Decemystery (2023) 1: That Time a Dog Was Seen Eating Cereal with a Spoon

 

Well, hello there, dear reader! Welcome back to my blog, which is now officially back in business and primed for a month of mysteries and oddness! Indeed, if you read the previous post, you’ll know that there are two concurrent Decemysterys going on. One is for last year (since I was out of commission for almost all of 2022), while the other is for this year. If you didn’t read the post that’s below this one, then, well, you know that now!

This, as you can plainly see, is the inaugural entry for this year! It’s a story that I recall seeing a few years ago and actually really enjoyed reading. However, it wasn’t until this year that I dug a bit more into it and decided it could be worth writing about for a little bit of fun. Besides, it features a dog, and I love dogs. I own a dog! He’s the best boy.

Anyway, without further delay (since I did most of the talking in the post before this one), let’s begin the second Decemystery with a story that exemplifies the term “High Strangeness.” It’s the story of That Time a Dog Was Seen Eating Cereal with a Spoon, and it—as stated above—went viral a few years back. So come along, dear reader; it’s time for yet another round of the oddest tales from around the world. Decemystery 2023 begins now!

Old Dog, New Tricks

Before we dive into the story, I want to make a note of two things. The first is in relation to this story’s tags; I finally decided to add a “High Strangeness” tag. I should have done this some time ago, but I didn’t because I never had a reason to (and because I was lazy). However, as time has gone on, I’ve come to realize that I need a tag for stories that are strange and little to nothing else. I’ll update the tags for every other story next if I have the time and patience.

The second is that the breed of dog isn’t mentioned in this story—not that I could find, anyway. This is admittedly a minor detail, but it kind of frustrated me when researching this story since I kept trying to visualize everything but had no idea what the dog looked like. So, for the sake of consistency, we’ll pretend it was a beagle; it is what’s depicted in the header image, after all. At least, I believe it is.

Now, then, onto the story proper. Personally, I remember first hearing about this on Reddit—on r/creepypasta by a user named “angelsorieketon”—and thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. In fact, for the longest time, I thought it was nothing more than a creepypasta; it certainly read like one. So, imagine my utter bewilderment when I saw it included on sustained_disgust’s Obscure Unsolved Mysteries Iceberg (as a side note, we’ll be revisiting this iceberg a lot this month). You can find the story listed as “Dog eating cereal with spoon” if you’re interested. It’s also placed below “2006 Volleyball footage,” which redirects to my write-up; a few of my write-ups are actually cited. Thank you so much, sustained! It means a lot you’d cite me.

Anyway, according to the entry, this is “A supposed high strangeness incident which is probably just a bewildering creepypasta translation.” If you click on the entry, you’ll be redirected to the above-mentioned post on r/creepypasta. When I found this out, I decided that I’d go look around for the origin, which eventually led me to find out this wasn’t just a story posted to Reddit but rather something from Facebook, of all places, by a man named “Samuel Trejo” back in 2020. It took off in the Hispanic community and garnered a lot of attention before finding its way onto Reddit, 4chan, and other social media sites.

Unfortunately, the original post isn’t available to view anymore; Samuel has either since deleted the post or privated his account. I don’t know which, but the story got a bit of media attention from Spanish-speaking websites like sabrositadigital.mx. So, if you want to view the original story, click the hyperlink and translate it. Do be forewarned, though; the grammar isn’t exactly that good. As a result, I’ll be using the version from Reddit since it’s considerably easier to follow. Don’t worry; there aren’t any major differences between the two beyond wording choices.

Our story takes place in Mexico. About three years ago (so presumably 2017), our narrator—Samuel—and his father were invited to watch a football game because of a “family tradition or something.” For us Americans, that would be soccer; I never understand why we called it soccer, to be honest with you.

Samuel and his dad went to Sam’s cousin’s house to pick him and his uncle up. Unfortunately, they had additional baggage: his cousin’s 6-year-old brother. Apparently, the babysitter canceled at the last minute, so they had to “sneak him into the stadium.” Based on what we’re going to learn later, I’d like to imagine that the babysitter was threatened by ol’ Kujo the Talking Canine to not come so he could enjoy his Wheaties and watch reruns of General Hospital.

