Sic ‘em Sweetie (Do not pet)

.

It was a warm summer night in Atoka County and Jerry had just drifted off to sleep when he was awakened by something disturbing his chickens and he assumed it was probably just a stray dog or a ‘possum messing around out by the chicken pen. He looked out the window and was amazed at how the Oklahoma moon lit up his yard and the surrounding area. As his eyes adjusted to the natural night light from the moon he slowly scanned his huge garden. Jerry always planted a big garden and this year was no exception. The chickens continued to act up and he figured he would have to get up and go outside to see if he could chase off whatever was bothering them. He tried to remember if he had any shells for his .410 gauge shotgun and couldn't remember if he had bought a new box of .410 shells the last time he was at the Wal-Mart in Atoka or not. He was slowly waking up and coming to grips with the fact that he would not be able to go back to sleep until he shut up those chickens. The only way to shut up the chickens was chase off whatever varmint was out there bothering them tonight. About the time he was ready to pull on his pants and put on his work boots a quick movement at the edge of the garden caught his eye. It was huge and it was unbelievable and it was also as real as anything Jerry Don had ever seen in his life. He could hardly believe his eyes and his mind was trying to tell him that whatever he was seeing couldn't be real but there framed in the moonlight looking like King Kong on the Empire State building was the one thing Jerry Don Ratliff had spent his whole life denying. He was looking at a Yeti, a Sasquatch or as it was known here in Kiamichi Country, "Bigfoot"

.

 Jerry glanced at the clock radio on the night stand beside his bed because he knew that what he was seeing was of historical significance. His eyes had won out the battle with his mind and he had no doubts now that this Bigfoot was real, very real. Jerry Ratliff was a no nonsense kind of guy and definitely not an avid follower of the George Noory, Art Bell train of thought. It would probably be a safe bet to say that more than a few of his Atoka County neighbors probably burned a little midnight oil gathered around the old Philco tuned in to the Coast to Coast AM radio show. The fact that Coast to Coast AM had loyal listeners in Atoka County was more than likely true but you couldn‘t count Ratliff in that demographic. Jerry knew because he had publicly scoffed at his neighbors’ stories of Bigfoot sightings on more than one occasion he would need to document every detail from here on out until he brought this incident of the creature in his own garden to a verifiable and documental conclusion.

.

The time on the Ratliff’s radio clock was thirteen minutes after one in the morning. Since Jerry Don was not in the least bit superstitious he never picked up on the fact that in military time it was 13:13 hundred hours. He continued to stare at the dark creatures silhouette in the moonlight and he felt that somehow the Bigfoot sensed it was being watched and for just a few seconds it stared back toward Jerry's bedroom. The slowly it turned and unhurriedly walked back into the woods away from the house leaving Jerry Don more than a little confused at what he had just seen.

.

As Jerry stared out across the empty moonlight yard he remembered that not long ago he had stopped in Farris at Butler’s Grocery Store to check his mail and there had been a group of local folks were discussing the news program they had seen on Channel 12 the night before. It seems that on the News they had reported that 13 year old Morgan Whatley and her 12 year old brother Garret had seen what they believed to be a Bigfoot over on Clear Boggy Creek near Caney, Oklahoma. The news anchor had said that in addition to the young kids sighting that a fifty year old woman, Jackie Marlow, had to be admitted to the Atoka county hospital from an anxiety attack after she spotted the Bigfoot in her own back yard. Jerry remembered that he had commented then and made sure that he spoke loud enough for all the spit and whittle clubbers at Butler’s Grocery to hear him, that it seemed like a silly waste of time for the television station to run such a ridiculous story.

.

Jerry Don had always been more than a little skeptical with these supposed Bigfoot sightings and had always chalked it up to the influence of the 1973 low budget movie called  The Legend of Boggy Creek which was based on a 7 foot tall Sasquatch, Bigfoot type creature that according to legend had terrorized Fouke, Arkansas back in the late `60's. Jerry figured because of that scary movie and the fact that the Boggy River ran between Farris and Atoka people around here figured there could be Bigfoot monsters here also. Tonight outside his bedroom window at 1:13 AM Jerry’s personal Bigfoot beliefs had been turned upside down and as he lay there in the silence he contemplated what he had just seen and decided that he may have been a little hasty when he made light of his neighbors’ Bigfoot beliefs.

.

