The New Dog Park... or ghost dog park?

Hello all,

I live a couple miles from a newly renovated park that opened right off of Chews Landing Road (Gloucester Township, I think it's called Timber Creek Park?). I just started bringing my new puppy to the dog park over there. It really is beautiful scenery back there with all of the newly designed pathways and nice stone. I enjoyed it much. Here goes the story...I used to love going back with my puppy and kids until I was freaked out by something that was out of the ordinary.

On October 29, 2008 about 8:00PM (the Sun was just about down) just two nights before Halloween (quite coincidental) my dog was barking to go out to go to the bathroom. I decided to tell my wife that I was going to take him over to the dog park (since it was only a 5 minute drive away). When I got there I saw no cars in the parking lot, so I figured that was good so my dog wouldn't jump all over everyone. I unloaded Sparky (that's my puppy's name) out of my pickup and attached on his leash. Sparky never acted so insane, it was like he ate pounds of sugar or something that made him extremely hyper.

Anyway, I brought my flashlight with me (because it could get pitch dark back there, you would know if you've ever been back there at night.) I decided to go to the new fenced in area to let Sparky run around a bit so I didn't have to hold on to him since he was acting like a mad-man (or should I say dog). All of a sudden my dog was no where in sight (I thought to myself you've got to be kidding me). I flicked on my flashlight and yelled out for Sparky. He ran back to me but had a terrible scrape near his left eye, almost like claw marks were dug into him. I picked up Sparky but as I was picking him up I could hear a grumbling, almost a growling sound in the background. I turned around to see deep, dark red glowing eyes staring straight at me. He was about 15 feet away. It was another dog almost as if I was seeing a sort of zombie dog. It had scratches covering it's body with it's dark brown napped up fur. But those red eyes were piercing! That's all I could really concentrate on. I was so freaked out I ran as fast as I could back to my pickup and tossed Sparky into the passenger seat and raced home. When I got home I told my wife the story and she was telling me I was insane. I know for a fact what I saw that night.

The next day, I told my neighbor who had been living in the area for longer time then I've been living here. I think he's been living here since 1952. He has grew up around this area on a farm. He was telling me about some sort of deserted Nike missile base right near the area of the new park. I told him what happened to me the night before. He laughed. He said that he has heard the same thing years ago, but never heard about that story since. He claimed the "thing" that I saw was called the Red Devil. It was a dog that lived on the Nike Missile base years ago and was poisoned by his owner who worked on the base. After the dog was poisoned he ran away into the woods and hadn't been seen since. Since of course people, like me, who have seen his ghost. I was in total shock when I was being told this story. I couldn't believe I saw this so called "Red Devil". I NEVER believed in ghosts until this day. It was crazy! I never seen a ghost, but a dog ghost! Come on! Who would believe me? Of course none of my friends. He told me that he used to go back there with his friends when he was young boy. He told me if you wanted to get a quick glimpse of him you would wait until sun down then now you would open the new gate(which is the first dirt walkway to the right, which they have not paved yet) and walk away 20 feet from the new dog gate(down the dirt path) (with no flashlights on), close your eyes, then spin around 3 times and if the moment was right when you would open your eyes he'd be there waiting for you with those deep, dark red glowing eyes.

From this day on I've never been back there with Sparky at night(who had recovered from the deep claw marks, that I'm assuming the Red Devil caused). I did bring him back during the day though even though he seemed really frightened. It was spine tingling moment, but at the same time it was pretty neat to see a 'real' ghost.

Who knows...maybe the new construction awakened the dog's spirit?


All and all enjoy the new park. It really has some nice scenery and looks like it is coming along really nice. I just won't ever walk with my dog at night anymore though, that's for sure.