Kentucky Ghosts

Dog Ghost Seeks Revenge

Dog Ghost Seeks Revenge There's a lot of old folk beliefs about dogs and the way they act. I recall hearing people talk about these things when I was a little fellow. For sure, my relatives here in Trigg County, now the Land Between the Lakes, believed that certain actions of dogs were signs of things that were about to happen. Some of these signs were good, others not so good. I've heard people in the community say that if you hear dogs howling late at night in an eerie, mournful way, a death in the family is sure to follow. Some said, too, if dogs howl when someone is seriously sick, that person will die soon. Now don't laugh when I tell you this one, but they always claimed that when a dog rolls over on its back and lies still, you'll hear of a death in the community. Years ago we had an old dog named Bravo. He proved to me that these beliefs weren't all nonsense. Bravo wasn't a house dog. Truth of the matter is, you couldn't get him in the house! He would come onto the porch, but all the tugging in the world wouldn't get him into the house. Well, late one afternoon my brother and I were out walking. Of course, Bravo was right there with us. We came by Old Man Miller's house. The poor fellow had been sick for some time. The door to his front room was 33 open. And, do you know, Bravo went into that room and walked on over to Old Man Miller's bed. The old fellow reached out and patted Bravo on the head. After a few minutes, the dog turned away and ran out of the room. He went out into the yard, lay down on the grass, rolled over, and stuck his feet and legs straight up into the air. My brother looked at me kinda funny. I knew right then what he was thinking. Sure enough, Old Man Miller died that night. The strangest dog story I ever heard was about a ghost dog. The story centers on a man whose name was Ned Crawford. He killed a man and his dog over here in the Golden Pond community. Crawford always played a lot of cards and sometimes drank too much whiskey. Well, one night Crawford got into a fight during a card game with Paul Jackson, a neighbor who always took his black dog along with him. They were alone when it happened, at Jackson's lonely cabin. No sooner had the fuss started before Ned pulled his knife and stabbed Jackson in the gut. As Jackson pitched backward the black dog snarled and jumped. It grabbed hold of Ned's free arm. He swung at the dog with his knife and cut the animal's throat. Blood from both victims covered the floor. Crawford was panting and sweating. He had 34 done murder, and he was scared to death. All he could think to do was to take the two bodies to a muddy pond not far away. In the cover of darkness he dragged the bodies to the water and threw them in. From that time on, Ned could never go anyplace without seeing the ghost of Jackson and his dog. Said he couldn't even step into his yard without seeing them. This ghost dog would come over to Crawford and just growl and grit its teeth at him. Crawford was so scared that he finaily left the county and went all the way to Springfield, Missouri. He figured he could start life all over there without anyone being suspicious. Crawford also thought that by moving away from the scene of the murder, he would get rid of the ghosts of Jackson and the dog. But the second night he was there in Missouri, he stepped into the yard of the house where he was staying. And, do you know, that dog was walking right along behind, just a few feet away. This same thing took place almost every night for about three months. It just about worried Crawford to death. Sometimes, Jackson's ghost was there also. You see, Ned was feeling guilty over killing the man and his dog. He couldn't live with himself, and he couldn't stay there in Missouri any longer...