Stories of spectral canines have been told for many years. The first such report dates back to the year 856. Worshippers in a small French church must have been shocked to see a dog with "glowing red eyes" suddenly appear. It seemed to be looking for something. Just as suddenly, it disappeared.
Most black dogs are described as a large (sometimes as large as a calf!) hound with glowing red eyes, but some witnesses report seeing a grey, yellow, or white dog. They are usually considered to be a sign of an unusual death. If the dog is seen by a woman or a child, though, the animal is seen as a protector.
England has been home to "Shuck", a ghostly black dog, for centuries. Known by many names (Old Shuck, Black Shuck, Padfoot, Church Grim, Old Scarfe, Skeff, and more), these encounters still take place in our modern times. Here are a few examples:
A man was walking home after an evening with his lady friend. While walking from Halstead to Castle Hedingham, he became aware of a large, black dog walking beside him. The dog accompanied him until he reached the cemetery gates,when the dog jumped over the gate and disappeared. It was only after the fact that he realized the dog had not made any sound at all.
In Tollesbury, the local midwife claimed to have seen Black Shuck several times. He would walk beside her while she cycled home late at night after having delivered a baby. She accepted his presence in a matter-of-fact fashion and described how the dog passed through the spokes of her bicycle and disappeared into a wall.
In 1970, a couple was driving in Cambridge when a large dog resembling a wolf jumped across the front of their car. Despite it being a summer evening, both of them noticed the temperature suddenly dropped as the dog went past them. Shortly after this event, they ran into financial difficulty and the husband became seriously ill. He died two years later.
What are we to make of black dog sightings? Is it a protector of late-night travellers or a warning of impending doom? It would seem that it is both, depending on the circumstances.
