Wayne County's Mystery Animal

Wayne County News
2 January 1936
Source: Wayne County News Archives FB

MYSTERY ANIMAL KILLED AFTER ALL-DAY CHASE

Wayne County's mystery animal is dead!

The animal which has harassed residents of Grant district for more than six years was killed December 24 after an all-day chase by Will Spry of Milum Creek. Mr. Spry shot the animal in the shoulder after it had fallen into the creek when the ice broke in crossing.

More than a dozen men and several dogs chased the animal. It was discovered by Milton Nelson, who chased it with his dog all day. Other men and dogs joined in the chase but the dogs would quit when they got near the animal, except Rouster, Mr. Nelson's dog, which stayed in the chase the entire day.

Early in the chase the animal ran the ridges but in the evening, when the animal became tired, it dropped down to the creek level. 

Other men in the chase where Sammie Nelson, Norman and Boyd Finley, Fletcher Spry, Keither Caldwell, Charley Maynard, Ballard Finley, Max Lester, Noah Nelson, Carlos Nelson and Lindsey H. Perry, Jr.

It was not learned what kind of animal it is, but it was described by those in the chase as being about five feet in length, with the height of a sheep and feet and legs larger than those of a fox hound. Its weight was estimated at 75 pounds. It has a nose sharp and and long like a fox and its tusks are 1 1-2 inch in length. The animal is heavily furred, and tinted brown and gray. 

The animal was fond of pigs and sheep and several farmers have reported loss of their domestic animals during the past year or more. 

Several people saw the animal during recent years and it became almost a legend in that section of the county.

The animal, it was reported, is being mounted and will be on display in Wayne in the near future. 

Theresa's Note: I found this story in the January 2, 1936 edition of the Wayne County News, which was posted to the awesome Facebook page, Wayne County News Archives at the Wayne Public Library. The headline caught my attention immediately, because ya'll know I love me a good mysterious animal story! 

I was further intrigued when I tried to find out some additional information on the story and found the legend of the Booger Cat, posted to Wayne County History Portal website. The article states that during the early 1930's, the residents of southern Wayne County, especially around the area where Cabwaylingo State Park was currently being built, were being harassed by some weird animal that was eating up their livestock. A group of about 20 men finally hunted the creature down and shot it, but still could not figure out exactly what it was---it was black, had a bushy tail, and sported a snout like a dog's, only shorter. They sent the creature off to Charleston to be identified, where experts came to the conclusion that it was a...grey wolf.  The only problem was that grey wolves were allegedly extinct in that area. Could a small population still have been living deep in the dense forests of Wayne County for over a hundred years, mostly undetected? It is said that even after this creature was shot, other sightings of a similar animal continued. Perhaps the Mystery Animal shot on Christmas Eve was one of the last remaining relatives in a small family of wolves living in the area. 

Pigeon 167

Myers Hospital in Philippi
Source: WV History on View

One of the many strange and fascinating topics I like reading about is how afterlife studies play into the field of parapsychology as a whole. Earlier this year, I finally finished The Signet Handbook of Parapsychology, a collection of parapsychology articles edited by Martin Ebon on a variety of different subtopics within the genre. Included in the lengthy tome was a chapter on ESP ability in animals, in particular a paper by J.B. Rhine and Sara R Feathers entitled "The Study of 'Psi Trailing' in Animals." This paper first appeared in the Journal of Parapsychology Volume 26, No. 1 March 1962 edition and discussed the fascinating phenomenon of animals (namely, domesticated pets) who were able to trail their owners across vast distances using nothing but, presumably, psi abilities.

To be honest, I wasn't super interested in this chapter. It had the usual heart-warming tales of dogs and cats that traveled cross-country to be reunited with family that had moved away and left them behind, sometimes YEARS later. A common thread within these tales, noted by the authors, is that in many cases where this 'psi-trailing' was suspected, it was just really hard to PROVE. While the owners of the animals were convinced that they had found their missing pet, there was just really no way to be sure in many cases. So, I was only half-heartedly reading this chapter, not paying too much attention, when I came to the information about Pigeon 167.

The story of Pigeon 167 grabbed my attention right off the bat because this story takes place right here in West Virginia! 

According to the source, around 1939 a 12 year old boy (identified as H.B.P.) from Summersville, WV had found a homing pigeon in his backyard. The pigeon wasn't in great shape, so the boy fed it and nursed it back to health, and he and the pigeon became fast friends. The pigeon, although obviously owned by someone (it had an identifying band on its leg reading AV39 C&W 167) stayed with the boy and became his pet. 

Ripley's Believe It or Not
Weekend Daily Reporter
4 November 1967

Sometime later (sources seem to say April 1940), the boy, who was also identified as being an 8th grade honor student and son of a local sheriff, had to be taken to the hospital for an operation. The hospital he was taken to was Myers Memorial Hospital in Phillippi, WV---105 miles away! He had been there about a week, when one dark, snowy night he heard fluttering and scratching at his hospital window. He called the nurse, who opened the window for him, just to humor him. In hopped a pigeon!

When prompted by the boy, the nurse did confirm the fact that the pigeon had a band around its leg reading 167. He was allowed to keep the pigeon in a box in his hospital room and when his parents arrived a few days later to visit, they were hesitant to share with him that his pet bird had recently flew away. But all was well when they realized that the pigeon was safe and sound; he had found his way to their son's hospital room!

This case garnered quite a bit of attention. The boy would later be identified as Hugh Brady Perkins, and the little pigeon would come to be known as 'Billy.' Their story was featured on a Columbia radio program called Strange As it Seems and Ripley's Believe it or Not even ran a comic strip telling the tale of the brave little pigeon who flew across the state of West Virginia to find his friend who was in the hospital. More importantly, however, this case was actually seen as pretty significant in the argument for psi trailing ability in animals. Here we finally have an animal that we can reasonably PROVE is the animal in question. Billy was confirmed to have been at the Summersville residence after Hugh was taken to the hospital, so we can rule out the idea that he followed the car there. As far as anyone could tell, Billy had never been to Phillippi, so it's remarkable that he not only found his way there---but found his way to the correct hospital window!

I can't say for sure that the psychic bond between a young boy and his pet bird was the cause behind Billy being able to find Hugh's hospital window in that snowstorm, 100+ miles away, but I'd like to think its the reason. It certainly left an impression on researcher, J.B. Rhine, and is a case that is still cited today in parapsychology texts making a case for the psi-trailing ability of animals.