Grandpaw And The Creature in The Bushes

First of all, I would like to give you all a brief description of my GrandPaw, he was the type of man who was afraid of nothing, man or animal. He was an outdoors man and hunted quite often. He usually carried a knife with him at the very least. This event has been told and retold in our family many, many times. This happened back in the 20's or 30's to the best of my knowledge.

My GrandPaw was walking to town along this "road", basically 2 ruts. There was dense brush, shrubs and trees along both sides of this road. On this occasion, he didn't have his rifle or knife with him. As he was walking, he became aware that something was following him just beyond sight in the tall grass and bushes. This thing would emit a growl or shriek unlike anything my GrandPaw had ever heard. It raised the hair on his arms and neck. He started walking faster, the creature kept pace. GrandPaw was terrified. He had no weapons and bent down to pick up a handful of rocks. He would throw one at this creature when it got close to the edge of the road, the creature shrieking and growling when he threw the rock. It was starting to get dark and GrandPaw had one rock left in his hand, by chance he saw a truck coming down the road. He stepped in the middle of the road and flagged the person down. He explained to the man in the Model T truck what he had seen and heard and would he please give him a ride into town. At first the man refused, thinking my GrandPaw just wanted a ride, GrandPaw told the man to watch and listen, he then threw his last rock at where he had last seen the bushes move and the creature again shrieked and growled. The man yelled for my GrandPaw to hold on and he gunned it, GrandPaw had just enough time to hook his arm through the window and jump onto the running board of the truck.

In town, my GrandPaw told a good friend what had happened and the next day a group of them went out to where this had happened. The friend had a group of hunting dogs that were well known in the area for fearing nothing. They had tracked everything from "coons" to panthers. The man turned his dogs loose as soon as they caught the scent, off they went, baying at this thing. Very soon all the men heard a terrible racket in the woods, the dogs whimpering and yelping. The man tried calling them back but they wouldn't come as usual. They went in to retrieve them and found them cowering and bloody on the ground. The dogs were "ruined" after that, they were broken and they never would go into the woods again and no one to this day know what it was in those woods.

It wasn't a black panther or a bear, those dogs had tracked those animals many times in the past, if someone could give us an idea of what it might have been we all would appreciate it very much.