This Paranormal Life - Mysterious Creature Spotted by Hunters - The Sheepsquatch

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

We've covered a LOT of cryptids on this podcast before... Bigfoot, the Metal Man and whatever creature it was that sucked a guys jeans off in the woods... but today we're investigating a beast that most people have never heard of before - The Sheepsquatch. An enormous, woolly, horned BEAST that's said to stalk the mountains of Appalachia and the locals nearby... Get your tickets to our London Live Show! Become a commune member to get access to bonus episodes: ⁠https://thisparanormallife.com⁠ Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our Secret Society Facebook Community⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy Official TPL Merch!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Edited by Philip Shacklady Researched by ⁠Ewen Friers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Deep in the hills of West Virginia, hunters have reported sightings of a creature that's unlike anything that anyone has seen before. A towering white-ferred animal with curling horns stalking the forest looking for prey. Locals tried to ignore the warnings, but in the 1990s, when sightings increased and animals started disappearing, they knew they were dealing with something serious. But where did this strange creature come from? Is it really a cryptid or is it some kind of demon trapped in the woods? And why am I all alone in the studio today? All of these questions you can find the answer to

on this paranormal life. Hey everyone, it's Rory here, and if you didn't hear it already on Patreon, I'm excited to say that our wonderful commune leader Kit is actually on paternity leave right now, looking after the newest and youngest member of the paranormal commune. Unfortunately, that means that we weren't able to record a new episode of the podcast this week. However, we know how much people enjoy their weekly TPL

So today we're releasing one of our older bonus episodes from Patreon right here for free. Now this episode that you're about to hear literally couldn't exist without the people who support us on Patreon. So please give them a big thank you in the comments below. And if you want to join those amazing people, check out the Patreon over at this paranormal life.com where you can sign up and get a bunch of cool extra rewards and bonus episodes. There's tons over there. Anyway, thank you as always to our Patreon supporters. congratulations again to commune leader Kit and to everyone else.

Please enjoy our investigation into the Sheep Squatch. So just setting the scene, I woke up about 20 minutes ago. For one of the only moments of my life I've ever slept in, I just like woke up and my phone had died. And I was like, what time is it? It's 9.30 a.m. Which, listen. And I, that would have been fine if I hadn't berated everyone the night before being like,

guys, what the fuck? We really need to get it together. tomorrow. I want everyone in here nine nine flat, nine sharp. Okay. Yeah. He went on a whole rampant. The day before when I got into the office, he went, wow, what time is this? What time do you call this? I didn't. I don't want to. 932? Because I'm pretty sure we said 930 start. I don't want people to get the wrong

oppression. I don't normally do that. Kitt walked into the office today. Just for the record, it's 1114. No. Yeah, that makes you sound like I had a leisurely breakfast. I was exaggerating. Listen, it happens. I got in at, I think, 10.01. It happens to all of us.

That's a lie. It happens to all of us. Because I beat Phil here by 30 seconds. Don't throw Phil under the bus. You told him to come in at 10. I did. But I'm saying, I didn't come in at 11. I didn't come in 11.

I came in at 10.1. And then this guy came in the same time And then you got here at 10, Phil arrived 15 seconds later And you went, whoa! What time do you call this? You lazy fuck! I also forgot my keys to the office. Listen, I'm a forgiving guy, and it's fine.

It happens to the best of us. I think it's only important we bring it up because the one time that I slept in, I got put on blast on this podcast. Well, that was a little different. That was a little different. When we agreed to meet outside my apartment in the morning and walk to work together

and that is radio silence from me in the morning when you messaged. If we had arranged for me to meet outside at a disclosed location, a specific location, at a certain time,

I would deserve blast, but I really didn't. And once again, I was adamant about the time. I was like, buddy, 930, you, me down here. Nothing will get in the way

of me meeting you in this square. We'll get a coffee on the walk, we can talk business, hang out. I stood there for like 20 minutes. I'm fast asleep. slept through the whole thing. Punk's new ass.

All right, we got to... I mean, it's fine. We only have to record, like, a record number of podcasts today. In heat. Not that we're horny. We're not a dog that's horny. Yeah.

I've got to stop telling people that I'm in heat. I don't really know what that means. I've never owned a dog before. We just want to like shag everything. It's a good name for like a post-punk band or something, though. In heat? Or shag everything.

Dogs in heat. Oh, right. Shag everything. Hello everyone, we're shag everything. It's for coming to the gig tonight. I am ill. I am ill, both apparently mentally and physically. I wish I'd known that before coming in.

Woo. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about,

your gambling or someone close to you. Peace contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Guys, we have a tremendous investigation to get into. You guys know what it is already because you've looked at the title of the episode. Guys, guys, guys. I don't know.

Mothman. Oh. Old green eyes. Oh. Not dear. The Wendigo. We've covered them all. Bigfoot.

the Wampus cat, the Flatwood, Monster, Goatman, those two. What do they all have in common, Rory? Weird, weird little guys. Appalachia, that's what. Yeah, they're all weird guys. Should have thrown Rory in there too. Time and time again. We find ourselves returning to this paranormal hotspot.

They're nice. Sorry. De Nice, that's all I'll say. Keep going. I know you're cranky because you just woke up 15 minutes ago. Walking the plank. Flying close to the sun. These are all things that Kit is doing right now.

