#how do I tag for “discussion of person being mauled and eaten by dogs”???

[prince-liest]

Thoughts on the headcanon that Alastor is afraid of dogs?

As far as the info I've gathered goes, a popular hd is that Alastor died in the woods after either being shot by a hunter with dogs that though he was a deer, or, the most violent version, that the hunter had his dogs go after the "deer" and they chased after him and murder him, eating the meat of his bones even, on some occasions (although I don't see the practicality of that. Why train your hunting dogs to eat all the pray you're supposed to be hunting for yourself?)

In any case, bc he died due to a hunter thinking he was a deer, Alastor became a deer demon in hell, and because were present/a big factor/the cause of his death has developed a deep rooted phobia of dogs

Oh, I fucking love that headcanon! I just wrote it in as part of how Alastor died in my most recent chapter of Once Bitten, Back For More, and it's actually also going to come up in the last installment of 666 as well, haha. I just think that Alastor deserves some dog-related PTSD, as a treat. (For me.)

Most hunting dogs really aren't used for "chase down and maul" type purposes (my maternal grandfather's hunting dog was a cocker spaniel named Astra and she just retrieved the birds he shot, for example) but I get the impression that someone who shot a man dead-center in the forehead in the middle of the woods under the guise of "hunting" probably maybe had some non-standard reasons for shooting at someone in the woods. I don't think he encountered another serial killer or anything, but for canon purposes, I imagine that it's not out of the realm of imagination that a white Southern hunting man from the 1920s that happens to have some dogs with him might get some (fucking horrible) ideas if he found Alastor alone in the woods, with a low bar for justifying suspicion. Especially if he initially mistook Alastor for a deer and already shot at him, and now needs a reason to validate himself.

It's a horrible and hateful way to die for sure. I really don't think that Alastor went peacefully, all-considered.