On 5th March, Jonathan and Corinna Downes, the Director and Administrator of the Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] the world's largest mystery animal research organisation, fly to Texas. Together with their friends and colleagues Richie and Naomi West who very generously financed the expedition, they will spend two weeks continuing the research into the Texas blue dogs, first carried out by Jonathan Downes in November 2004..

Friday 12 March 2010

Of Cryptids, Company, and Colds

Yesterday was the most adventurous day we have had. The Hayek place was beautiful and vast -- green fields with steep, sloping riverbanks full of mysterious holes they claim are dens of the blue dogs. I looked into one as far as I could but I couldn’t see past the first turn of the twisted tunnel. Ken Gerhard, who was over last night, says that during his NatGeo documentary he pushed a fibre-optic camera far into the den and the narrow entrance went on for a long time; they never were able to see past the entrance to the main part. Mr Hayek has indeed seen the blue dogs entering and exiting one of the dens (face first in and face first out) so at least we weren’t wasting time probing some other animal’s dwelling. Speculation about these blue dogs sometimes leads to evidence that really isn’t evidence. It’s easy to interpret certain clues as signs of their presence that are really signs of another animal and would normally have gone unnoticed.

At the end of the day we tried unsuccessfully to beat Ken Gerhard to our house. It was bad enough that he had to wait for us but then he was nowhere to be found when we got there, although his vehicle sat in the driveway. I assumed correctly that he had taken off into the surrounding woods for a night-time stroll and he eventually showed back up. He is one of the nicest people I’ve met and I’m happy he’ll be joining us next week on the River Walk on St Patrick’s Day.

Ken and Jon and Corinna gathered on the patio to reunite over drinks while Richie and I scrounged for something to feed everyone. The party eventually grew to include Jo and Morgan from Minnow Films and Richie’s sister Janice. We had a great time, but as the evening wore on I got an increasingly sore throat and aching head, and when I woke up this morning my throat was so sore I could barely swallow. So I’m nursing a cold I hope will be gone by the time we travel to Nick Redfern’s on Sunday.

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