Even after last year's look at the legends of Appalachia, in which we said no, Appalachia was not uniquely paranormal, which seems unfair. There are still cryptids, hauntings, and UFO cases for us to discover from this region. I think we can all agree, I didn't do that good of a job.

I think immediately after hosting that episode, we did another episode about another creature I didn't cover. And again, just a few weeks ago, we returned there to do the Moonville Tunnel. And today, we're back at it again. There's a lot of creatures in your defense. It's hard. I mean, they're famously hard to find. Well, I think we covered on the Appalachia.

Yes, hard to find. I think we covered on that episode that Appalachia is about a third of the fucking United States of America. Right. It's enormous. You know, not exactly. But it is truly enormous. When I listed all the states, it goes across. I can't find my car keys in the morning.

morning, you know? I'm supposed to find a guy's living in the mountains? You don't own a car, so... Oh, that's why! I'm in searching all those keys! I've been looking for nine years! God damn it! And we are back at it again because Rory, in July 2004, two teenage friends came face-to-face with one of America's most terrifying and unique cryptids while hunting in the Kentucky forests. We'll start it as a weekend where it quickly turned into a desperate fight for their lives.

Whoa. Ricky Joyce and Dakota Cheeks. Shocking story is one of the best documented cases of an encounter with a hair raising, or should I say wool raising. Creature known as Sheep Squatch. Wow. It's worrying that you said the words sheep squatch and all I can think about is someone with a second name Cheeks. Yeah, Dakota Cheeks. Dakota Cheeks is a, that's a great name. It's really a male porn star, I think.

Don't you think Dakota cheeks? Yeah. Hey, we can't laugh sitting here in Britain, as we've said many times, Irish families have good, normal, strong names that mean magical things, like, you know, the son of the hound of God or something, you know. It's pretty cool. In England, it's the combination of, like, really silly names that they're overly proud of because of, like, their family history.

A family history. Yes. The cockburns, an extremely proud family. Well, it's also, as we've talked about before in the podcast. The Willie Smashes. Well, that doesn't help my point, which is that a lot of the time, people are named after the thing that they're known for.

So if your name's Henry Willie Smasher, I don't... I mean, fear him on a battlefield, I guess. If he's in the front line. But if your name is like Dakota Cheeks, you're known for that butt. And that's actually, that's pretty impressive, you know? I wish I was known for my butt. Do you have anything good to say about sheep squatch?

Well, I want to find out more. Okay. It all started on a summer's day 22 years ago. In heat. As two outdoor types, local to the area, a hunting trip into the Kentucky wilderness was no big deal, really, for Ricky and Dakota. Dakota is a man. I thought of Dakota as being a woman's name,

but it seems to be completely unisex. Very cool. Just like Rory and just like, kit. That's right. Yeah. Sorry, I was just so waiting for like an attack on me personally. I was like, I was waiting for what the criticism was going to be. I love you, man. You're my best friend. Using Ricky's... Sorry. Sorry. We're, we're good. So let's keep going. Um, uh, sorry, Are we being We're going to be

Professional today or what? We're going to We can't just be I'm going I'm not going to recover from that one Oh Oh So using

Ricky's Grandparents Woodland cabin as a base I'm sorry, keep going The trip started out perfectly normally It wasn't until the morning After the first night But things took a dark turn They spotted one of their

hunting dogs lying motionless outside the cabin and rushed to see what was wrong. The dog was dead. Yeah, it's not funny. Oh shit. Lying with its head, quote, completely twisted around. Oh, that's horrible. They were astonished, as Dakota described later. There's no animal up here that can grab an animal by its chin and the back of its head and twist it. You know, no coyote can do it. There's no bears as far as I know up here. It was a mystery and they wanted to get to the bottom of it. Quote, it became very apparent we had to find out what happened, what got her and why. But their minds were already set racing because, in fact, reports of a strange noise emanating from the area had already been reported in the weeks prior.

We're getting some evidence here. Ricky said, before the dog incident, for months we've been hearing noises coming from the top of the hill. Growls and screams. Things that we just didn't know anything about. For sure, called a trip off. definitely don't go on a camping hunting trip if for quote months there's been screams and growls coming from the wilderness. Well, it depends.

I mean, if it's a camping trip, sure, don't do that. You're going to have a bad time. If it's a camping hunting trip, that tells you a little something about these individuals' mentality. Right. Which I don't know a lot about hunting.

It doesn't really make a ton of sense to me. But, you know, I understand that a part of it is the thrill of the chase. the thrill of the hunt. And if you are in a position like these gentlemen, like the cheeks, to potentially hunt a creature that's never been seen before,

a deadly one, a deadly one that also just killed your dog, maybe this is the kind of trip that this sort of person would want to be on. They've got skin in the game, you know? They're out for vengeance. The beast drew first blood, Rambo. Yeah, it's funny you say that

because I did, I had to check, but I did write that later on in the script. that although this is a very traumatic moment, this is what men fantasize about, I feel like, on a hunting trip. Are you kidding me? Like an excuse to drive around on quads with high-powered rifles, hunting and never before caught crypted, to kill it in revenge for killing their dog,

like some kind of Appalachian John Wick. Yeah. They obviously didn't want it to happen to the dog, obviously. But now that it has, they're like, it's on. Right. Listeners couldn't see that, but Kit was spreading invisible blood, I think, on his face. Warpaint. Oh, right.

