"The Tall Dog"

Illustration by Charlie Cody

### Season Pass Only

No (unavailable to free listeners during original airing, later included as part of Holiday Hiatus #1)

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"The Pocket Watch"

**"The Tall Dog"** is the fifth tale in the first episode of the seventh season of The Nosleep Podcast. Written by Elias Witherow, it has a running time of 48:50 and was originally read by David Ault and Erika Sanderson. It is the 768st tale overall on the podcast.

## Summary

A man struggles to be a good father to his daughter, Heather, after his wife's untimely death. He wakes up one night to her crying in her room. He enters and Heather tearfully tells him that a creature called 'The Tall Dog' was in her room and was whispering in her ear. The father is disturbed and lets Heather sleep in his room for the rest of the night.

As they are leaving the house the next day, the father thinks he hears something moving around upstairs but dismisses it. He is bothered all day by his daughter's words but writes the whole experience off as a nightmare. That night, the same thing happens, with Heather waking up in the middle of the night and claiming 'The Tall Dog' entered her room and whispered in her ear. He checks the hallway, but sees nothing but the dark stairwell leading down. The father lets her sleep in his bed again, but gets up early to search for the creature on the internet. He finds a webpage that warns the creature feeds on sadness and depression.

The next day, the father is called to come pick Heather up from school. She has been sent home for the day after she was caught biting her fellow students. The father takes her home and gives her a stern warning, but is more sympathetic than angry. He sees something in her pockets and demands she show it to him. When she does, he is disturbed to find dog food, which she had been eating.

That night, the father is lying in bed, tossing and turning, when he hears something moving at the bottom of the hallway stairs. He gets up out of bed and is shocked to see an eight-foot-tall, hairless, anthropomorphic dog with glowing white eyes half-climbing/half-walking up the stairs. He runs back into his room and slams the door, but is horrified to realize he left Heather at the mercy of the creature. He grabs a lamp and runs into Heather's room to find it crouched over her bed, whispering into her ear. He yells to get the dog's attention and begins beating it with the lamp, but the creature pins him to the ground and howls into his ear. It then opens its mouth and Heather's voice comes out, begging for her father's help before the creature gets off him and runs down the stairwell and into the dark.

The father runs to his daughter's side but is horrified to find that she acts like a dog, barking, panting, and chasing an invisible tail. He takes her to a psychiatric hospital, but the doctors tell him her mind is completely gone and there is no hope for her recovery. The father blames the Tall Dog for coming into their house and feasting on Heather's depression over her mother's death and leaving itself behind. The story ends with the tearful father standing over her bed with a pillow, waiting to put her out of her misery.

## Cast

David Aultas the father

Erika Sandersonas Heather