(This is installment #1 of a real-life Bigfoot habituation situation in the Midwest and the man who has learned to coexist in a most playful and remarkable way).
Other Installments:
#1 Home (Not) Alone
#2 Tootsie Pops and Bacon
#3 Little Andy the Klepto Peeping Tom
In his readings about Bigfoot, Dave learned the Native People from the north referred to the "owl women." These northern tribes mentioned that you should not whistle in the woods, that it would attract them. Some, they said were cannibals! And most native tribes spoke of the owl as a harbinger that called out the names of the dead.
So, when Dave started to hear the female Bigfoots calling owl and owl-like sounds into the night, he felt both intrigued and unsettled.
It seemed that one woman did just a single whoo call. Another woman did several in a row and what sounded like a younger woman with a higher pitched voice (daughter perhaps) would imitate the other woman's multi-whoo'd call. Yet another woman, he came to thing of as large and in charge would make a variety of sounds, whatever she felt like. Her confidence and individuality made Dave come to think of her as a matriarch of some sort. He came to think of her as "Good Mama."
With that thought in mind, Dave considered the shy Wookies in his woods and realized he needed an ongoing relationship based on trust and mutual curiosity. He came out on the deck at night to enjoy a back and forth with the female Bigfoots or "Hairy Ladies" as he sometimes thought of them.
Around twilight the women would go up on the eastern ridge and start whoo'ing like owls. Sometimes, they would make other sounds. He decided to imitate the concept of a bird call, but to do a 4-2 whistle. It would be different enough that they would come to think of it as his signature sound. It was the equivalent of learning a few words of a foreign language and hoping to make a connection for the effort.
They were very interactive at times and the cacophony of sounds would make Dave smile. Owls generally work as most predators and you might get one or two on your land, but they drive out competition. You don't get a whole passel of them in the same hunting territory and you sure don't get them sounding off together as a group.
Dave got into the rhythm of going out onto the deck around twilight when the women were starting up their nightly sounds. He might go inside and if he came back out around 2 or 3 in the morning, it was the end of the women's vigil and a time to basically say "good night" in the back and forth they had established. (audio sample below)
Dave figured if he spoke to them like a group of any regular girls, they might remain comforted that he meant to harm, but also alert to wanting interaction.
Over time, he began to go out to the barn where atop of a post he would set a coffee can atop of it and call out "are you hungry?" He would leave.
Sometimes, within 50 feet of the spot, he would hear them crunching on the dog food. Once, he saw the dark shapes of two women, and two what looked like maybe younger women sitting on the ground, sharing from the can. That touched his heart when he considered anyone else would likely consider finders keepers and run off with it. They dug through the dog food, maple bacon and whole eggs in their shells, leaving the can and no traces of the shells or food.
Oddly, on his birthday of all days, Dave went out to hear the women cooing and then they broke into a kind of beautiful exotic bird song like something from a rainforest. The tones of it were sweet and affectionate and it was enough to make a grown man mist up a bit. Did they know it was a special day? Was it just coincidence? Nothing the Wookies did surprised him. They seemed capable of both hilarious antics, occasional frustration and a healthy dose of curiosity.
There seemed to be a few males who stayed between the hairy women and Dave. He could hear the shifting and the breaking of branches on the ground under their weight. He got a real sense that the women and men did their own separate things, but that there were provisions for keeping the women protected or perhaps keeping them at bay as Dave got the distinct feeling the females were rather flirtatious with their attention. For that reason, them having chaperones was a very welcome thing. Sometimes, he could hear them chattering back and forth, as if the women might have crossed the limits or perhaps the men were annoying the females.
In fact, Dave came to think of Little Andy as perhaps one of the chaperones, as the males that came closer to the house were between the men inside and the females on the ridge. In his observations, the ones that smelled of skunk were the males that ran with coyotes and hunted (more on the male roles next week).
One evening, Dave's roommate Ralph was watching TV in his room like usual, having the prickling sense he was being watched from the window behind him. They seemed to do it fairly often. He flipped the channels from a cartoon he was watching to see if anything else good was on when he heard the sounds of frustrated sighs from the window. He flipped back to the original channel. Apparently, the hairy ladies didn't like channel surfing anymore than hairless females.