Like, yeah, blood. Like Nelson and the Simpsons. The hunt is on. And the brutal attack on the dog seemed to be the event that changed them from regular hunters into cryptid hunters. Ricky would later say, we went looking to see if we could figure out what happened, see if we could find tracks of anything big, anything they could have killed a 150-pound dog like it did. So they geared up and head out into the wilderness. Yes. But before we return to Ricky and Dakota cheeks, terrifying encounter, it's only Dakota cheeks.

What exactly is the sheep squatch? Do they know at this point that that's what they're dealing with? Near. Right. Okay. Only we know that. We know. Okay. That's a good question, but only we know. And at least according to the lower, where did this son of a bitch come from?

How does it behave? And more importantly, can it be herded by a sheep dog? Well, it fucking killed the dog, so clearly not. Let's turn to an ever-trusted source and favoured font of wisdom for TPL cryptid wiki. According to the M-sheep squatch is a quadruped about the size of a bear with entirely white wool-like fur, its forelimbs end in paw-like hands, similar to those of a raccoon, but larger, while its tail is long and hairless, like that of an opossum. They haven't used the word sheep anywhere so far in this. Some people claim as the head of a sheep,

But cryptid wiki says it is a long and pointed head like a dog, but with long saber-like teeth and a single point set of horns, not as similar to those found on a young goat. So everything but a sheep. Literally. Oh my gosh. It seems to be that the goat-like horns and wool is where the sheep reference comes from. Yeah. And according to their entry, the cryptid also has a distinct smell too, stating it is reputed to smell like sulfur, which has been a true. contributed through folklore to the beast being born within the TNT area in Mason County.

Like one of the Mothman theories. I had to read that sentence a couple of times before, but I think what they're saying is, it wasn't one of the theories that Mothman was born, he was like excavated from a mountain by dynamite. Yeah, yeah. I think that he came out of a mountain, maybe? Which is kind of a standard kind of monster kaiju thing. I think isn't that how like, I think Godzilla and Mothra and stuff like that, I think there's some of that lore in there.

They disturbed the seabed and then Godzilla came out. Yeah, well, I think maybe Godzilla was a product of some sort of nuclear interference as well. I think there was maybe some nuclear runoff that created Godzilla. And then that's maybe how I became the king of the ocean. I don't remember exactly. But you are right. A lot of these ancient creatures, the lore is that they exist in the earth and then we disturb them and they come out. Okay, back to the description.

It has been hypothesized, yes, that, that, The sheep squash may smell like sulfur due to a mothman-style origin story, though this is not likely, and instead it may just have a musk-scent gland, similar to those found in many species, such as weasels and skunks. We are overdue an artist's interpretation. At this point, we need to phone up, Phil. Could you please queue up some images? Oh, there it is.

Okay, I can see how people would say that this is a sheep. It looks like if you injected a sheep with steroid. Yeah. And it kind of just like grew and started standing on two legs and kind of had it hunched back. There's some sheep in there, some sheep goat. Yeah. I would agree. I would agree.

Because I've spent a lot of time in the beautiful countryside of Ireland, exploring the mountains as a young boy. I've seen something that looks like that. Well, let's not get started into that because you've seen a lot of shit in Dublin. No, I'm not talking about Dublin. talking about the moorn mountains, all right? Right. And once you've been up there exploring all the corners of the moorn mountains. You saw like a seven foot.

I mean, those claws are about three inches long each. Exploring the wilderness, I don't know if it's like this all over the world, but definitely in Ireland. Like, because I spent a lot of summers just in the mountains because my family would go there on like holiday. Because we were poor. We didn't do proper holidays. So we would just go to the mountains.

We're mountain people, and the daily activity was dinners at five, going to the mountains. But I remember once hiking in the mountains with my Irish granddad and we were on the way up. We actually saw a sheep that was

like, had kind of like fallen over and was like on its side. And I was like, oh shit, should we like go help? this sheep. And my granddad, who was a vet, was like, nope. It's like, it's not our place to interfere in the animal kingdom. It's like, the sheep has fallen over. It is another farmer's property. It's like, this is like the law of the land. This is how it should be. These animals need to exist in their own world and we as human should not interfere. I was like, oh, okay, I understand

granddad. Went up the mountain, came back down. Sheep was dead. the sheep had died we could have just probably helped the sheep and I think about that a lot when I lie awake and bed at night I was so sure you were going to be like Grandad shouldn't we help it and he's like yep Loading it's gun we'll help it all right

yeah help it into the next life but uh yeah as I said I do think about that every night before I go to bed luckily that is me essentially counting sheep so I fall asleep very quickly Okay, let's get back into the story. I am going to strip off, though. Good idea.

Lose some clothes. It is getting toasty in here. We're getting extreme. Okay. Most cases appeared to be reported in West Virginia, conflating other known cryptids from that state. Creatures like white things, white devils, or devil dogs.

