The Legend of the Growling Crawfish

A Legend is Born

It was a tranquil night, the kind where the bayou's sounds fill the air—crickets chirping, frogs croaking, and the occasional rustle of something just out of sight. My husband had gone out back to check on something, leaving me inside with only the dim glow of the porch light filtering through the window.

Five minutes went by. Suddenly, the back door flew open. My husband, a sturdy 6-foot, 230-pound man who rarely gets startled, burst in, wide-eyed and breathless.

"Give me the good flashlight," he gasped. "And the gun."

I blinked. "The gun?"

"Something growled at me."

My first instinct was to laugh, but his expression was completely serious. So, with a mix of curiosity and skepticism, I grabbed the heavy-duty flashlight and followed him outside. The night was still, darkness stretching beyond the beam of light as I swept it across the ground, searching for tracks.

“It was probably a doe,” I suggested, trying to reassure him. “Sometimes they huff when startled. You just—”

“It growled,” he insisted, his voice firm.

I continued scanning the ground, waiting to find evidence of some terrifying creature lurking in the shadows. And then, there it was—the thing that had sent my husband running.

A crawfish.

A single, defiant crawfish, standing its ground, claws raised high like a tiny, enraged gladiator.

For a moment, there was silence. Then I turned to my husband, struggling to keep a straight face.

"Well," I said, "I guess we’ve discovered a new breed—Louisiana’s most fearsome predator, the growling crawfish. Known only to exist in this very backyard, it strikes fear into the hearts of grown men and sends them fleeing in terror."

He muttered something under his breath, but I was too busy wiping away tears of laughter. Somewhere in the darkness, the crawfish clicked its claws as if issuing a final warning before scuttling off into the grass, victorious.

And so, legend has it that in our backyard, deep in the heart of Louisiana, lurks a creature so fierce, so terrifying, that even the bravest men will run screaming. The infamous growling crawfish—protector of the night.