FOXSYLVANIA

With Mountain Monsters showing rehashed episodes under their “Uncaged” title, we’re going to take to reviewing older episodes of the series not covered here previously but still being shown when multiple episodes are aired. Again, it is stated that covering these episodes does not constitute endorsement of the existence of the creatures covered; the summaries are presented for informational and entertainment purposes only.

Canines Gone Wild might be considered a subtitle for certain episodes of the Mountain Monsters series, what with segments now on both Hellhounds and in this outing, Devil Dogs. Not to be confused with the snack cake, these Devil Dogs you don’t eat, although conceivably they might eat you. They are feral and ferocious nocturnal beasties that are five feet long, and have massive shoulders, red eyes, white fur, and weigh in at about 200 pounds. In Logan County, West Virginia the beasties are slaughtering coyotes big time, leaving their victims drained of blood and at times, minus their livers. It’s speculated that some kind of turf war is going on with the coyotes, who are basically getting their tails kicked. I can almost imagine West Side Story being remade with coyotes and Devil Dogs here, complete with dancing before a rumble…

…but I digress. Anyways, the long-haired, mostly bearded Mountain Monsters crew began their investigation by interviewing another memorable eyewitness, an outdoorsman and hermit called, “Shoeless Terry.” True to his name, the barefooted man reported seeing dead coyotes and a pack of the Devil Dogs, who interestingly enough were led by a white-furred Alpha female..During their first night’s investigation, the Mountain Monsters crew found two heat images on their thermal camera, suggesting that they were indeed dealing with more than one animal. The images disappeared quickly, however, and could not be pursued.

Other daytime interviews followed with “Richard,” who presented a blurry distant video, and “Seth,” a snare trapper who also reported finding dead coyotes and who had an inconclusive image from a trail camera. A drop door trap was then constructed long enough to accommodate the several animals who might be lured into it. Memorably in a low comedy sequence, the trap was baited with “Hillbilly Caviar,” a foul concoction of coyote blood and squirrel aged to rancid perfection in a large jar. Be forewarned that this is not a show during which one wants to snack, as the gross-out factor is high.

During their final night’s hunt, the team followed its usual tactic of dividing into two groups for the purpose of flushing the desired creature from its established hunting grounds into their prepared trap. A coyote call was used as a lure to which a vocal response was received. A bit later disturbing cries and yelps were heard as presumably the Devil Dog pack was doing its little dance of death on some coyotes; the investigators pursued, and sure enough came upon five dead coyotes, one of which had been separated from his liver. There was surprisingly little blood, and 7″ tracks were found. Amidst the usual waving of guns, five heat signatures were seen on the thermal camera. Pursuit followed then to the trap which had actually been sprung and for once, contained something!  But alas, upon carefully eyeballing the unhappy occupants of the trap, it was found that they had snared…three wild dogs.

The dogs were assumed to have been members of the Devil Dogs pack, the Alpha female leader of which had eluded capture…clever girl!