Some sort of large white-furred creature is indeed present in native Cherokee folklore. According to legend, these creatures are harbingers of death. Much like the Banshee in Irish folklore. Hmm. Those that see the white cryptid will die or lose a loved one soon after. Oh, that's interesting. So did Ricky and Dakota's encounter chime with one of those legends?

Well, fuck me, they lost their loved one before they even saw the beast. Yeah, but usually the Banshee isn't the one that kills the loved one. Yeah, I know. That's kind of rude to be like, I'm here to warn you that a loved one is about to die. Yeah, snap. Twist their neck. You don't get to do that. Well, I don't know, Appalachia.

They do things a little differently. Has anyone ever checked whether the banshees kill them or not? I don't know. It's not in any of the legends. Also, from the way this thing looks, this seems like this is much more of a cryptid rather than some sort of paranormal entity. Yeah, well, that's true.

Well, sure. But I'm just saying that's what the legend is. So the question is, the legend of the white things, white devils or devil dogs, There seems to be an existing Native American legend about a creature that signals someone's going to die. Okay. The question is, does this connect directly with the sheep squash?

I mean, the white part does, I guess, but... I guess this is the question. Yeah. Is it the same thing? It seems like too much of a coincidence for there to be a modern legend about a white-furred demon dog running around. Yeah. Well, to give us a little bit more lower before we get back into the story, Let's actually get a peek at a documentary that was made about Ricky and Dakota.

Hmm. Phil, cue up. First clip, please. The bones left. We had always heard noises that we just can never explain, like a growl almost, but you could hear them for long distances. The woods are mysterious. People still won't go out.

Dakota cheeks. It's one of the few things that people around here won't really talk about. but there's definitely something out there that keeps them all inside. That something is a creature that's known to locals as sheep squatch. The legend may have started long ago. Sheep herders immigrating to Appalachia from Britain,

bringing stories of demons wearing sheep hides and horns. But to this very day, the belief remains in force. Some claim to have caught a glimpse, glimpse. And recently, two adventurous Breckenridge boys, Ricky Joyce and Dakota Chiefs. They're holding samurai swords. With a sheep squash, they'll never forget. Well, I was wearing a black trench sco. Well, when I tell most people I've seen it, they just tell me I'm crazy.

I'm a crackpot. But there are a few people that believe in it. Mainly the people that live around here are the ones that don't call me crazy. It's easy for us to sit here in our little AC unit powered, you know, East London studio and laugh of people in Appalachia without actually getting their hands dirty. You know, people in these areas, they legit believe in this stuff. Same way that if you're in the Pacific Northwest or in the South. Well, if you're in the Pacific Northwest, you know, people fully believe in Sasquatch. If you're in the Florida swamps, you believe in the skunk ape.

And clearly, if you live in this little segment of Appalachia, you believe in sheep squatch. Does that make it more believable or less believable that every one of these regions has their own mascot, essentially? Well, given we said the skunk keep is real. Yeah, but that's because you showed me some of the most insane photo evidence I've ever seen in my life before. And I hated it and I regret saying it.

There's some beasts out there that we can't understand, man. It's true. It is true. And I hope that we have that similar level of evidence today. We'll see There's a reason this is a bonus episode, guys So after a day of roaming into the forest on quad bike But finding, no clues They decided to rest in the family's secluded camper van overnight

Now away from the house They were vulnerable in a small camper And they had a visitor Ricky said we started hearing all sorts of weird noises Things walking around Dakota, we knew a creature was close. About 5 a.m. in the morning, the remaining dogs started barking and took off running down the hill. Ricky said something actually ran into the trailer. It scared the crap out of me.

What, like shoulder barged it? Like the Hulk? Yeah, they ran into the side of the trailer. Oh my god, also don't leave the dogs outside. It loves dogs. There's only so much room inside the camper van, Roy. And that night's ordeal didn't end there. The creature continued to batter the thin metal walls and eventually with incredible strength it flipped the trailer on its side. What the hell? Before disappearing. Yeah, not so easy to disprove. Nah, is it mother f***? Well, do you have any photos? No! Okay. Before it disappeared back into the woods. Yeah, that's why they didn't get a photo because it disappeared. This thing is... No, the trailer, getting obliterated. Violent. Well, yeah, no, I guess I don't.

I have something better. A man's word. Two men's word. And some dogs were there too. Looking at Ricky and Dakota in the video, I don't think there are two guys that can afford to just destroy a camper van over a prank. I think they needed the camper van. They also do seem like two people, though, that could easily crash a camper van and need an excuse to justify why.

They look like two guys who have a Breaking Bad style crystal meth lab in the camper van. Basically. Now, determined not only to track the creature, the boys wanted it dead. Hence the swords. In the all-American tradition, they returned to the cabin the next day

to rearm with more guns and extra ammo. Oh boy. And for someone who originally entered the forest himself to hunt and kill animals, Dakota dropped an amazing, ironic line. Quote, anything that aggressive doesn't deserve to be here. If it can't coexist, it needs to go.

What do you think, Roy? Is that how you're handling this situation? Probably not. I'm probably just going to stop camping. been out in those woods. But again, I'm just not this type of person. Yeah, that was kind of hard to understand. It seemed like it kind of came for them on home territory, though.

