and the man remained in police custody while the officers tried to get to the bottom of the case.
While all of that was going on, a message came in from the site where the dog was. Apparently, a man who called himself a dog whisperer had heard the story and was asking to be permitted to try to communicate with the dog.
A Positive Reaction
On seeing the man, the dog began panting with its tongue hanging out of its mouth.
It had long since stopped the sign of aggression witnessed just a while ago and had returned to its docile state laying on the grass until the man arrived. Seeing the reaction the dog had to the man, the officer in charge decided that allowing the man to approach was unlikely to elicit any negative reaction, so he ordered his other officers to let him through.
Unbelievable News
After observing the dog for a few seconds, from a distance at first, and then from much closer, the man announced that there was nothing at all wrong with the animal. Bending to demonstrate what he meant, he stroked the dog behind the ears, eliciting a happy bark in response. The crowd around was amazed.
A Little Puzzled
The officers were still not convinced. Sure the dog seemed civil right now, but it had seemed that way before it suddenly became feral just a few moments earlier. They had no idea what triggered it or if it would happen again.
The report puzzled the dog whisperer. He had decades of experience dealing with dogs and had never heard of any dog showing signs of hostility without cause.
Not Normal Dog Behavior
Dogs would often fight, the man explained, but they never did it without a reason. It was either they were feeling threatened or were fighting over territory or food. Whatever the reason, there was always a trigger. The case from earlier was no exception, he claimed. Something must have triggered the dog.
A Leap of Fate
On hearing that, one of the officers spoke about the suspect who had been apprehended, explaining that apparently, he had been spotted by a witness staring at the dog before the dog began barking.
The dog whisperer seemed interested in hearing that and asked if he could see the man. The officer in charge didn’t really feel happy about involving a civilian in their investigation. Seeing as the man was a dog expert, however, he decided to once again oblige him.
Thinking About The Case
Throughout the trip to the station, the dog whisperer kept puzzling over everything he had been told about the case. The officer in charge had been kind enough to fill him in on the details they had so far and he agreed that something didn’t add up. He decided to wait till he met the so-called suspect before forming any hypothesis, however.
The Plastic Bag
Just as he was about to put all the thinking behind him and simply enjoy the ride, something struck his mind. The officer in charge had mentioned something about the dog carrying a paper bag. He had also seen something similar under the dog when he had been petting it. He made a mental note to investigate that further if he got the opportunity to.
Even More Confusing
The more he thought about it, the more it looked like this was going to take longer than he expected. At the time, he had thought he was simply going to help the officers calm an unruly hound, but this was starting to look like it’d be more complicated than that.
Signing Some Documents
The moment he got into the station, he was asked to first put down his statement and then sign some documents. It was simply for formality’s sake he was told. Civilians were not allowed to be so deeply involved with police cases. The only way to be legally brought in on such a case is to be brought in as a private contractor or some other third party, hence the paperwork.
Another Stranger Offers to Help
While all of this was going on, yet another individual had turned up at the scene offering to help the officers. This one claimed he owned an animal shelter and had dealt with similar cases in the past. He asked why the officers hadn’t called for experts like him when they first found the dog.
An Animal Shelter
Noticing the officers’ apprehension, he pointed to a van parked down the street. Behind it was a dog carrier with a dog in it. He explained that that was a stray dog he was transporting to his shelter and offered to do the same for the other dog too.
All the Tools Needed
With the commanding officer no longer on the scene, the other officers were conflicted as to what to do. In the end though, the officers decided to let the man move the dog to his shelter pending their investigation.
Having been given the go-ahead, the man from the dog shelter went to his van, pulling out a couple of tools to use on the dog.
Interrogating the Suspect
Back at the station, the dog whisperer was watching the interrogation of the suspect. The man retained his story about being a security detail for a rich family who happened to be the owners of the dog. The officers asked him to provide proof of identity, but he had nothing to say.
A Cunning Plan
The dog whisperer was beginning to suspect that the officers were on to something. He was convinced that the suspect was lying, but he wasn’t sure how to prove it. Finally, he came up with a plan to settle things once and for all. Explaining his plan to the officers, they all seemed to love it and gave him the go-ahead to try it out.
They Finally Caught Him
Walking into the interrogation room, he asked the suspect when exactly the dog had escaped. The man claimed it had escaped right after they had left the vet store right around where the dog had been found.
Immediately after the suspect made that claim, the whisperer smirked. They had caught him now!
Breakthrough at Last
Seeing the reaction from the whisperer, the officers were ecstatic. Finally a breakthrough. Now they had good evidence that the man was lying. The whisperer’s plan had worked perfectly.
They soon revealed the truth to the suspect. The whisperer was the owner of the vet store he had claimed he and the dog had visited. The store had cameras that could prove that he never visited the store that day. That was enough to send him to jail for a while.
Confession
On hearing this, the suspect began to confess. He didn’t want to go to jail and would tell them everything they needed to know to make sure he didn’t.
And so he confessed and told the true story. He was a member of a group that went around stealing pets and selling them on the black market. He had seen the dog in question and captured it, but it had somehow escaped before he could put it in the carrier.
What Really Happened?
He had apparently chased the dog and caught it close to a river, but the “feral beast” had bit him and in retaliation, he kicked it into the river. He had followed the trail to find the dog, but when he did, it was already surrounded by the police. He had been trying to call his partner when the dog saw him and barked. Afraid that the creature would come for revenge, he had fled.
He thought he had escaped until he saw the two officers following him. Fearing that he had been discovered, he had run.
Wolf In Disguise
Hearing that he had a partner, the officers questioned him to find out more information about him. What they found out set the entire department into a frenzy.
The suspect’s partner fit the description of someone the officers had seen earlier today. He was the man who had claimed to be from an animal shelter; the one who had been asked to take the dog away while the officers focused on their investigation
A Manhunt Across Town
Immediately they heard this, the officers were on high alert and several of them were dispatched to find the man. It took a while to find the van from earlier, but they were able to find it within a few minutes of searching. On seeing the officers, the man had tried to flee, but like his partner, he too was swiftly apprehended.
A Dozen Caged Dogs
At the site of the arrest, they found not just the dog from earlier that day, but a dozen other dogs as well, all of which were placed into cages and seemed very malnourished. A few extra empty cages lay in a corner, and the officers weren’t sure if that meant that the dogs that were supposed to be in there had already been sold off, or if the criminals just hadn’t caught any dogs to place in them yet.
Their Collars
At a corner, they found a collection of dog collars which they figured belonged to the stolen dogs. On counting the collars, they found the number of collars equal to the number of dogs locked up, so they concluded that the extra cages were those that hadn’t been filled up yet.
Case Closed
With the case concluded, the dogs were taken from their cages and, along with the collars, were transported to the whisperer’s store. He had given the officers permission to house the dogs in his store until their owners could be identified.
The next day, the news about the stolen dogs was spread all over the town, and individuals from all over town came to claim their dogs.
A Real Good Dog
Among them was an old man who had been looking for his dig since the previous day. He had sent the service dog to go get some medication the previous day, but it never returned. It turned out the wet dog that had been found earlier the previous day belonged to the man, and the plastic bag the dog had held on to throughout were the meds it was sent to buy. The officers were amazed. That one good dog helped them rescue a dozen others.
The events of this story are entirely fictional and are products of the author’s imagination. Images included are meant for illustration purposes only. Any resemblance to actual events, places or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.