Flesh and blood monsters – the hound of hell

Thus far all of the monsters I’ve mentioned have been of the inanimate type. The creepy old tree was a living thing (well, it once was, but it was dead when I found it) though it was still immobile. But there have been some flesh and blood monsters in my past, one of whom made a major impact in my life. This one was a human monster. Well, perhaps in the way that Dracula and the wolf man were human…..

Then there were other creatures, one of which was a real life hound of hell, devil dog, hound of the Baskervilles, etc. This dreadful beast was a fearsome monster that looked (and acted) like something out of a Stephen King novel. Yes, I ran into a real life Cujo many years ago. Thankfully it was well confined by its owners where it could not get to me, but it was a really scary sight nonetheless.

This “Cujo” belonged to a lady I knew whom I was doing some photography work for. Cujo (which wasn’t the dog’s name, but that’s what I’ll call him) was a 225 pound (or heavier – I was told the vet’s scale tipped out at that weight) English mastiff.
These are usually fairly laid back, mellow dogs, not unlike (non-rabid) Saint Bernards and other giant breeds. Not this one, though. He didn’t do much barking, but when I came over he’d run back and forth along the fence, snarling, snapping and lunging. He was too big and heavy to have any chance (thankfully) of jumping the four foot high fence. Then, when I was inside, if I happened to be in the kitchen, Cujo would stand there on the back porch and stare at me thru the window with a most evil glare. If I walked too close to the window (which I did a couple of times) he’d lunge, snarling and spraying spittle all over the glass.

Now I’ve been around dogs all my life, and I even got bit a couple of times (very minor or no injury). From my experience, dogs that aren’t particularly friendly will generally just stand there and bark. My grandfather had a German shepherd mix that trapped the milk man on the porch. Scared the guy so bad he never came back, but all the dog did was just stand there at the bottom of the steps and bark at him.

Of course, there are some dogs that just launch into an attack on people, without apparent warning. A neighbor’s small dog sneaked up behind me while I was walking down the sidewalk and bit the back of my calf. As soon I turned around it took off. The bite did not require medical attention but my parents made sure that dog was up on its shots. But Cujo was unlike any of those. A huge and savage hulk of a dog just staring at me, growling and spraying spittle. And it wasn’t only me this dog didn’t like. The lady told me about the time her brother in law and sister in law came to visit. Cujo went after them but the lady’s husband was in the way and the dog drove his fangs straight thru the husband’s hand! The only saving grace when it came to that dog was that its owners were well aware of its vicious streak and were careful to keep it confined. They lived in a semi-urban area where if that dog had got loose the neighbors could have been in real danger. The other good (if you can call it that) thing about that dog is that it was rather slow and clumsy in some situations due to its immense size. It was about as good at negotiating stairs as the ED-209 robot in the movie Robocop. In other words, not good at all, and it was quite hesitant of the back porch stairs, having taken a recent fall. I always gauged the distance between my car (which I never locked while there) and the front porch, less that beast slip out the door and launch itself at me. I figured if I could make it down the stairs before it got to me I’d have a fair chance. Luckily I never had to test that assumption, and my job at the devil dog owner’s house eventually ended.

This beast did inspire some artwork, though…