Yeah, I know what you're saying. I kind of agree. You've kind of, you've poked this sheep, squash nest at this point. Yeah. And kind of now it's like, come what may. It's kind of rich to be like, if it can't coexist in this world, then it has to go. It's like, brother, do you understand how the forest works? It's a food chain.

That is how it works. And you just don't like the you are below the sheep squatch. It's existing fine in the world. There's also something really funny about them being like, all right, that's it. It's like, you've had two opportunities now to kill the beast. And each time you're like, ah! And you're like run away and hide. And then it destroys all your shit, kills your dog.

And you're like, no, next time it's on. sight, buddy. Next time you're gonna go. Stop going there. I think you're just gonna run away again. Yeah. The following evening, now fully armed, they quad bikeed to a clearing when they finally caught a glimpse of the beast. They described it as huge. A white animal hunched over with long arms, claws and horns. They said it was far larger than a human, at least nine feet tall. The creature caught sight of the boys, let out a quote, ungodly gut-curling growl. and started charging towards them.

They shot off a few rounds into the darkness, but ultimately fled, fled, not knowing if they hit their target. Oh my God. Dakota was under no illusions. We saw Sheep Squatch. That's what we saw. Well, I was going to say, Roy, what would you do in this situation?

But actually, we know from the Dublin Gorilla Man story. You would not catch the beast and then never shut up about it for 20. years. That's rude. No point in asking. Really? I think we learned from my sheep story. I would not interfere with the animal kingdom.

Right. You just let it tear you apart. I would let it rip me apart if that's the way of the world. This is insane. So they saw it. Your granddad is like, right, we must not interfere with the animal kingdom. The beast is in heat. You must let it mate with you.

What? Granddad, no. The beast has chosen you, my child. I'll be back at the house. So they hunted the creature, found the creature, with all of their guns and ammo, and missed? Or just fired shots into the sky? Like an excited cowboy? Freaked them out.

It went, you shouldn't be hunters then. You should not be hunters. Yeah. If you go out into the woods in full camo with a rifle and you see a duck and you're like, Oh, f***! Start firing your gun like crazy. You shouldn't have come there. Into the sky.

Because the ultimate goal of your journey was to come face to face with the sheep squatch. They're not very old, are they? No. I think they're a little green. I think they're claiming to be hunters and I don't know how much. Yeah, maybe the most they've hunted

is a friggin' wood pigeon. Take off the leather trench coat. You don't deserve it. That's stolen valor from Neo from the Matrix. All right. You can't wear that if you're going to fold like this when you see the sheep's watch. Because I think

I would probably, if I put myself in their shoes, I'd have the opposite reaction, which is still the wrong way to deal with it, which is I would probably unload two to 300 rounds into the thing. Way too much. It's probably like a puddle on the ground by the time I'm done.

Yeah. But this just feels like these guys are bad hunters. Visit BetMDM casino and check out the newest exclusive, the price is right fortune pick. BetMDM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGEMD operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Well, Rookie and Dakota's story is one of the most dramatic sheep squatch sightings on record, but there are others. In fact, another witness, Susan No, in a documentary about The Beast, reported seeing, quote, this big hairy thing standing in the road. I thought it was a deer, but it was too big, some kind of sheep thing with horns. You know, slightly less dramatic,

but I think she got lucky by the signs of Ricky and Dakota. I know we don't come down on conclusions, but I'm about to be Rory No. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Middle name double. In addition to the boys' hunting case of July 2004, there was actually a spate of earlier sightings in the 90s. Something about Sheep Squatch is quite 90s coded. Yeah. These began in 94 with multiple sightings,

then again in 95 and another in 99. And all of the 90s encounters took place in Boone County, West Virginia. West Virginia. Damn. Paranormal hotspot. The first of these involved an ex-US Navy man who spotted the sheep squatch breaking through the brush line. Well, this Navy man spotted a sheep squash breaking through the brush line and stopping to drink from a creek. That same year, two children spotted the creature while playing in their yard.

They described what looked like a white bear, a large white bear, and in this case it stood up on its hind legs, making it over six feet tall. It all sound a bit like a bear. I don't know if they have those in West Virginia, though. White bears, I don't think so. I think from an evolutionary standpoint, there'd be very little value in being a white bear. I don't know how snowy it gets up there, but I can't imagine it helps.

I was going to say, yeah, you know that polar bears exist, right? Yes, but for that very reason. If it's brown, lay down. Right. If it's white, fight. If it's yellow, let it mellow. No, that's piss. No, if it's black, fight back.

If it's white, time to fight. A thing is, if it's white, good night. We should just rewrite them so that they're all, fight the bear. If it's white, time to fight. If it's yellow, you're going down, fellow. If it's black, attack! Interestingly, noticing the children, the beast was startled and, quote, ran off through the forest, breaking medium-sized branches off of trees in its path.

Interesting that it was scared of. the children, I think the beast just decided that Ricky and Dakota deserve to die. Right, it just doesn't like them. Fuck these guys. What's the relevance of specifying medium branches on the way out? I don't know. It's like that is the size of branches I might expect it to break up. Not the large branches, they remained intact.

