Advertisement
Please wait...

The Dog Stealer



Estimated reading time — 3 minutes

Maddy,

I just wanted to thank you again for letting me use Grandpa’s house. Things haven’t really turned around since I got laid off, and being able to stay here has been a real blessing. Jen stops by to give me a lecture and make sure I’m still on my meds, which I am, and takes me to job interviews every so often, but nothing has worked out yet. It’s pretty quiet here, with no car, no phone and no internet, but that gives me the chance to perfect the lost art of letter-writing.

I think about Grandpa a lot these days, of course. And I don’t think we know the whole story.

A lot of people have been saying that he was getting old. And that the police couldn’t find any signs of forced entry, and they keep talking about footprints. But I saw him not even a week before he vanished and I’m telling you, he was clear as a bell. He didn’t just wander off.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard about all of the missing dogs around here. I know that Grandpa told the family that Bess’ liver went out and he had to put her down. But that’s not what he told me the last time I was here. Sorry for not mentioning it before. I should have trusted you.

Grandpa’s house is at least a hundred years old. A lot of the hallways are really narrow and the doors don’t fit exactly right. He kept the bones for Bess in a pantry across from his study where he read his paper. Grandpa said that Bess had a nightly habit begging for a bone while he was reading. The hall was so tight that Bess could put her paws up against the pantry and her butt up against the study door, and there was a gap under the door big enough for her tail to stick through.

Grandpa would tease her a little. He’d say, “Bess, is that you? Is that you, Bess?” and she’d wag her tail at the sound of his voice. Then after she’d proven her patience, he’d go and give her a bone.

So one night, he was reading his paper as usual, and he heard Bess scratching against the pantry and saw her tail pop under the door.

“Bess, is that you?”

Advertisements

Wag wag wag. Pant pant pant.

“Is that you, Bess?”

Wag wag wag. Pant pant thump. The tail fell over and went limp.

Advertisements

So Grandpa opened the door to make sure she was okay. But Bess was gone. All that was left was her tail, with a knot of dry gristle at the end, no blood or anything. And that was the last he ever saw of her.

So I admit, when I moved myself in here, the first thing I did was hunt for dog remains. Maybe Grandpa had really gone crazy. Maybe he was the Dog Stealer and all the neighborhood pooches were in a shallow grave under the tomato plants. But I didn’t find any dead dogs or any tails.

I thought I would when I checked the basement, though. His clothes were all over the place, neatly folded; a shirt here, some pants there, no piles, just individual articles of neatly folded clothing on the washer, the dryer, the dusty chairs, the floor. Not just his regular laundry, either. There were his good suits, his crazy paisley stuff from the seventies, some of Grandma’s old clothes. Some of the stuff lying around wasn’t even theirs, unless Grandpa became a hardcore AC/DC fan while we weren’t looking and started collecting tour T-shirts.

I had no idea what he could have been up to, but my first thought was that these were dog graves, so I basically tossed the place. No corpses or body parts. The only thing I found was a hole behind the dryer. It surprised me, because especially in a house this old, you’d expect moisture problems, but it was dry as a bone. Smelled a little…I dunno, spicy. It looked like it went pretty deep, but there was no blood trail or anything. So I figured that’d be the end of this. I left the clothes in a pile in the corner.

But they were back today. All folded in the same spots as before, perfectly neat. And right in front of the dryer was a was a new set, a folded up bathrobe and a pair of shorts. Also there was a weird little fleshy gray nub thing on top. No blood, looked mummified. And now I get that Grandpa’s never coming back.

Because Grandpa was born with a vestigial tail. He never mentioned it, but I know he had one, because I’ve seen Dad’s. Also I have one.

Advertisements

And whatever this thing is, it doesn’t like me.

But there’s nowhere for me to go. So I may vanish. If I was you I would sell this place. Don’t wait for my nub to show up.

It’s not like I was headed anywhere anyway. Give my love to the girls.

Love,
Wayne

Credit To: Z.S. Davies

Please wait...

Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on Creepypasta.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed under any circumstance.

