1908 (ca.): Put Me in your Pocket!

Around 1908 at Belle Hole, a farm about a mile west of the town of Kirton in Lincolnshire, England, on a day when the monthly nurse was making her visit from town, the children of the house were talking about the local Black Dog as they were getting put to bed. They asked the nurse if she wasn't afraid of meeting the creature on the way home in the dark and what she'd do if she did, to which the nurse replied "I shall put 'im in my pocket!" They were brave, if silly, words, and all the children were sent to bed, the nurse walked home towards Kirton. During the walk, the strangest thing was said to have happened... not only did the Black Dog appear, but it ran around the nurse saying "Put me in yer pocket, put me in yer pocket!"

My Source

        This account was taken from a collection of Lincolnshire Black Dog accounts gathered by Folklorist Ethel Rudkin in 1938. The purpose of her study was to record the beliefs in the county regarding the phantom-like Black Dogs. While an argument could be put forward that the people Rudkin talked to simply encountered a real dog that was black, the point to the collection was that none of these people believed that to be the case... every single person she included in her collection was sure they had encountered the supernatural creature labeled a 'Black Dog.' As to the question of the intelligence or veracity of the people interviewed, Rudkin herself stated:

"I would like to emphasise this point: I have never yet had a Black Dog story from anyone who was weak either in body or mind."

        As with all accounts from Rudkin, it is entirely up to you to decide if it is true or not; but, in either case, it still evidences the beliefs regarding the Black Dog spirits in the area.

        Having said that, it needs to be noted that the storyteller in this case, identified only as Mrs. S. Moore, from Kirton, thought the idea of a Black Dog talking was too fantastic, and therefore offered the possible explanation that the dog's apparent "put me in yer pocket, put me in yer pocket," was actually the sounds from the railway to the south of Kirton being carried on the wind, and interpreted by a frightened witness (herself).