But the medium to small branches were broken on the way out. It's so bizarre. Ironically, that criticism was the straw that broke the camel's back of this story. That was like, what do we do it, dude? It broke the medium camel's back. Not the large one, though. Can I take it back? Can I take back the stuff about the branches?

So weird. Hey, it's a lot of witnesses. Yeah, I see what you're saying. It's a lot of witnesses. And one of them was a Navy man. The kids, that's tough. because we don't trust kids. But sure, a military service person

who should have their head screwed on pretty tight, that is something. One more. Siding, maybe this one will bring you home. Okay, the next dramatic story came a year later when a couple, two people, came across a suspected sheep squatch by a roadside ditch.

They stopped to get a better look, big mistake, claiming it had four eyes. What the hell? Which is, that is written, there are some artist's interpretations where it has a bunch of eyes. Unlike the easily startled creature of our last story, this roadside sheep squash, try saying that four times fast, quote, Roadside sheep squash.

Roadside sheep squash, Jesus Christ, leaped out of the ditch and started to attack the car. Frightened by the attack, the couple drove off quickly. And once they arrived back home, they noticed large scratches on the side of their car where the beast had attacked it. Disappointingly, no photos. Yeah, okay, you beat me... one. You knew you were like, I have to do this. Just a string on sentence. Hey, hey, I had no photos.

Conclusions? End the podcast. Go, go, go. Well, there aren't any conclusions. Why are there not photos of this? I don't know. Because the car, that's something that could be done afterwards. It's just disappointing, is all I'm going to say. It's a little disappointing. I understand that maybe in the moment they were like, we're so startled.

We're just going to write the car off and get a new one, pretend this never happened. but that is disappointing for the case. It was the 90s. Okay, I'm going to make up a bullshit answer. It was the 90s. No camera phones, no digital cameras. They were like, I don't have any film lying around

to take a photo on my film camera. Then get the photo developed at a laboratory, get it back seven days later. I mean, you should. Send it to a newspaper. Seems like a lot of effort. If you just had an encounter with a mythical piece. Now you go snap.

Yeah, well, it's easier now, but they did have disposable cameras. in the 90s, you could go to almost any store and get a camera immediately and get the photos developed at that same store. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. It is disappointing no one's hot. It's disappointing no one's has a single photo, especially I find it hard when we're talking

about like cryptids like this because technologies come so far, guys, especially in the world of hunting where we have things as complex as like trail cams. You know? Cameras mounted two trees to give like 360 degree coverage of large patches of forest. And we still to this day have never seen any video evidence of a lot of these big cryptids. You know what I'd like to know. That's actually, you've hit on a good point there. There is a lot of technology. And that reminds me that like if you watch, I don't know if anyone's into like a David Attenborough documentary. Yeah. Happy birthday. David turned 100 the other day. Crazy.

And, you know, if you watch those, I do recommend watching them. Very often at the end of it, they'll do a little bit of behind the scenes, a little bit of like the making of. And it is quite ridiculous the effort they have to go to to get some of the footage. You know, we're talking like, you know, okay, we got, you know, never before seen footage of a snow leopard giving birth or something in the Himalayas. and then they'll talk to the guy who got the footage and it'll be like, he'd be like, I was tracking this one cat for four years. Damn.

I mean, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it could be years of like working on trying to get it because maybe they only mate this time of year. Maybe they only are actually, you know, not a leopard, but maybe an animal's not hibernating a certain time of year. There might only be a window of the year you can get it. They go to enormous lengths, trail cams, all kinds of high-tech footage.

and on the one hand that kind of effort that goes into wildlife photography and documentation is not good news for cryptid research because it's like well they've never got footage of like the Yeti and the Himalayas have they but what I would like to know and I must research it are there any because actually we grew up with a guy Peter at school

who his sister is she works on those documentaries those BBC nature documentaries for David Attenborough are there wildlife photographers and filmmakers who are cryptozoologists? Are there? I mean, I can answer that for you right now if you want. Go on. No. Well, I don't know if that's true.

I bet when these guys who travel the entire world and then they're sitting around in a hotel in Nepal, I bet there's a guy who's like, I saw some shit. I saw some shit last summer. Yeah, I don't know. And they're like, I didn't get a photo of it. And then there'd be another guy who's like, I, whenever I was working there eight years ago, the locals all told me about some shit.

If you're on the ground, I bet they've at least had stories about some shit. Yeah, maybe. But I think also to follow that career path and to make these documentaries and pursue this career, you have to have a pretty comprehensive

knowledge and understanding of the animal kingdom and how it works and the realities of it and how that's separated from the fiction of it. So I think you could probably hear a lot of those stories and also be like, Cool. That's not real what you're telling me.

And I know because I'm very smart. But there are animals who have been like found that were thought to be extinct and have been found and photographed and things like that. Well, ones we haven't seen before, we are, every f*** a new weird fish.