Meanwhile, at the sports match, Samuel and his family were met with unparalleled disappointment; their team lost the match. So, they returned home; this was when things went sideways. Upon arriving home, Samuel’s cousins bolted out of the car and went straight to the restroom. For his part, Sam—along with his father and uncle—remained inside the vehicle and talked. That is until they heard screaming from inside the house; Samuel likened it to somebody being tortured.

Immediately, the trio got out of the car and went inside; Samuel was expecting a burglar to be inside. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Unfortunately, that would have undoubtedly been preferable to everything that was about to happen.

Inside the house, Samuel saw his little cousin underneath the living room table, crying hysterically. Meanwhile, his older cousin was on the floor, disheveled. His face was red, and he was “doing these disturbing gestures and yelling,” which Samuel compared to the film The Conjuring. This is an incredibly pointless fact, but I’m writing this the day that The Nun II came out. Just thought that was an amusing coincidence; anyway, let’s move on.

Samuel, his dad, and his uncle (or some combination of the three) believed that Sam’s older cousin was convulsing. So, in an act of desperation, they put a cloth into his mouth. I say “they,” but judging by the way the part was worded, I’m inclined to believe it was Samuel’s uncle who did that. Just a word of advice: do not do that if someone is having a seizure. It’s incredibly dangerous, and the person may end up choking.

Unsurprisingly, that didn’t work—nor did any attempts at talking to Samuel’s elder cousin. Out of ideas, the group tied him up with rope and brought him into the garage. After a while, Samuel’s cousin stopped “screaming and contorting,” and instead quietly cried. Despite this, he wouldn’t respond to anyone, acting like he didn’t understand the others. To briefly chime in, I just want to say that this whole part is so surreal to me; I have to wonder if there was something that was lost in translation. Or maybe it’s just me; I haven’t the faintest clue.

Unable to get an answer out of the elder cousin, Samuel and his family asked the younger cousin what happened. Through his tears, he said that when they got into the house, they “saw the dog eating cereal with a spoon.” After saying that, Samuel’s older cousin began convulsing again, so they finally called an ambulance. Once there, Samuel and his family were informed that his elder cousin had “a permanent loose screw.” So I’m guessing he got brain damage from his convulsions; however, given it’s said that he requires therapy weekly now, Sam may have meant that his older cousin has mental health problems now.

A few days later, Samuel’s younger cousin was asked once more about what he and his brother saw when they went into the house. Alas, despite hoping that emotion and trauma were behind the absurd answer he had given, the young lad said that “when they entered the house they saw the dog eating cereal with a spoon.” I don’t know how I would react if I heard someone tell me this to my face, but I’m pretty sure it would end with my brain turning into a frisbee.

That response wasn’t what befell Samuel’s aunt, though. No, she didn’t understand what her son meant; this prompted him to draw a picture of what they saw. Sure enough, it was just as he said: the family dog was sitting on a chair in the dining room, enjoying a bowl of cereal with a spoon (as opposed to a fork).

This artistic depiction drove Samuel’s aunt up a wall due to the family dog having gone missing ever since that fateful day. I have to admit, I find that detail quite unsettling; it’s made even better by the declaration that the dog never reappeared. This makes me wonder two things. The first is: Did nobody find it weird that the dog went missing the same day someone claimed to have seen it eating cereal like it was a human? Like, nobody?

The second, and honestly the much more baffling thing, is: how exactly did the dog disappear? Did it run out one of the doors? Did it vanish into thin air? Or did it pull a Hanna-Barbera Cartoon and run like a human out of the house? I really hope it’s that one because it would be so funny.

Whatever the case, that is where the story ends; as I said earlier, Samuel’s older cousin now requires therapy weekly because seeing a dog eating cereal drove him mad. This is something that I’m certain H.P. Lovecraft would be proud of. Anyway, this would normally be where I’d jump into the theories, but there’s still one thing I want to mention—a comment left on a Reddit post that mentioned this story.

You see, dear reader, when I decided to flick my big brain switch to “on,” and I used that beautiful thing known as “Google,” one of the first results I got when Googling “dog eating cereal with spoon legend” was for George Takei’s website. On September 1, 2021, Sam Spadafore posted an article about people describing the “weirdest local myths from their home country.” Most of the answers were responses from an Ask Reddit post, including one about today’s titular story. According to a Redditor named sour_honey_, the story is popular in Monterrey, Mexico (which is extremely close to the Texas border and is where NASCAR Cup Series driver Daniel Suárez is from); it’s apparently believed by a fair number of people down there, too. I have no idea if this is true, so if anyone knows, please let me know.

