Journal Introduction, or why I became a hunter.
"I'm telling you chief, the man ran into the door frame while trying to run around me."
"You're just lucky the punk was a three time loser, his word isn't going to hold much water against yours even with your record. There's a position opening up in Tawas, I suggest you apply for it."
That was the discussion that would change my life. I put in for it and man was I bored up there. There wasn't any real crime, you know the reason I became a cop and later a detective in the first place, other than public drunkenness or rarely a break in of a summer home.
Well, when things finally decided to get interesting it went from zero to sixty really damn quick. I'd been called in to investigate yet another break in of some rich guy's summer cabin, but it wasn't a normal attempt. There was chew marks all over the doors and slashes like from claws across the screens, also found a few paw marks like whatever'd done this was some sort of animal. Prints looked like a dog, but I've never seen them so huge before.
Wasn't long after that, I started seeing these large wolves everywhere I went. Went fishing, one swam nearly to the boat before stopping, and I know this'll sound crazy to some of you, but grinned at me then swam back to shore. Was driving down the road and night and hit one. I threw it in the back of the truck, because it looked a lot like that one that grinned at me, so I figured I'd take it to the vet the next day. On my way home, the damn thing woke up and jumped out of the truck and last I saw of it, it was running back the way we'd come. The last straw before I finally told the chief was when I was out hunting and one of them started chasing me.
Luckily, the church was at the edge of the woods, and the light was on when I got there. Turns out the pastor had stayed late to work on that weekend's sermon. Well, as I showed up banging on the door, the pastor let me in. We were treated to watching this huge oak door buckle the rest of the night. Luckily, it wasn't broken down, but that critter had to have been around 7 foot 4 or so given the height of the scratch marks.
Chief of course figured the stress of being on the force had finally started getting to me, and "offered" me an early retirement. I didn't mind though, I took it. After all, I became a cop to serve and protect, and that all made me realize, there's a lot worse than criminals out there we need to be worrying about.
