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The original was posted on /r/paranormal by /u/WasItADog on 2024-11-10 18:05:13+00:00.

My experience has two pieces. The first happened about 7 years ago. To set the scene, I live in East Texas (geography may have a role in this).

I worked a partially overnight shift in a department store which began at 3am. It was a roughly 45 minute drive from where I lived, my residence being in a small country town and workplace being in a bigger town, not a metro area but maybe will become one within the next 10 years. You would expect the experience to take place closer to the country area, but no. It happened in the bigger city.

I was sleep deprived. Home life didn’t allow for proper sleep during the day and I had to keep slogging, wake up, zombie myself ready, and make the drive. It’s honestly a miracle I never crashed as I was often driving drowsy on dark county roads.

What made the night of the encounter different? I have no clue. All I know is that as I entered the bigger city, driving my usual route, I managed to catch a stoplight that is sensor-activated and rarely turned red when I was driving through. There was no one near the perpendicular road so it was already puzzling that it turned red on me. Ahead on my right, maybe 100 yards away, a street corner with a lone street lamp was visible.

I watched what I first thought was a deer bound into the light from the right. It moved exactly like a deer (graceful, leaping motion), had a very light tan coat, and at that distance I couldn’t make out exact details. But then it stopped on the street corner directly under the light.

It stood like a doberman. You know, that agressive stance, chest out, head forward, pointed ears raised. It even was proportioned similar. It moved and looked like a deer but then stood like a dog. Almost like a dog with unusually log, thin legs. Then, before my stoplight turned green, the dog/deer turned around and bounded back to the right exactly like a deer would. I looked down the side street as I drove past the spot but there was nothing.

I later found the maned wolf as a possible suspect due to the proportions, but the color and head/ear shape were all wrong. I eventually stopped researching because I couldn’t ever find anything conclusive, and just left it as a weird memory.

The second piece is just as interesting in its own way. Fast-forward 4 years. The information on the identity of my unknown deer/dog found me. I wasn’t looking for it and while I never forgot the encounter, it wasn’t something fresh in my memory.

I was researching other paranormal entities, a passion project if you will, and I somehow stumbled onto Latin American folklore. And suddenly, there it was.

El Cadejo

From the Wikipedia page: “In Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, the dog-like creature is known as El Cadejo. It is said to look like a dog, has deer-like hooves, and moves like a deer.”

I instantly erupted in chills upon reading this. Here it was. The weird dog/deer that I chalked up to sleep deprivation and poor lighting. How many times had I used nearly this exact description when recounting my tale?

Again, it found me. I wasn’t looking for it. I had all but forgotten about it by this time. I accidentally found the information on El Cadejo.

I obviously experienced the white variation, not the black. It protects late night travelers, particularly drunks. I wasn’t drunk, but I was heavily sleep deprived and that produces similar physiological effects.

Why a Latin American figure? Was it simply the geographical proximity? Was it a protector sent from the divine? Or something else looking to trick me? What happened that night that I couldn’t see? These are questions I don’t ever expect to find answers to. But who knows. Maybe the answers will find me.