Anyway, there’s one reply to the comment left by sour_honey_ from a now-deleted user. Said user brought up that there’s a similar legend in the Caribbean about a dog that plays a flute. I tried to look this up, but I couldn’t find a result for this supposed legend. However, I did find videos of dogs playing flutes (including one from Reddit). Amusingly, the dog breed in the video is a Beagle (or a breed closely related to Beagles), so everything’s coming full circle with today’s write-up! If anyone reading this is from the Caribbean—or knows of the story of the dog playing the flute—please leave a comment telling me about it! I’d love to read it.

With that, though, the story of man’s best friend eating cereal like a human comes to an end. It was honestly quite difficult to write about—which I find quite surprising since there wasn’t a whole lot to it. I blame the amount of writing I’ve been doing with so few breaks in between (at the time of this writing, I’m just under halfway done). Anyway, there are a couple of theories, so let’s jump into them!

Theories

1. An urban legend/A creepypasta

Starting off the theories is the one that I believe to be the most accepted: it’s nothing more than a scary story. Let me tell you something: There’s nothing scarier than the people who live above me; they don’t understand the concept of walking. They can only stomp like they’re roleplaying as an angry Sasquatch. That’s a real horror story! Have you ever tried to go to sleep and get woken up because someone doesn’t understand how to walk like a normal human being? I sure have! God willing, they’ll have learned how to do so by the time this goes up, or I may have no hair left on my head.

My personal horror story aside, this theory is self-explanatory. Samuel’s story of the dog was just a creepy story that he wrote for fun. I’m not sure if there’s anything back that claim up since, as far as I can tell, most sources for this story are in Spanish—including videos. I know very, very little Spanish; outside of English, the languages I’m the most fluent in are German and Greek. So, watching most videos on this story was unfortunately out of the question. Luckily, there were a fair number of articles; unfortunately, none of them provided any additional details or leads, like Samuel saying he made it up or any tellings before his encounter.

The most I can find is that the header image was painted not by Samuel’s cousin but by someone named Jay Schmetz. I learned that thanks to an article on La Republica, so that was neat. Jay’s art is also worth checking out; it’s quite good and features animals doing various human activities. If I had to guess, Samuel may have gotten the idea for the story from his art, but I cannot prove this. If that is the case, though, then I have to admit that that’s a great way to come up with a horror story.

2. It really happened

The first write-up I was going to do last year was “Are Creepypastas Real?” but I ultimately threw that aside in favor of COVID brain fog. It wasn’t the best trade-off I’ve made in my life, and to this day, I regret not consulting my lawyer to ask if it was a good deal or not.

In all seriousness, that question—whether creepypastas are real or not—is something I’ve briefly discussed in the past. Specifically, I went over it a bit when I wrote about Slender Man back in 2020. I won’t go into much detail here, but there’s this belief that the collective belief in creepypasta characters brought them to life; it’s tied to the concept of tulpas. I have to wonder if the tulpa from the creepypasta “Tulpa” could be made into a tulpa. That has more layers to it than an onion!

There’s a fair amount of belief that this story is real—at least judging by the comments on YouTube videos related to this story. Though I will admit, that isn’t exactly surprising, given a lot of younger folks watch scary videos on YouTube. Still, there are definitely some people out there who take this story as fact.

Unfortunately, just like the theory above, I don’t know of any statement from Samuel asserting that this story did, in fact, happen. It’s also a unique encounter; I don’t know of any story involving a dog acting like a human. At least, not unless it turned into something akin to a Fleshgait. So, if you were hoping that I would provide evidence in favor of this story, today isn’t your day. My sincerest apologies.

3. It was guerilla marketing for The Secret Life of Pets 2

Illumination, you crafty devils!

