Glawackus is strange mix of panther, dog, and bear that was first seen near Glastonbury, Connecticut in 1939. The strange creature was heard screaming in the night and was blamed for missing livestock. A two mile long trail of footprints was found east of Glastonbury.

Through 1939 numerous hunts were organized to catch the beast. Local spelunking clubs explored many nearby caves, trying to find its den. A pair of special panther hunting hounds were brought in to try and find it.

But Glackus was nowhere to be found. It vanished until is reappeared in the 1950s to kill some more livestock. It wandered further afield and was seen all the way up in Granby where it vanished all over again.

Or are the sightings of strange big cats actually Glawackus?

For Glawackus’ design I went with a heavy bodied feline for most of body and the more canine looking head.  I bulked up the shoulders and forelimbs to give it that little bit of bear like body shape and so it would have extra power for muscling up trees, even if it was carrying food. I gave it fully extended claws like a  canid or bear.  I used some photos of binturongs for that sort of boneless flop on a tree limb sleeping position.

Since folks were looking and not finding in caves, failure to look UP seemed like most likely reason it wasn’t seen.  One of the likely suspects for actual animal was also the fisher cat which is a powerful climber. One of the other possible native animals that could be easily mistaken for a “cat dog” hybrid is the grey fox, which is also a good climber and thus rarely seen. When they shed off their winter coat, they can look like a dog in front, cat in back.

The coloring is a mix of cougar, grey fox, and fisher.  The cougar and grey fox both have light bellies, but the fisher is a more uniform color overall.  So I went for the paler grey and tan of cougar and grey fox but with the more uniform brown of fisher all over, so flash of lighter belly fur wouldn’t give it away to creatures below.  That particular shade of faded tan and grey almost perfectly matches weathered leaves, so it would easily blend with leaf snags in winter. Is that a tangle of leaves caught on that limb or glawackus taking a nap?  from 50 feet below, could be either… or both.