It's usually a bug or a fish. That's what, that's not making the news, guys. How many weird fish we're finding, especially as robots are getting better. I was reading an article the other day that was like, the robots are getting so good that the last one we put down into the ocean found like a hundred different types of fish we've never seen before. Right. Crazy. Granted, that's not happening as much just in the Appalachian Mountains where it's like we didn't know that there was a seven foot sheep man

walking around. Yeah. We probably would have seen him already if he did exist. Yeah. Well, yeah, there's kind of a term that, yeah, I remember whenever Joe Rogan got really into hunting and he would constantly have hunters on, they would sometimes use this phrase. charismatic megafauna talking about I guess how humans are obsessed with big animals sure you know

which kind of sums up what we're saying it's like there's a lot of really amazing research and discovery to be done on like bugs and fish bugs are sick and little things bugs are awesome but people only really care about big animals and I think that is reflected in the world of cryptids we

that we never really talk about, like, a cryptid that's tiny or a cryptid that's a bug, or even a cryptid that's really a fish. It has to be either sea monster, land monster, wood monster. It's kind of, there's something about the way the human brain works, the archetypes of nature and how we interact with it, that we want to know about the big stuff, probably because we're wired to be afraid of what's bigger than us. Well, that's it. Fear plays a big role in this.

is like we need to hear about these dangerous creatures because we fear them and we want to know more about them and to capture them. Whereas if some of the cryptids we talk about are bugs, I don't know, what's there to talk about? You can stand on it if it comes near you, I guess. That's what I'm saying.

You know, and if you even think of like, you know, spiritual significance and spirit animals and things like that, it's always like an eagle and a leopard and a lion. It's the big stuff. What's your spirit animal? do you think? Dung beetle.

I don't know. I never really thought about it. Because I just eat shit 24-7 from my loved ones and it work. I'm not, nah,

man. And when I'm not eating I'm rolling it around for other people. Yeah, I got to be honest, I'm into a lot of woo-woo nonsense. I haven't,

it's never even crossed my mind to have a spirit animal. Really? So. Do you have a favorite animal? I feel like if you have a favorite animal, you can, you can kind of channel yourself through that.

I just have never really thought about it. You don't, what are you talking about? You don't have a favorite animal? Not really. There's animals I like, I guess. Phil. Phil, do you have a favorite animal? Phil, what's his spirit animal?

I do. Go on. An elephant. I did not know that about you. Yeah. Do we get, see? Big and they're wise. I like them a lot.

I love that answer, Phil. That's great stuff. That was great. Well, go on then. Spill the beans. What's your favorite animal? Turtle. My favorite animal.

animal is a turtle. And I also think it is... You have said that before me. Yeah. I also think it is my spirit animal. Okay. You know, kind of slow-paced, relaxed, chunky little guy. Have you met yourself? Chunky little guy. Slow-paced and relaxed. Loves the ocean, just kind of goes with the flow. This is, this is an aspirational animal for you, I think, rather than what you are right now. I'm like, just a chill little guy. I'm not sure you really are. Shut the fuck! I'll kill you! Sorry, sorry, just a, you know, chill guy. Although I will say I was surfing recently and a dolphin or a porpoise swam like under me or near me.

I think I might have mentioned it on the after party or something. And, you know, I never felt more connected to nature in that moment. I'm like, wow, I'm out here in the ocean. Wow. And it's like raining and there's like a dolphin underneath me. I couldn't think of what to do. So I stuck my head under the water and went like, I was like trying to communicate with the dolphin.

I was like, glubblah, like, blub. Yeah, blub blub. I was like, I was like, I wonder if I can like speak to him. I was on my Moana shit. I was like, I wonder if I can speak to. Talk to the ocean, yeah. And get him to like free willy jump over me, you know. You could almost say for a second, you thought you found your porpoise in life.

Very good. Thank you. A porpoise did wash up dead the next week. That's not a joke. It was kind of weird. Kid convinced it to kill itself. You were actually bullying it underwater. It was really horrible.

It saw me. It saw me trying to surf and it killed itself. It was like, wow, there's no hope for humanity. Look, I don't know why I'm even still trying to tell you about more sightings. But in 1999, for the sake of argument, campers did flee a campsite when they were charged by a white thing that led out a terrible scream and returning to their belongings the following day they found the campsite torn to shreds. Okay.

Look, Sheep Squatch mythology has had something of a rise in popularity following the launch of Fallout 76, in which Sheep Squatch appears as one of the game's legendary enemies with its fierce headbutt and jump attack. Sheep Squash is a formidable character. In the game, it also has a poisonous porcupine-esque spines that it's able to yank out and toss in a vicious quill attack. Fallout 76 is it's a cool game because they have a ton of cryptids in it I think they have like Mothman a bunch of other paranormal cryptids

I think Phil if you couldn't mind swiping back to one of the photos I think that was the last photo we looked at That's what it looks like inside the game Thank you got it Yeah I mean that is terrifying You know it's it is quite interesting About games

Games have a very increasingly important role in folklore. Yeah, because, you know, whether it's, like, I think historically this place was taken by movies. Movies, you know, have shaped the paranormal world so much in our conception of vampires, our conception of werewolves, our conception of cryptid, Sasquatch, whatever. Now, you know, a lot of that's been covered in movies and now I think games, you know, the art directors, the researchers, the storywriters, these are people who are using folklore as the basis and the paranormal world as the basis for their models and their storylines and

they need characters, they need enemies, they need. And so it's such a, the world as it is, it's already such a rich tapestry for them to pull from instead of just inventing new creatures. So it's kind of weird though, because it means that in a hundred years, people are going to be looking back at this, like this is an old drawing of sass, of sheep squash. Yeah. And it's like, no, like that was, that was very much a fictional version of it. Um, but, at the same time, that's how society has always worked. It's always been, you know, a embellishment. You know, it's always been about being creative with the existing story. Yeah. You know, these stories were once told around a campfire, then they were written in books, then movies, now video games.

