Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 9, 1995 TAG: 9505100009
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JUDY WHITENACK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
While fishing with my son at the Whitethorne Bridge in Blacksburg, I met two nice gentlemen who were also fishing. We began to swap fishing stories, and one of them started telling me about the "water dog."
A "water dog," he said, is a cross between an alligator and a lizard that barks. He said he had seen such a thing, twice: once at the Claytor Lake Dam and once at New River Junction.
Well, I'm not completely stupid, but I have been known to be extremely gullible; therefore, I started teasing him that he was trying to pull my leg. A barking fish. Right! He swore on his life, his wife's life and others' lives. Since I didn't see anyone close by drop dead, I started to believe him. There have been stranger sightings, I'm sure.
This was a Thursday evening. On Friday, I asked a lady where I work, who professes to be a fisherwoman at times, whether she had heard of a "water dog." She had, indeed.
It seems her daughter had broken her ankle in an accident. They were both at the Virginia Tech duck pond, her daughter trying to get in a halfway comfortable position, when someone came up and told her she needed a "water dog" to rest her cast on.
My friend assumed this was some sort of gadget. I then described what a real "water dog" was, a cross between an alligator and lizard that barks. She agreed, halfheartedly I might add, that a "water dog" must exist for someone to tell her about this.
Friday evening, my water pump decided to call it quits. As the plumber was looking for my well to fix the pump, I asked whether he had ever heard of a "water dog." Yes, he had, and to my delight he described it as "the ugliest thing I have ever seen." It had been 10 years ago, down at the Whitethorne Boat Landing. This particular one didn't bark, but it did crawl out of the water, and it indeed was a cross between an alligator and a lizard. Now I really started to believe.
Saturday, a friend whom I will not mention by name to save possible embarrassment, a professor in fisheries and wildlife at a local university (again, I won't mention names), stopped by my house on his way to go canoeing. I asked whether he had ever heard of a "water dog."
Yes.
Now I was getting somewhere. He described it as a large salamander. Well, that is probably downplaying it a bit, but I'll take what I can get.
Now, my curiosity is getting the best of me. If anyone else has seen a "water dog," I'd love to hear it. My husband, as well as several of my friends, think I have completely lost it. "No such thing," they say. I say seeing is believing, and I'm heading out in search of the elusive "water dog" that barks. Company, anyone?
Judy Whitenack is a Miami, Fla., native who has lived in Blacksburg for 22 years.
by CNB