Jerry was up with the sun, sitting out on his porch with a cup of coffee trying to get a grip on the night before and wondering just how he should handle this situation. This was not the way Jerry wanted to start a new day and he could only imagine the twists and turns that this story was going to take before his life would ever be what you could call normal again. He knew that he would have to have some help and it would need to be someone who understood these things and that narrowed it down to only one possibility. There was one man in this part of Oklahoma who was qualified to determine if the creature Jerry Ratliff saw was a Bigfoot or not and if so the best way to capture or destroy it.

.

“Snake” Weaver was your “Go to man” when you were at the end of your rope and facing things that were way beyond your comprehension. He was a mastermind at thinking outside of the box and had a reputation for getting things done where other men had failed. Jerry knew he would need to drive down to the Weaver mansion on Cold Springs Creek Road and talk to Snake in person about the Bigfoot. Jerry Don decided he’d better call first and make sure Snake had that psycho Doberman of his, “Sic ’em Sweetie”, penned up before he showed up at the Weaver mansion.

.

As Jerry headed East on Highway 3 toward Antlers he started to thinking about Snake Weaver and just how little anyone around here really knew about the man. He just seemed to show up back in 1973 about the time Atoka was making the national news with all the cattle mutilation stories.  Snake moved into an old abandon farmhouse North of Lane, Oklahoma up near the old DOK Ranch. He pretty much stuck to himself and although he had no visible means of support he always seemed to have sufficient money for whatever he needed.

.

People said you could drive by the old farmhouse all hours of the night and there would be a light on. Snake never grew close enough to anyone around the community for them to find out anything about what he might be doing all hours of the night. He would live uneventfully up there at the farmhouse for months at a time and then something extremely out of the ordinary would  just happen one day. It might be three or four black limos would drive up and men in suits  would get out and stay at the farmhouse for less than an hour then leave. Once a youngster, too innocent and unafraid, asked him who were the men in the black cars at his house and Snake just told the kid it was some friends stopping by for a game of cards. That answer got out to the community quickly enough and people took the hint that Snake was not about to answer any prying questions so from then on people kept their questions to themselves. Once later on, a neighbor said he saw a military type helicopter flying over and it landed there at Snakes farmhouse, stayed for about 5 minutes then lifted off again and was gone. If Snake was involved in some kind of covert dealings with the government, as many of the locals expected, it must have ended very successfully for him with that helicopter visit. It was not long afterwards Snake moved out of the DOK’s ranch area, bought the land down on Cold Springs Creek Road, and started building the beautiful house that everyone now calls Weaver mansion.  Jerry slowed his old Chevy truck down and turned south off of highway 3 on to Cold Springs Creek Road and headed toward the Weaver mansion hoping that Snake had remembered to pen up Sick ‘em Sweetie.

.

Snake was standing out on the wrap around porch of Weaver mansion when Jerry pulled his old Chevy pickup into the driveway and noticed there was no sign of the psycho dog so Jerry assumed it was penned up out back. When he opened his pickup door to get out Sic ’em Sweetie’s loud barking told Jerry he was right about the dog being penned up and he couldn’t help but wonder how strong that pen was.

.

Snake was not a man of many words so they didn’t spend a lot of time discussing the weather or each other’s health. Snake simply asked “What’s your problem”? Jerry explained what had happened the night before and what he believed he had seen out in his garden. Jerry then asked him if it was possible that it could have been one of those Bigfoot creatures he had heard about, all the time making sure Snake was aware that he was more than a little doubtful of their alleged existence. As sometimes will happen in the light of a beautiful Oklahoma morning Jerry’s doubts about what he had or hadn’t seen were returning.

.

Snake had been listening intently, never bothering to ask even a single question or comment until Jerry Don expressed his doubts about the possibility of a Bigfoot. Snake Weaver didn’t answer the question directly but just said. “There’s a lot of things out in these woods around here that people don’t know about or probably want to know about.” Snake then told him that he would bring ol Sweetie up to Jerry’s house that night and check around where Jerry had seen the creature. Jerry thanked him and headed back toward home wondering if he would just as soon have a Bigfoot loose around his house as that Psycho Sic ’em Sweetie or even Snake Weaver come to think of it.

.

Just about dusk Jerry heard the unmistakable bark of Sic ‘em Sweetie from the woods just south of his garden and he was glad to know that Snake Weaver was on the trail of the Bigfoot and even happier that Snake didn’t see any reason for Jerry to join in on the hunt. Normally Jerry would have been glad to go and join any adventure but something about the thought of being out in the woods at night with that psycho mutt and a Bigfoot moved this hunt into a different league than your typical coon or ‘possum hunt. Jerry told himself tonight’s adventure was better left to those who understood and possibly even relished such things.