Over time, Dave practiced food rewards for when the women did call back and forth. He wanted them to get used to rewards for conversations. One time, he got so caught up in his online games, he missed going out to call to them. The hairy ladies let him know by tossing walnuts at the side of the house.
One night, the men came home with groceries. A female made loud call about 25 feet from house behind hickory trees. She was whoo'ing and Ralph put groceries away and Dave called with her and then went inside and made a big egg salad sandwich on Texas toast. With this in hand, Dave wanted to lure her out to get a look at her. He couldn't see her face, but knew she was there. He got 10 feet from her before she sounded to retreat away.
Dave learned to have some limits on how close he was willing to get. One time, he was on east side of his house and a female was on west side. She did three screams that sounded like a human scream. His instincts made him want to go to her, but he held back. She was emotional. He was not going to get near a powerful female who was upset. After a time, she did some owl calls too and he was able to relax his concern.
He wasn't going to share it with anyone, but it seemed as if the females sometimes showed up in his dreams. They came disguised, perhaps trying to look human, but ending up awkward and not at all sure how to be human. He let them know that he meant no harm and would protect them always. Whether the interactions genuinely happened or not, he wasn't sure but the level of confident back and forth communication seemed to assure him that they felt safe.
Ralph had a time of it. Once he was mowing the path near the barn when he heard a female voice in his head, "who are you?" He stopped what he was doing and thought, "I'm Ralph. I'm a friend."
Another time, it wasn't quite so simple. Ralph and Dave had an argument on the porch, and perhaps feeling that Ralph should not upset Dave, the mindspeak took on a different tone. It mentioned they would send a big male to get him if he continued to be mean to Dave.
Ralph was notably nervous about this mind barrier they seem to have broken through. If them watching his comings and goings and peeking into his window weren't enough, they were able to place thoughts into his mind. He would never doubt their capabilities in many arenas. They might share the land, but the Wookies earned their place.
Dave tried his hand at singing upon occasion, but the women got upset if he kept singing for long periods of time. He was to sing a few words, wait for their response, and then sing a few more. He had trained them quite well in the back and forth and apparently they expected it to be short and to the point. He would remember that the next time.
The women were an ongoing curiosity for Dave and Ralph. The men knew they watched and listened and wanted interaction, but only to a limit. They appreciated the boundaries, especially given the size of the males, another constant variable in the woods around them that created both fear and respect.
*Next Monday's installment will deal with the Coyote Men and the Sentinels.**
#3 Little Andy the Klepto Peeping Tom
In his readings about Bigfoot, Dave learned the Native People from the north referred to the "owl women." These northern tribes mentioned that you should not whistle in the woods, that it would attract them. Some, they said were cannibals! And most native tribes spoke of the owl as a harbinger that called out the names of the dead.
So, when Dave started to hear the female Bigfoots calling owl and owl-like sounds into the night, he felt both intrigued and unsettled.
It seemed that one woman did just a single whoo call. Another woman did several in a row and what sounded like a younger woman with a higher pitched voice (daughter perhaps) would imitate the other woman's multi-whoo'd call. Yet another woman, he came to thing of as large and in charge would make a variety of sounds, whatever she felt like. Her confidence and individuality made Dave come to think of her as a matriarch of some sort. He came to think of her as "Good Mama."
With that thought in mind, Dave considered the shy Wookies in his woods and realized he needed an ongoing relationship based on trust and mutual curiosity. He came out on the deck at night to enjoy a back and forth with the female Bigfoots or "Hairy Ladies" as he sometimes thought of them.
Around twilight the women would go up on the eastern ridge and start whoo'ing like owls. Sometimes, they would make other sounds. He decided to imitate the concept of a bird call, but to do a 4-2 whistle. It would be different enough that they would come to think of it as his signature sound. It was the equivalent of learning a few words of a foreign language and hoping to make a connection for the effort.
They were very interactive at times and the cacophony of sounds would make Dave smile. Owls generally work as most predators and you might get one or two on your land, but they drive out competition. You don't get a whole passel of them in the same hunting territory and you sure don't get them sounding off together as a group.
Dave got into the rhythm of going out onto the deck around twilight when the women were starting up their nightly sounds. He might go inside and if he came back out around 2 or 3 in the morning, it was the end of the women's vigil and a time to basically say "good night" in the back and forth they had established. (audio sample below)
Dave figured if he spoke to them like a group of any regular girls, they might remain comforted that he meant to harm, but also alert to wanting interaction.
