I'm Lauren Orton, and this is one strange thing, the show where we search the nation's

news archives for stories that can't quite be explained. There is an area in South Central Connecticut called The Hanging Hills.

As names go, hills is a bit of an understatement.

We're talking mountainous ridges formed of volcanic rock that hardened

layer by layer into trap. At an elevation of about 1,000 feet over the town of Meriden,

Connecticut, the hanging hills form picturesque and extremely atmospheric vistas and ledges, pretty much guaranteeing the perfect

setting for any teen paranormal movie you'd ever want to film should you be looking for such a place.

On the eastern peak of the hanging hills sits an odd site, an actual tower, something you'd imagine when someone

said medieval. We're talking a properly ancient-looking building, aka not something you'd expect to

see hanging around on a cliff in the northeastern United States, where the closest thing to a castle serves oddly small

hamburg. This tower, called the castle Craig, is built of the same rock as the hills that

support it. Per Meriden's official website, the tower was constructed by a wealthy businessman,

Walter Hubbard, the park that surrounds it also bears his name,

in 1900. Pared with the hanging hills, the tower creates quite a striking visual. It conjures

the sense of a long-abandoned ancient fortress of crumbling rock, jutting up out of a forest

that is lush in the summer,

skeletal in the winter. It's the perfect setting for a ghost story, maybe a murdered lord

or a betrayed maiden. Or neither. Actually, we're here to talk about dogs, or a kind of dog, a dog motif, and strangers,

a dog that predates even the atmospheric tower.

How's that for an early twist?

Now, don't get ahead of yourselves with your imaginations, although we do love a good strong

mental image and start picturing chihuahuas or golden doodles or a pug who befriends ducklings

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