Most folks in western North Carolina know the creature as the whang-doodle, but some call it the king-doddle. The creature is said to come out after dark, typically hanging around barns and henhouses. The last one spotted was in McDowell County, almost fifty years ago, but the old stories still get passed down.
“Way it goes is, when young’uns wake up in the middle of the night and hear the chickens carrying on, the cow bawling something fierce, the hogs squealing, and the dog barking fit to wake the dead, well, there’s a right good chance there’s a whang-doodle prowling about outside.”
Farm children used to be scared to death of the mythical creature, especially when their parents sent them out after dark to finish up chores. What does a whang-doodle look like? No one knows, but one might say, “It had big floppy ears with grey fur and eyes green as an old glass bottle.”
But the howls or screams from the beast sound like a panther is about to pounce.
Written By John G. Clark Jr.