Over time, he began to go out to the barn where atop of a post he would set a coffee can atop of it and call out "are you hungry?" He would leave.
Sometimes, within 50 feet of the spot, he would hear them crunching on the dog food. Once, he saw the dark shapes of two women, and two what looked like maybe younger women sitting on the ground, sharing from the can. That touched his heart when he considered anyone else would likely consider finders keepers and run off with it. They dug through the dog food, maple bacon and whole eggs in their shells, leaving the can and no traces of the shells or food.
Oddly, on his birthday of all days, Dave went out to hear the women cooing and then they broke into a kind of beautiful exotic bird song like something from a rainforest. The tones of it were sweet and affectionate and it was enough to make a grown man mist up a bit. Did they know it was a special day? Was it just coincidence? Nothing the Wookies did surprised him. They seemed capable of both hilarious antics, occasional frustration and a healthy dose of curiosity.
There seemed to be a few males who stayed between the hairy women and Dave. He could hear the shifting and the breaking of branches on the ground under their weight. He got a real sense that the women and men did their own separate things, but that there were provisions for keeping the women protected or perhaps keeping them at bay as Dave got the distinct feeling the females were rather flirtatious with their attention. For that reason, them having chaperones was a very welcome thing. Sometimes, he could hear them chattering back and forth, as if the women might have crossed the limits or perhaps the men were annoying the females.
In fact, Dave came to think of Little Andy as perhaps one of the chaperones, as the males that came closer to the house were between the men inside and the females on the ridge. In his observations, the ones that smelled of skunk were the males that ran with coyotes and hunted (more on the male roles next week).
One evening, Dave's roommate Ralph was watching TV in his room like usual, having the prickling sense he was being watched from the window behind him. They seemed to do it fairly often. He flipped the channels from a cartoon he was watching to see if anything else good was on when he heard the sounds of frustrated sighs from the window. He flipped back to the original channel. Apparently, the hairy ladies didn't like channel surfing anymore than hairless females.
Over time, Dave practiced food rewards for when the women did call back and forth. He wanted them to get used to rewards for conversations. One time, he got so caught up in his online games, he missed going out to call to them. The hairy ladies let him know by tossing walnuts at the side of the house.
One night, the men came home with groceries. A female made loud call about 25 feet from house behind hickory trees. She was whoo'ing and Ralph put groceries away and Dave called with her and then went inside and made a big egg salad sandwich on Texas toast. With this in hand, Dave wanted to lure her out to get a look at her. He couldn't see her face, but knew she was there. He got 10 feet from her before she sounded to retreat away.
He wasn't going to share it with anyone, but it seemed as if the females sometimes showed up in his dreams. They came disguised, perhaps trying to look human, but ending up awkward and not at all sure how to be human. He let them know that he meant no harm and would protect them always. Whether the interactions genuinely happened or not, he wasn't sure but the level of confident back and forth communication seemed to assure him that they felt safe.
Ralph had a time of it. Once he was mowing the path near the barn when he heard a female voice in his head, "who are you?" He stopped what he was doing and thought, "I'm Ralph. I'm a friend."
Another time, it wasn't quite so simple. Ralph and Dave had an argument on the porch, and perhaps feeling that Ralph should not upset Dave, the mindspeak took on a different tone. It mentioned they would send a big male to get him if he continued to be mean to Dave.
Ralph was notably nervous about this mind barrier they seem to have broken through. If them watching his comings and goings and peeking into his window weren't enough, they were able to place thoughts into his mind. He would never doubt their capabilities in many arenas. They might share the land, but the Wookies earned their place.
Dave tried his hand at singing upon occasion, but the women got upset if he kept singing for long periods of time. He was to sing a few words, wait for their response, and then sing a few more. He had trained them quite well in the back and forth and apparently they expected it to be short and to the point. He would remember that the next time.
The women were an ongoing curiosity for Dave and Ralph. The men knew they watched and listened and wanted interaction, but only to a limit. They appreciated the boundaries, especially given the size of the males, another constant variable in the woods around them that created both fear and respect.
*Next Monday's installment will deal with the Coyote Men and the Sentinels.**
