Angus Garden

Sadness permeates the SIT headquarters this afternoon. Evidence has revealed to us that our mystery photo, one we’d hoped would stand as proof of Gray Beard’s legend, has yielded only disgust.

Following several renderings of our computer photographic enhancement software we have uncovered that Pierre’s photograph was merely an old man with a squirrel attached to the side of his head.

Needless to say, we were quite disappointed with the results. Ever since Pierre sent us the original photo, the staff was excited about the possibility that we might have found our mystery beast. Unfortunately it was merely bad photography and a back bacon gorge fest induced hallucination.

Interesting developments filtering in from Pierre’s adventure into the stomping grounds of our friend Gray Beard (see below for more info).

Pierre packed his nap sack and back bacon on Monday and headed out to Bleeding Mange Creek that afternoon. He was scheduled to send us daily reports regarding the elusive mystery beast but we had not heard a word from him for several days.

That is, until this morning. At approximately 4:15 AM this morning, Pierre managed to contact HQ via his cell phone. What followed was drama at its best. Clearly shaken, Pierre’s words were frantic and muffled. The cell phone reception was poor and Pierre’s high-pitched shrieks were unintelligible. While not yet having a firm grasp on the French language, I’m almost certain Pierre was cursing like a lazy-eyed, drunken shipyard foreman.

After several minutes spent trying to calm Pierre down, we lost all audio. More time passed until Pierre managed to transmit this image (via his cell phone) of a mysterious, shadowy specter.

One can only speculate what this image might be showing us. Our team is working feverishly here at HQ to analyze what we might be seeing here. You can make out a face but it’s still a profound mystery. Hopefully our image enhancing software will reveal more. It’s a long tedious process but we should have a clearer view soon.

Could this is the legendary Gray Beard?

Shortly before slipping off into a Tryptophan induced coma during the Thanksgiving holidays, the family unit gathered around the fireplace to listen to Aunt Betty-Sue wax poetic with tall tales from the early days of Sawduck. As I stared at the pecan pie stain on my overalls, my ear caught wind of one particular little nugget escaping from Aunt BS’s yellowed dentures – The Legend of Gray Beard.

Short of details, Aunt BS’s story revealed very little in useful information regarding Gray Beard. Of course everyone in Sawduck has heard the stories. Crazy half-truths of a half-man, half-something roaming the woodlands of Sawduck’s pristine wilderness. Legend has it that this beast has been known to ravage poultry from some of the local chicken farms. The foul smell that follows it is also legendary and is known to chase rabid skunks to distant lands.

Since December is usually a slow month in unexplained phenomena for Sawduck, we’ve decided to look more closely at the legend of Gray Beard. Here at HQ, the planning stages are under way to dispatch Pierre into the region most commonly viewed as Gray Beard’s home territory – Bleeding Mange Creek. Most of our intelligence points to this area as having the highest probability of a successful Gray Beard sighting.

Further updates to come…

Pierre was sent down to the end of Breakneck Rd. this past weekend to see if the rumors were true; strange sightings of unidentified flying aircraft seen hovering over Lake Dawkins, just past the Tinkert farmhouse.

We furnished Pierre with a pup tent, a Coleman lantern, and some back bacon and transported him out to the sight of the alleged occurance.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), Pierre’s quest came up empty. He saw nothing noteworthy but did manage to wrestle a wild boar into submission. Apparently two bags of back bacon wasn’t enough to last the weekend.

After hitch-hiking his way back to our office in Sawduck, he arrived late Monday night looking a little disheveled, disoriented and disappointed, but not any better looking than when we dropped him off.