Original headline: Chupacabra? Strange Animal Found in Elmendorf
Bud Hendrix of Beeville was delivering the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in the predawn hours last week on Chaparral Trail, in the High Country addition north of the city, when a creature he had never seen before hopped across the road in front of his car.
“I had never seen anything like it,” said Hendrix. “It had long back legs and shorter front legs. It went across the road about 10 feet in front of me and laid down in the grass.”
While delivering the paper, he has seen many of the native animals of the area, especially at this location, but this one was different. For a better view, he backed his car up and aimed the headlights where he had seen the animal lie down.
“Its ears were round and perked up like a Chihuahua’s when they try to listen to something far away,” Hendrix said. “It had eyes like that of a horse or deer. Also it had a pointed nose. It was not afraid me and seemed more curious than anything. It was a weird animal and didn’t seem dangerous or aggressive.” He also observed that the mysterious animal had a brown coat mixed with a darker shade, or black color.
Hendrix is certain it wasn’t a deer, jackrabbit or coyote. He estimated the animal had the size of a medium dog, but added, “It hopped rather than ran” when it crossed in front of his car.
According to Hendrix, he was describing his encounter with a woman in Pettus two days later when she showed him a story on the back page of the Metro section of the July 29 issue of the San Antonio Express-News. The story, titled “Think you can ID this creature?”, includes a photo of the animal after an Elmendorf rancher shot it. The rancher believed the creature was responsible for the loss of his chickens.
Hendrix said the animal he saw was very much like the image in the Express-News, with the exception of the color. He added, “We’ve got one of them out here because I’ve seen the doggone animal.”
See also: Strange Animal Found Dead In Texas