.

Jerry Don would clean his 30.06 rifle tonight just to be on the safe side because he figured that little old 4:10 shotgun of his would just be barely big enough to make that Bigfoot mad. When his rifle was cleaned he flipped on the ten o’clock news to see what the weather was gonna do and find out if any of his crazy brothers had been thrown in jail today. The news was uneventful so Jerry turned in for the night.

.

The Bigfoot had heard the human hunter’s dog as it had trailed off into the woods heading south earlier this evening so it had no fear now of being attacked by that crazy mutt. Bigfoot slowly approached the window where the Ratliff human bedded down with his female mate at night. There was a very strong bond between this particular Bigfoot and this particular man that would eventually come to light in this small Southeastern Oklahoma community once the timing was right. The creature was not here tonight to harm Jerry Don Ratliff or his mate but was drawn here by a much higher purpose. Some would say justice was being served in some sort of convoluted way in Atoka County.

.

The Bigfoot pressed it’s face to the bedroom window and started pounding on the walls of the house. Then it let out the most terrifying blood curdling scream that had probably ever been heard around Farris, Oklahoma. Jerry Don sprang up from his bed and looked directly into the face of this God awful creature at his window. Then the Bigfoot was gone just as the lights of Snake Weaver’s pickup flooded over the Ratliff house and Snake got out of his truck, walked up on Jerry’s porch and knocked on the door. Jerry started pulling on his pants and hollered at Snake “Hang on, I’m getting up”.

.

When Jerry unlocked and opened the door he told Snake that the Bigfoot had just been at his bedroom window beating on the walls but it had run away he thought. Snake appeared, to Jerry, to be pretty shaken up himself. Snake sat down at the kitchen table and then he told Jerry that him and Sic ‘em Sweetie had caught up with the Bigfoot several miles south of Jerry’s house and Snake had watched as the Bigfoot attack and killed Sweetie like she was a little French Poodle.

Snake said that after he took Sweetie’s body back home he got to thinking that maybe the Bigfoot might have circled back and headed for whatever it was at the Ratliff place that had attracted it in the beginning. Snake said the Bigfoot’s appearance at Jerry’s bedroom window tonight answered that question. Snake told him “I don’t understand why, but that creature is after you personally, Jerry“. Jerry’s wife Cindy put on a pot of coffee as it was obvious there would be no more sleep for anyone tonight. As it would turn out there would be no sleep for the next couple of nights either.

.

While they were having a cup of coffee and trying to get some kind of plan together they came to the conclusion that until this Bigfoot was either captured or killed Jerry would need to stand guard with his 30:06 rifle every night. Snake said since it didn’t seem to show any fear of man or anything else for that matter that they couldn’t even take for granted that Jerry and his wife would be safe from the Bigfoot during the daylight. If Jerry left the house he should take Cindy with him. When it became daylight they would also need to warn all their neighbors this thing was on the loose and no one would be safe until they had put it out of commission. Snake told Jerry he had an idea which way the Bigfoot had been headed so he would start trying to track him and he would call Jerry on his cell phone the minute he had any news. In the meantime he suggested Jerry and Cindy drive around the Farris and Lane communities and put up posters about the Bigfoot being sighted at their house. They should also make sure to stop in Butler’s Grocery in Farris and tell everyone there to help get the word out about this emergency situation. Jerry could just imagine the ribbing and the “I didn’t think you believed in Bigfoot” comments he would have to face but his neighbors’ safety was worth more than whatever embarrassment he would personally be forced to endure.

.

It had been two nights now that Jerry had sat up all night on the front porch at his house, drinking coffee to stay awake and keeping his loaded 30:06 within arms reach. It was starting to take its toll on his body and the only sleep he was getting was after Cindy got up in the morning and made their breakfast. He would eat and then lie down on the couch with his rifle leaned up against the wall and Cindy would keep an eye on the edge of the woods. They believed the Bigfoot would probably come from that direction if it decided to return. Unfortunately Jerry would just barely get dozed off and the phone would start ringing with neighbors wanting to get the latest Bigfoot report from him. Some of his neighbors still couldn’t resist giving him a hard time about his former belief that Bigfoots’ were all a figment of the imagination.

.