I think it's cool. But it's, you know, video games arguably have just a, never before have people been chased by sheep squatch in virtual reality, you know, in the way that you probably can now. True. So it's a very tangible, powerful. We've got to finish here. All right. We're talking about video games now. Look, we could keep talking about different sightings of

the beast all day long. It doesn't really change the fact that while occasional people online or people in newspaper clippings will reveal their own experiences of sheep squatch, there have not been very many extremely modern sightings

and crucially pissing none of them have any hard physical evidence for us to fall back on. So that's fine. We're here on a bonus episode. We're not really coming down any hard conclusions anyway. But in the spirit of just trying to understand what it is, I guess this raises the question. What are we looking at? Is it folklore? Is it just rumors? Is it just some renewed interest coming out of a hit video game? Is that why we're talking about it today? Is that question being posed to me? Yeah, my guess. I mean, I don't really know. We're just, let's not overcomplicate things here.

We're dealing with a cryptid. We're dealing with a cryptid that has existed in some form in legend. And now a lot of people who live in the woods have claimed they've seen it, but have very little evidence to prove so. And I don't like jumping to conclusions or judging people by the book. But when I see a video of you in a leather trench coat holding a machete... A samurai sword. It gives off a bad vibe.

Either way, yeah. It just gives off a bad vibe. And unfortunately, that is really... I mean, they were our protagonist in today's case. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, there was probably a reason why the Appalachian episode was a no is they can't all be hits, guys. You know, if we've got a region where you've got moth man, you know, you've got, what were the other ones I said? Wampas cat or whatever. If you've got a place where you've got such heavy hitters as that, they can't all be MLB stars,

okay? True. You know, there's clearly there's an incredible, you know, I think we probably said it at the time. The power of the Appalachian area in the world of the paranormal clearly is connected to its rich, deep thousands of year old history of cryptids, lower spiritual beings that is carried through to the present day. And they're not all, I would say, totally tangibly provable that you could point a camera and take a photo of. Not that we're coming down on a conclusion because we're not doing that. We don't have to do that. We're just doing this full for the fun of it, the thrill of it, and the sweat of it, because we were getting very hot over here in our East London studio.

We're in heat. We are in heat. We're not in heat. Roy was in heat. Earlier was telling me how much he fucking loves me or whatever. He's hump on the desk over there, crazy ass. Guys, thank you so much for joining us on this bonus episode. It is our privilege to bring this to you every single month.

A kind of deep dive into something different, something that we wouldn't have covered on the main episode. And it was a joy to go back. to the Appalachians. We still need to go there in person. Haven't been? Well, minute, wait, didn't we figure out I have been? Yeah, you have been. Because part of it's Georgia. Yeah, yeah, of course. Or like parts of Georgia go into the Appalachians, yeah. Yeah. Okay, well, we haven't been, though, and we should. We need to get out of this studio, man. You know what's crazy? Like, see, the older I get, like, your dream holiday changes so much. Sorry, I almost sneezed. I promise I was listening.

Your dream holiday changes so much. And now, like, the idea of just, like, hiking and the Appalachians and shit. Just like drinking moonshine. That's my dream. Right. Like I've never been a like sit by the pool kind of person. I want to be riding in a empty box car going through the mountains of Colorado. With just with just a bottle of mountain dew and a pack of Marlborough red.

I don't know where the mountain dew came back. Because I'm going to get really thirsty up there. Got it. Yeah. There was a my like local cafe They were I was talking to the guys at work there And I know it the other day They had someone swing by recently

This like really old 70s Volvo With Australian license plate And they were like that's weird And they got talking to the guys Who were driving it And they were like All right mate They were like we're driving across the entire world

And now we're here in Ireland And they were like What? And they were like They were like So we've driven this Volvo all across Australia, all across New Zealand. We drove the entire length of Africa. Then we drove, then they get the boat, obviously.

And then they drove from the tip of Patagonia and South America to Alaska or whatever. Wow. And then they then got a boat over. I don't know if they did Greenland, but then they are now doing Europe. If you're on the after-party tier, we have more after-parties coming up soon. We're planning our live show. It's all to play for, guys. There's a lot going on over here at TPL HQ.

It's not just TPS studios that are heating up. It's also our calendar. Yeah. Things that are happening. That was so sick. It was really good. We're going to shoot a documentary and shit. It's all fire.

It's all happening. It's all fire. We're working on merch. Jesus Christ, guys. Oh, my gosh. It's all happened. All right. Okay.

We're sick, though, because Roy just made me sick. I am ill. I don't know. We'll see what happens. I love you. I love you. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Ciao. My rec league goalie says he plays for the love of the game. You gave up six goals last week, Steve? Maybe play to win, huh? Like with Bet365.

I get paid the second my team goes up big with early payout and can cash out at any time before the game ends. Come on, Steve. Bet365, the home of winning early. Must be 19 and older. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you were someone you know is concerns about gambling,

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