My Take (And A Bonus)

I’ll be blunt about this: I think this story is nothing more than a scary story and nothing more. No, I don’t think there was a dog that decided to chow down on some Wheaties or Cheerios while its owners were out at a sporting event. That’s just silly. While I know there are plenty of people who read this blog who do believe in plenty of Fortean things—and believe me, I myself believe in plenty of them—I think it’s important to approach these topics with a healthy amount of skepticism. We can’t blindly believe every single thing we read on the Internet, and this story is definitely one that reads and flows like a work of creative fiction. Though admittedly, I do think it’s pretty unsettling, and the thought of a dog eating cereal like a human is a simple yet greatly effective bit of imagery.

With that said, there is one thing I want to make a note of. This story reminded me of something I heard much earlier in the year; they’re known as “Human-faced Animals,” and they were actually going to be a part of Decemystery this year. Alas, due to the never-ending train wreck that is my life, I had to nix it from the schedule so I could alleviate a bit of stress on myself. Nevertheless, I will dedicate a bit of time to talking about them here as something of a bonus theory. However, I won’t cover them in full; I know it’s cheap, but there are 62 other write-ups that will be posted this month after this one. I think I deserve a bit of slack.

I initially found stories of “Human-faced Animals” on a YouTube channel called Midnight Broadcast, which makes videos on 4chan greentexts and other scary stories. Everything from paranormal stories to things like Fleshgaits, the Goatman, and aliens. Their content is great and something I like to listen to when I’m playing a video game; it makes for great background noise. I highly recommend giving them a listen if you enjoy the content on this blog. Do be warned, though: the channel uses a text-to-speech voice program. So, if that isn’t your cup of tea, your mileage may vary.

The video contains a handful of stories from people who claim to have seen animals with human faces. I know: that’s really shocking stuff; I would have never guessed that. There are four in total, with the fourth being the longest by a country mile. That one is about a supposed “manticore,” and I’d like to write about it one day in full—along with several other famous (and infamous) creepy 4chan stories. Anyway, I’ve rambled on for more than enough, so let’s get into the other three stories—all of which involve dogs with human faces!

The first tale is “Man-Faced Dog,” and centers on someone who I will call Kevin and is from the New England area. For those who aren’t from the United States, New England consists of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. So, this story took place in one of those six states. Anyway, when Kevin was a child, he awoke late at night and had no idea why; he had a longing to look outside, though. So, against his father’s prior orders to not look outside late at night, Kevin did. This was a big mistake, as what he saw would paralyze him with absolute terror.

In his backyard was a large, four-legged creature with small, pointed ears and a human-esque face. Although it wasn’t looking at Kevin, he had a feeling that it knew he was there and that it knew he’d seen it. To make matters worse, when Kevin checked again to see if the beast was still there, it had gotten closer to the window. Thankfully, it never got any closer than that arbitrary distance, and Kevin never saw it again.

The second story is “Jinmenken,” which is the name of a Japanese urban legend; I’ll explain why it has this title in a bit. This allegedly occurred in the midwestern United States back in June of 1983. The eyewitness, who I’ll call Delilah, was 20 years old at the time and outside doing laundry. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the hair on the back of her neck stood up; she spun around and saw that her kitten was standing perfectly still—and that there was a dog not too far away.

Worried for the safety of her kitten, Delilah scooped up the little furball and held onto it. Patiently, she waited for it to leave, but it didn’t. Then, a sudden chilly wind picked up; the hairs on her arms stood up, too. Eventually, the dog turned its head to look at her; this is when the poor lady’s mind would be turned into a ball of yarn.

Staring at Delilah was a dog. Well, almost; it was a dog with the face of a bearded man, a look of fury on his (or its) face. For the sake of my amusement, I’m going to imagine a bulldog with the face of Abraham Lincoln staring her down. I have no reason to do this, but the mental image is funny to me. Okay, joking aside, this thing’s mouth was open, like it was yelling at Delilah. Despite this, no sound came out; I’d like to imagine that it was trying to do its best to be like Cannibal Corpse before Cannibal Corpse was a thing.

Upon seeing this surreal beast, Delilah vomited. That may very well be the most tame reaction someone could have to laying eyes on a dog with a bearded man’s angry face. Anyway, the two stared at each other for about 30 seconds; it was only then that Delilah realized the creature was approaching her, its mouth still open. Without hesitation, she ran inside—leaving her laundry outside—and locked the doors. She hid in the bathroom for an hour; upon going back outside with a baseball bat, she found no sign that the thing had ever been there.

