The Dover Demon story and Bigfoot is a Bear

The Dover Demon is the chupacabra and Bigfoot is a bear, a couple of articles you may have missed for a Sunday read. 

Dover Demon Story:
Let’s hop across the border and visit Dover Mass. this week to examine a creature called the Dover Demon.The Dover Demon was first named by Loren Coleman, a cryptozoologist, but it seems a misnomer. The demon actually appeared to be fairly small and frail.It was first spied on the evening of April 21, 1977, on Farm Street near the outskirts of Dover. A teenager named Bill Bartlett was driving with a couple of friends, just cruising the streets, when one of them spied something strange by the side of the road.
They stopped the car, and looked toward a stone wall, where something appeared to be crawling over the stones. It looked alive…. but it was so strange, they had trouble believing their eyes.At first they thought it might be a dog, a cat. But the more the boys watched it, the more they realized it was nothing like any known animal on earth. The creature was clutching the rocks with long thin fingers and toes. It had a large bulbous head that was out of proportion to its body, and huge glowing orange eyes, with no visible nose, mouth or ears.It’s limbs were long, spindly and out of proportion to the rest of its body, and its neck was long and thin, seemingly unable to support the huge, dare I say, melonhead!It was a nekkid little thing, and had peach-colored skin that looked a little sandpapery in the headlights. The boys estimated it to be about three or four feet tall.After a few moments, even thought the creature made no violent moves, the boys got scared and sped off.Not more than a few hours later, around midnight, another Dover teen, John Baxter was walking home from his girlfriend’s house and spied a small figure walking towards him in the distance. As the gap closed, John realized that this little guy was not something of this world.He stopped. The creature stopped.They both studied each other for a moment, and then the tables turned when the creature picked up a rock. Realizing that things did not bode well, John hightailed it out of there back to the girlfriend’s house, trying to make sense of what he had just seen.The next evening, a few other sightings of the mysterious creature occurred.Since then, there have not been any more sightings, but the theories concerning what it actually was, range from sort of plausible to downright ridiculous.The Dover Demon sounds a lot like one of the Melonheads that I covered in a previous column. The similarities are striking. Another theory is that it may have been a little UFO refugee, an alien stranded in a strange land, abandoned by his buddies and trying to find his way home. Apparently he didn’t have any of his neat little technological toys though if he had to resort to protecting himself with a rock.Other theories range from mangy dogs to shaved monkeys, and perhaps the most ridiculous, a baby demon moose. I think not.Personally, I think it’s the chupacabra.
Catherine Guarnieri is city editor of the Register Citizen. 

Source: http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2010/07/03/news/doc4c300becb84eb389367660.txt

Bigfoot is a Bear?
For a guy who oversees 700 employees and an annual budget of $70 million, Ed Carter got off to a rather inglorious start with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.He lost a bear."It was back in 1973, and I'd just been hired with the Information and Education division," said Carter, 61, who now serves as executive director of the state's wildlife and fisheries activities. "One of my first jobs was to put on the wildlife exhibit at county fairs."I was driving back from Memphis and crossed a bridge near Waverly. It was about 2 o'clock in the morning. Another driver clipped the bridge and rammed into the trailer I was towing."Inside that trailer was a 200-pound black bear."It flipped the trailer into the air. I got out and checked on the other driver. He wasn't hurt too badly, but I needed to get some help."I walked to the other end of the bridge where a car was parked. The guy had his window rolled up. I tapped on it, and he finally rolled it down just a little bit. About the time I started to speak, he said, 'Uh, buddy, is that a bear behind you?' "Hmm. Yes, it was.The dazed bruin had survived the wreck and was walking along the bridge. Carter yelled out to Bruce Anderson, his companion: "We gotta catch this bear!"From that point on, Carter's not quite sure whatever happened to the motorist he had summoned."I just remember me and Bruce trying to corral that bear," he said. "It didn't work. The last I saw of that bear, it went lumbering off into the night. We never heard of it again."But a few weeks later, a radio station in Nashville started running reports about Bigfoot being spotted. They even sent a reporter down there to investigate. I'd say 'Bigfoot' was that bear."
Full story : http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/jul/04/lost-bear-or-was-that-bigfoot/
Columnist Sam Venable was the News Sentinel's outdoors editor 1970-85. He may be reached at 865-342-6272 or VenableS@knoxnews.com.

Happy Fourth of July to all USA readers.