Phantom Felines And Other Ghostly Animals - Gerina Dunwich 2006

The Devil Cat of Fort Covington
Phantom Felines

by Gerina Dunwich

Fort Covington, located in northern New York State, is a rural community made up of many turn-of-the-century homes, farms, and woodlands. It borders the Akwasasne Indian Reservation, and parts of the town are said to have been built over old Indian burial ground. Like many small communities throughout America, Fort Covington (or simply “The Fort” as the locals call it) has its share of local legends—the infamous Devil Cat being one of them.

I first heard about the Devil Cat shortly after moving to Fort Covington in December of 1993. One neighbor described the creature as a “hellish” cat with eerie glowing eyes and fur as black as pitch. It reportedly possessed a mean disposition and, being supernatural, could not be destroyed by any means. Several people claimed to have shot it dead, only to observe it come back to life and take off running.

Being the cat lover that I am, I found the legend of the Devil Cat to be a rather intriguing one, although the idea of anyone shooting at a cat (even one that was supposedly immune to bullets) did not set well with me. But also being a skeptic by nature, I took it all with a grain of salt. That is until one snowy spring day when I encountered a strange black cat prowling near the barn where one of our cats was nursing her kittens.

It was much larger than any cat I had ever seen before and its fur was matted and riddled with a number of bald patches. Its face was disfigured and utterly grotesque. From the looks of it, the animal appeared to have been in one hell of a catfight. I didn’t know if it would try to harm my cat or her kittens, so I attempted to chase it away by rushing toward it while clapping my hands and shouting, “Scat!”

Any normal cat would have taken off like a shot, but this was no ordinary cat. It brazenly turned to face me, arched its back, and began growling like a dog. I stopped dead in my tracks, stunned by the animal’s unusual reaction and even feeling a bit apprehensive. After about five seconds, the cat took off and disappeared into the woods behind the barn. Oddly, it left behind no paw prints in the soft, freshly fallen snow, and that’s when I realized that I had come face to face with the Devil Cat of Fort Covington.