I lived in several parts of Massachusetts for a good part of my life- The Mid Cape (Barnstable), Upper Cape (Falmouth/Bourne) and Plymouth County (Kingston) sad to say the woods I used to play in all the time as a kid in Kingston is less now and has a highway running threw it but that was where I first saw them.

I was a lonely kid but I loved the woods my folks didn’t worry about me, my Dad had taught all of us from a young age how to be safe in the woods and I always had the dog with me anyway.

So it was mid fall, early October and I was out exploring along the usual path I took with the dog but my older brother had mentioned there was a pond that had a pair of swans not too far off the path.

Mistake.

I thought I heard something like a kid much smaller than me running really quickly up the treeline to my left- the dog heard it to and turned with me. Nothing there. Then suddenly the same sound was on my left like the had crossed the old deer path when I turned and was now going across the other way.

Since the dog didn’t bark I didn’t worry figuring it might have been a fox going after something or maybe some squirrels. We kept going but suddenly the hair on the back of my neck just stood up and Grimm went on point, he started to growl which he never did, especially NOT in the woods he was a hunting dog!

This…leathery, raspy kind of sound like a taunting laugh came up ahead and it seemed to echo up in the trees I swore I caught a glimpse of it just on the top of the hill. Grim barked and I turned tail. We both ran the heck out of there and DID NOT go back down that path again.

When I got home quite out of breath and with a massive stitch on my side because lets face it- I ran like hell was after me my Nan caught me at the back door. When I told her what I saw and heard she didn’t say it wasn’t real. She had only come from Ireland two years before my Dad was born and was very attached to ‘The Old Ways’. She told me to stay out of those woods unless I was on the marked path and to carry a hazel switch with me- and to NEVER go in there without Grim.

My Nan must have thought they were Brownies. It wasn’t until college when I was reading a book for my Illustration of Mythology class that I saw some sketches of the Puckwudgies. I nearly jumped out of my chair.