32 thoughts on “The Dog Stealer”

  1. Uh… what? A something that steals dogs but not tails? Why? And he steals humans with tails? Or just humans (but then why was the grandfather the only one to disappear?)? And what about those clothes?
    And also, why is the writer describing a house to the very person who let him stay there, and why, faced with the menace of a possible man-eating monster, he just says “Ok” and waits to be taken? I don’t care if he has no other place to go, I’d sleep under a bridge rather than waiting for my fate that meekly. O_o

  2. I thought it was clear and good. whatever it was that was eating people/animals, it didn’t like tails… the piles of clothes were probably put there as a semi-intelligent ‘isn’t this what humans do to look normal’ logic? That’s what I’d think is creepier, if it had a RUDIMENTARY knowledge of humans. Because we suck and are horribly misunderstood in the animal kingdom… Also, there are probably more people with vestigial tails than will admit to it on surveys or doctor’s records or whatever. I mean, would YOU be like ‘I HAZ TAIL!!’ to random people?

  3. creepy 10 year old

    LOL. Grandpa chopped off his tail. And everybody who is wondering, THE SPEAKER, HIS DAD, AND HIS GRANDPA ARE DOGS! Duh, why don’t you think a little next time you ask a question.

  4. Daddy Toughlove

    So this thing doesnt like tails, but eats everything else? And tails are apparently connected to the body with gristle. Its an OK story, but doesnt really go anywhere. For one thing, the dog stealer bit needs a little expansion. Weird anecdotal happenings, people finding bits of dog or collars, etc. Also, unlesss the dogs are hardcore AC/DC fans, its hard to see the link betweend dogs vanishing and the clothes. Should it be people with dogs vanishing instead? too many unanswered questions for this to make any sense

  5. ok :D a dog stealer. who also kills humans and leaves their cloths in a basement of a stranger’s home. also an ocd dog stealer, who folds the cloths very neatly, and detests tails of any kind. Also a dog stealer who doesn’t leave blood, even though he is removing body parts.

    clever. very cle–lol just kidding.

    1. With the non-leaving-of-blood thing, I kind of read it as if the monster eats them whole, while using the tail like a handle…. sort of a “schwumph-ptui!” cartoon sound effect.

  6. “Don’t wait for my nub to show up”. I thought this was ok until I reached this part, then I laughed hysterically and was very confused. xD Nub. xD Nub. XDD Yeah. So…the dog lost his tail, but grandpa lost his tail, and his dad has a tail…and…I’m confused. Did the author start smoking crack halfway through?

    1. Uhhh vestigial tail is a real condition. It’s an extension of the vertebrae, and looks like a tail. Have you never seen shallow Hal? You must be smoking crack

  7. Yeah, I didn’t see the connection between the folded clothes and the tails either.

    Does this creature go out and “collect” people with tails and drop their folded clothes off in the basement?

  8. I think this one has been underrated. I like the writing style, which was concise, personable, and easy to follow. We get a bit of a sense of the narrator as someone mature but troubled. Davies plays on the assumptions of Creepy Pasta – the meds make us suspect the narrator, who in turn immediately suspects the grandfather.
    The clothes business was pretty confusing. While I enjoy an unexplained monster as well as the next person, that didn’t seem to fit with the dog-eating MO. If it’s the remnants of those the monster gets, what about some leashes/dogtags as well?
    Gotta say, I didn’t see the vestigial tail angle coming – good job.

  9. Well, this started off with great potential. I’m not sure if you got bored or just didn’t know how to finish it, but that ending was appalling. 2/10 for wtf-ness factor.

  10. Lol wat? I mean… It started off pretty good, but by the end it just got… Muddled. Honestly, what the hell happened in the story?

  11. So who was nub? And why, suddenly, does everyone have tails? I’m just confused, which is unfortunate; I felt this was really well written until I lost the thread.

    1. I think the point is that this thing likes DOGS. But it doesn’t like tails. Vestigial tails are just an extension of the spine, much like dog’s or cat’s tails, and humans have been known to be born with them. They’re not big usually, and are easily hidden. They’re thought to be genetic, so odds are this ‘thing’ goes around eating anything with a tail. Including humans. I hope this helped… though I want to know what it WAS…

Leave a Reply to Durpina Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top