It started one Friday evening. All of the goats were standing still, staring intently into the woods. They didn't move, they didn't make a sound.
When a derelict truck is found in the driveway, Scott and his friend Gina search the wood lot out back...
"Cooper!" Scott was standing in the snowy backyard, calling towards the woods. "Come on home boy! You'll miss your breakfast!" Cooper had been out all night. Scott had called for him and even left his dinner out on the deck. But this morning the bowl was still full and there were no fresh tracks in the snow.
Cooper had spent his entire life in the yard and house. He'd only been outside the fence to visit the vet. He never even seemed to be thinking about jumping the fence. Scott was having a hard time with this. The tracks in the snow made it clear that the dog had been traveling at a high rate of speed and apparently cleared the four foot high fence without difficulty.
His tracks disappeared into the woods. That was just weird. The whole situation was just weird. He went back in the house and retrieved Cooper's leash. Slipping on his snow boots and coat, he headed out and around the fenced yard. Checking the tracks, he saw a set of much smaller prints along with Cooper's.
"Cat? That's strange," he thought out loud. "He's never chased Livvie before." As he moved deeper into the woods, the trail he was following disappeared. The wind had picked up overnight and knocked snow out of the trees, effectively erasing the tracks.
"Cooper! Where are you boy?" Scott called out every few minutes as he made his way deeper into the forest. It wasn't long before he noticed that Olivia was walking with him. He let her take the lead, figuring that if Cooper had been chasing her, she might know where he went.
Without warning, Olivia suddenly picked up the pace. As the two entered a small clearing she broke into a run and leaped up onto a tree trunk. She began meowing loudly and continuously. As Scott got close to the tree, he could see that the snow had been disturbed here. This didn't look like the rest of the forest where snow had been knocked out of the trees. This snow had what looked like a discernible pattern to it, like it had been deliberately shifted around.
Olivia's call had changed to more of a yowl now, and she was looking directly at Scott as if she was trying to tell him something. He dropped to his knees and started pushing the snow around, clearing the top layer to expose the snow underneath.
After just a few swipes, it was clear what Olivia had been doing. As Scott swept the snow away he found a layer of snow that was soaked in blood. Well, it looked to Scott like blood anyway. Judging by the depth of snow above and below the layer of red, he decided that whatever had happened, it happened last night.
"Ok Livvie, I think we'd better call the police. This could be serious." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed 9-1-1.
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"What the hell?" Mike was standing in the living room, watching two red and whites pull in the driveway, lights flashing, sirens whooping. As he watched, four officers sprang from the cars and rushed up the driveway. Mike headed for the back door.
"Tanya," he shouted. "Stay in the house! I've got to see what's going on."
He stepped into his boots, threw on a jacket and headed out onto the back deck just in time to see Scott racing up from the garage. He was shouting at the officers as he ran. Something about blood and dogs.