Finally the phone rang and it was the call Jerry had been waiting for. It was Snake Weaver and he had captured Bigfoot down south of the McLeod Honor Farm in Choctaw County. Snake said he had given up tracking the creature for the morning and was heading back home to get something to eat when out of no where it crossed the road in front of him. He shot the Bigfoot but the bullet had just glazed its head and knocked it unconscious. Snake said he realized that the creature would be worth a fortune, which he would split with Jerry, if they were able to bring it in alive. Snake was in the pickup he used on his ranch and he had been building fences so he had his cattle racks on the truck and a set of come-a-longs behind the seat so he just backed up to the critter and used the come-a-long to hoist it up into the truck bed where he chained it to the cattle racks. It was the perfect storm for capturing a Bigfoot, Snake said. All they needed to do now was document the capture and wait for the offers to buy it from them to came rolling in.

.

Snake told Jerry the creature had come to but it was still too groggy to cause him much trouble and he should be a Jerry‘s house with it  within the hour. Snake told Jerry to get on the phone and get as many neighbors as he could to come to his house and bring their cameras as well as video cameras. He said Jerry should also call the Atoka County Times and The Antlers American and tell them to get a newspaper reporter out there. Snake stressed that every person at Jerry’s house who saw him drive up with the Bigfoot chained in the back of his truck would be a potential witness who could testify that the Bigfoot had been captured by them. These eye witnesses would prove the Bigfoot was Snake and Jerry’s property in case someone later tried some legal mumbo-jumbo to claim it once they saw how much money it was worth. Jerry assured Snake his yard would be as crowded as the Darwin Cemetery on Decoration Day when him and the Bigfoot arrived. Jerry said “we’ll see you partner” as he hung up from Snake and began what was something akin to a Paul Revere ride through Atoka County, only this time it was by telephone.

.

The cars had been pulling into Jerry’s house and parking all over the yard and out in the field ten minutes after he made the first phone call. The reporters from the newspapers were interviewing anyone that would sit still long enough for them to stick a microphone in front of them. It had been almost an hour since Snake’s phone call and then there it was. Jerry saw Snake Weaver’s pickup coming down the highway, slowing down and turning on his blinkers to turn into the driveway. The nightmare was almost over and low and behold there standing up in the back of the truck holding on to the cattle racks was the creature that had caused all Jerry’s problems and was soon to make him and Snake Weaver mighty wealthy men. It was the Sandy Springs Bigfoot as people were now calling it.

.

The crowd was going crazy and even though the creature was still too far away to get a good look the people were running their video cameras and snapping photos as fast as they could. Jerry was transfixed by the sight of the creature as it grew closer. It was not near as big as he thought it would be and to tell the truth the closer it got the less scary it seemed. Then Jerry Don Ratliff figured out that it was nothing more than someone in a gorilla suit. What he couldn’t figure out was why the people could not see it was some kind of sick hoax and why they were all still running their videos although a lot of the cameras now seemed to be pointed at Jerry.

.

Snake parked the truck right in front of Jerry and as he got out of the drivers seat the fake Bigfoot rattled its chains and let out that blood curdling yell that Jerry was familiar with from a few nights before. The crowd was still cheering the phony gorilla on and everyone except Jerry seemed to be having a big old time. As someone took the gorilla head off the suit and revealed that it was really Jerry’s brother Gary Ratliff underneath the suit Snake asked everyone to quiet down for a minute. Snake then asked Jerry to look at his watch and tell him what it said. Jerry took a quick look and said it is 1:13 PM and then Jerry Don remembered it had been 1:13 AM a few nights ago when he first saw the Bigfoot in his garden but he racked his brain and could not tie that time of day or night to anything significant. Snake saw Jerry was still confused and he said “No Jerry, not the time, look at the date” and there it was as big as a Bigfoot’s face staring in your bedroom window” He didn’t even bother answering Snake when he saw the date on his watch was April 1^st.

.

Epilogue:

The legend of Jerry Don Ratliff and the Sandy Springs Bigfoot has grown a little larger as time goes by and one of the most surprising facts about it is that you can now ask anyone in Atoka or Pushmataha county about the incident and even though it was believed at the time that only three or four people were in on it and knew the Sandy Springs Bigfoot was a hoax, now everyone you talk to claims they knew it was an April Fool’s joke all along. Cindy Ratliff  has even hinted around  that she was in on the joke also. Jerry don’t know who he believes but at least for the time being he once again no longer believes in Bigfoot.