Have you ever heard of the saying that goes “A dog is a man’s best friend”? Well that may not always be the case anymore. My name is John Tiller, and I had a dog named Joseph that I loved and cared for. Over his puppy years he really negatively changed and I was starting to get very worried. When I would go to bed he would sit in the chair and watch me and not in a protective way but rather in a kind of scary and demonic way. I would try and give him treats and instead of taking the treats, he would bite me and would try to rip my hand off.  Finally I had enough and got him to a trainer, but that didn’t work either.

The trainer came to me after one of the sessions in complete panic and said, “Get rid of that thing, that is no dog. I don’t know what that thing is John, but I don’t want any part in it. Keep the money.”

Then he ran to his car and I had never heard from him again.

I made the mistake of brushing off all these signs. I cared for that dog even when he was mean. I took him on walks and treated him as a normal dog. Over the next couple years I had grown immune to his bad habits, but after a while he stopped the bad habits. It seemed like it was just a young dog thing, but then one night everything changed.

There was an EF4 tornado heading for our town. It was going to be one of the most violent tornadoes ever recorded. My brother Dan and his three little girls needed somewhere to stay because their house was not going to withstand this storm. They also had a dog named Rosie, she was a lot younger than Joseph. When they first got to my house they grabbed all their belongings and rushed into the house.  They put Rosie in the basement with Joseph because we wanted to watch the news channel for a minute. Not even five minutes into watching the news we hear the barking of Rosie. It continued for several minutes, until it went completely silent.

We ended up going downstairs because the TV had gone dark. I got to the bottom step and what I saw will probably never leave my mind. Joseph killed Rosie, but the scariest part was he was sitting and had his head positioned in the same scary and demonic way that he did when he was younger. My youngest niece started to cry and then the other two did as well. My brother was in shock but was also filled with sadness. Rosie was Dan’s best friend and they did everything together, Dan turned his sadness into anger and started to yell at Joseph. 

“You dumb dog, I cannot believe you! You just took my greatest friend away, you demonic animal!”

“John, how can you just sit there and not do anything?” Dan asked.

I was scared to speak, I didn’t know what to say. I simply started crying, not out of fear of Dan but out of fear for my own dog. Although he was strange when he was younger and had an aggressive side, I thought he had grown up a little bit. That seemed to not be true at all. Joseph got worse and I was never able to even see it.

At this point my only thought was, “This dog is evil, and I have to get rid of it before it causes any more harm.” 

I looked at Dan and said, “We have to put Joseph away before he hurts anyone else!”

“What do you mean ‘Put him away’.” Dan replied

“He killed Rosie ruthlessly and he is gonna be stuck in this house with us until the tornado passes,” I said, not answering his question. 

“Why don’t we just put Joseph in the bathroom and lock the door?” asked Dan.

I agreed to the idea  and grabbed Joseph by the collar and led him to the bathroom. He was scratching and clawing at me. He hadn’t done that since he was younger. I closed the door and locked it and it was complete silence. The girls were sitting with their heads down in their arms, Dan was trying to comfort them. 

“Dan, I’m so deeply sorry, I never knew he would do that,” I sadly said to Dan

“It’s not your fault brother, it’s Joseph. He needs to be controlled,” Dan replied

“ I completely agree, I tried a trainer but it just didn’t work, Joseph scared him off and he never returned,” I said 

“Maybe we should let him be free, I know it’s a bad thing but that thing is a killer John, and it’s best to let nature take its course,” Dan spurted out

“I hate the idea, but it’s probably for the best. Let’s get him out of the bathroom and take him upstairs to the front door to be set free,” I replied with disappointment.

Dan and I crept up to the door and unlocked it. When we opened it there Joseph sat looking just as he did when he was younger. He sat with his head tilted a little and a demonic smile across his face. Dan ran and got scared and Joseph chased after him and tackled him. He started biting him and ended up ending Dan’s life. Joseph then chased the girls around and ended up hurting them severely. Then it was just me and Joseph, I ran up the stairs and grabbed a bat. Along came Joseph chasing after me. I tried to get as close to the front door as possible to trick him. I got to the door and there he came at a full sprint, I opened the door at the last minute and he went right out into front yard. I sat there in complete disbelief on what just happened.

My brother was dead and so was his dog, his daughters had serious cuts on them, and I tried to aid them but it was too late. I was alone in my house and I was terrified. Joseph was gone and so was my family. I had nothing left.