After doing research, Delilah learned about the Jinmenkin—the “Human-Faced Dog”—of Japanese folklore (hence the story’s name). However, whereas that is a human with the face of a dog, this was the other way around*. I’m not sure which is scarier, but I think I’d have human-faced dogs narrowly edge out the dog-faced humans. Anyway, Delilah rounds off by saying that she’s both of completely sound mind and that she’s never told anyone this story—not even her husband (who at the time was her fiancé). I won’t lie; I actually found this story to be the scariest of the three we’re going over.

Now, onto the third story, which is entitled “Nickelsville Beast.” I decided to look that name up, but sadly, I got nothing. Nickelsville is in Virginia, though, so I already know it’s way too scary for me. It also has a very small population; 360 people live there as of 2019. This encounter took place in 1998 or 1999, so at the time, it would have been somewhere around 448 (which was the population in 2000).

Anyway, for this story, I’ll be referring to the eyewitness as Brad. He, along with a few friends, drove up the Clinch Mountain Range for Halloween. Upon arriving at the road (at least, I’m guessing it was a road), things immediately began to feel off. In Brad’s own words:

There was a serious uneasiness in the air. Like just before a storm. Just surreal.

That’s the same feeling I get when I see a hippie.

Brad alleges that, during their drive up, he and his group got the feeling they were being watched. He also claims that the mountain range has seen devil worship activity and that he’s seen “plenty of evidence.” I have absolutely no idea if this is true—I can’t find anything about anything of this nature, but I wouldn’t be surprised. This is Virginia, after all. They’re kind of odd like that. My sincerest apologies to my readers from Virginia (I know one of them may or may not be a bit annoyed at me for this heinous Virginia slander).

Anywhoozle, Brad mentions that one of his friends—who I’m 99.17% sure was named Christopher Buescher—had a pistol with him, so they “felt safe at that point.” Once they were halfway up the mountain trail, the group spotted a “small dog.” Brad couldn’t discern what breed it was, saying it was “just kind of a mutt. “ The dog also had a red bandana around its neck. This must mean it runs the fastest because, as we all know, the red ones go the fastest!

At some point, the group rolled down the vehicle’s windows; it was then that they could hear a “very faint drumming” in the distance, which Brad compared to a heartbeat. According to Brad, he’d “been up there over a dozen times” and had “never heard anything like it.” He claims to have seen “plenty of carvings and other things,” though.

Upon arriving near the top of the mountain, Brad and his friends got out of the car and walked the rest of the way up; Brad notes here that the drumming was “clearer” at this point. After some time, they got back into their car and began their drive home. This is where things went topsy-turvy, not unlike my life. It was deathly silent, and they saw “torches or flashlights” off the side of the road, in some brush where there was no road or path.

Eventually, the group came across the dog again. Only this time, the “dog” had the face of an elderly woman—and it was getting closer to the car; the drumming also resumed at this point. Suffice it to say, the driver slammed on the gas pedal and sped off (within the realm of reason, of course, since they were driving down a mountain). Luckily, Brad never came across the creature again.

The fourth and final story, as I said, is about a supposed manticore—though I feel that undersells just how unbelievably disturbing it is. Due to its length, I won’t get into it, but it’s a damn good story and more than worth your time. As I said earlier, I hope to write about it in full in the future. When exactly, I don’t know, but I want to cover it.

Anyway, with that, it’s time to explain why I brought up these stories. You see, although the stories aren’t exactly alike, I couldn’t help but think of them the entire time I wrote about the best boy who ate cereal. As such, I couldn’t help but entertain the idea that maybe—just maybe—this was a case of something akin to them. So, to throw a bone, maybe the dog was somehow related to one of those strange human-faced animals. Or, perhaps, it was replaced by one, an evil shapeshifter of some sort.

Conclusion

With that, the inaugural story of Decemystery 2023 comes to a close. I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it—or at least as much fun as I could have as the people above me made an egregious amount of noise. Anyway, there are still 62 stories remaining after today, so I hope to see you tomorrow for more Decemystery weirdness! Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, and thank you for reading!

* Disclaimer: the Jinmenkin is actually a dog with a human face, just like the rest of the stories I described. Somehow, in some astronomically stupid way, I contradicted myself. Let this be a lesson to anyone reading this: don't write 60 articles in the span of 6 months. You'll make comical errors like this.