Dogs Always Know
Our family are Florida natives, despite our love for the mountains and cool air. We like to make a couple trips a year up north for a break from the sweltering heat and soupy air. This year, we decided to take a summer trip up to the Bible belt for a week retreat in the Smokies. The group consisted of myself, my brother Nick, my dog Kaia, our mother, stepdad, and young nephews. It started at the cabin. This cabin was not what I would call remote, it had neighbors around and wasn't too far from a main road. It was, however pretty well crowded by trees, and had a creek running next to it, with a forest on the other side of it. On the second night there, Kaia had to potty in the middle of the night, so I got up to let her out. She is a 9 month old brown pittie. She's smaller, at only 40lbs, and an absolute love and so happy-go-lucky. She loves meeting anyone and everyone, making new friends, and giving lots of kisses. She's what I like to call "bombproof", very laid back and doesn't care about much. She's not afraid of fireworks or thunder, she gets along with my cats, and doesn't bat an eye at the small wildlife we get in the yard at home quite regularly. She is very attached and protective of me, but has never been even remotely aggressive, and her definition of protection is simply standing in front of me to guard. She will occasionally bark at a delivery person entering our yard, but only from her post in front of the door, and until this trip I had never heard her growl or truly seem scared of anything (except the dishwasher, her mortal enemy). As we stepped out onto the porch, I got this eerie feeling, so we went back in and I asked Nick to come out with us. It was about 2am at this point, and we were the only ones up. We were on the ground floor watching youtube videos while everyone else was upstairs asleep. We stayed on the porch while Kaia went down to do her business. She likes to sniff and walk around for quite a while before finding her spot, so we're usually out there for 10+ minutes at a time. This time, a couple minutes in, she suddenly froze, fixated on the woods across from the creek. Nick and I stopped our small talk immediately when she let out a single bark. From the dim light of the porch, I could see her shackles raised as she stood at full attention. Then she started a slow growl, which she has never done before. I tried calling her, and she backed up towards me, but refused to take her eyes off the area, though due to the darkness neither Nick nor I could see a thing. Her growling grew louder, and we decided that was enough. We turned and opened the door, and as soon as she heard the knob turn, she bolted to the porch, standing against me from behind and watching until we were back inside. We double checked all the locks in the house, and Kaia slept on top of me that night, which is also abnormal, as she likes to be cuddled while she sleeps. Nighttime bathroom trips were rare and very short after that night, with her barely stepping off the porch, going quickly, and running back inside. A few days later, we were doing a waterfall crawl, driving around finding different falls to see, most of which were just off the road and didn’t require much walking, as our stepdad has a back injury. About the middle of the outing, the others decided they weren’t feeling well, and went back to the cabin, leaving Nick, Kaia, and I on our own. We decided we were going to see one more before heading back. This last one was about 15 minutes from the cabin on a Native American reservation, and involved about a 10 minute walk down a maintained, but steep, trail. All started off well, the parking lot was nearly full, and Kaia was very excited. She was wagging so hard her whole body was wiggling, and greeting anyone and everyone who talked to her, passing out kisses and relishing in the pets and attention. We started down the trail without incident, passing people on our way. As we went though, Kaia began acting strangely. Instead of walking around, stretching her leash to the limits so she could explore as she walked, she started hanging very close to me, staying right in front of me, ears alert and tail now no longer wagging. We noticed we were seeing less people, which was odd because the parking lot was so full. The last couple to pass, Kaia positioned herself in her guard stance and started barking, which was highly abnormal. We shushed her, and she started whining, which is also very unlike her. This behavior shift made Nick and I uneasy, but we decided to keep going, despite our best judgement, as we had already came this far and it wasn’t an easy walk. The closer we got to the fall, the more uncomfortable Kaia seemed to get. She would pace when we stopped, head on a swivel, and whimpering occasionally. Then we noticed how quiet it was. No birds, no bugs, no people. We looked at each other, and agreed that something felt wrong. We hurried the last little way to the waterfall, which admittedly was gorgeous, to take a couple pictures. By the time we got to the overlook, Kaia had her ears pinned back, tail tucked, and she was crouched to the ground whimpering. My goofy bombproof dog, who's never been shaken by anything except our dishwasher, was terrified. I tried calling her to me, and she wouldn’t move, which wasn’t right as her recall is amazing. I felt like we were being watched despite there being no one else around, and Nick and I decided it was time to go. I picked Kaia up, as she was frozen in place, and realized she was trembling. We quickly started back up the trail. It took longer to climb since some parts were fairly steep, and we were talking along the way about the odd silence and Kaia’s behavior. Around that time, we heard a whistling. It sounded almost like a bird, but there were no other bird songs, and we couldn’t see anything in the tree where it was coming from. A shiver ran down my spine as all the hair on my body stood on end. I told him we should stop talking about it until we were out of the woods, and we needed to hurry to the car. As we got nearer to the parking lot, Kaia began calming down, and we started hearing the faint sounds of birds and bugs again. The last bend before the lot, Kaia was her normal, happy, bubbly self again, and we passed a group of people. Kaia greeted them happily, no more defensiveness and no more guarding. We hurried to the car and off of the reservation before we spoke anymore. We agreed there was something out there, watching, waiting, and that it may have been the same thing she sensed across from the house a few days prior. Kaia got a big treat when we got back to the cabin, as we fully believe her behavior and warnings are what kept us safe. We refused to be out at night the rest of the trip, and we went only outside as a pair when Kaia absolutely had to go, which was rare by then as even she didn't want to step outside. Dogs always know when something bad is around, and you should always heed their warnings. Ours may very well have saved us.