The search for Dr. Raptor
Thank you for tuning in for Episode Three of Cryptid Corner. I am coming to you very late and reluctantly bringing you this sad (but perhaps not unexpected) news: Dr. Veronica L. Raptor is missing.
I last spoke to Dr. Raptor when she called to postpone our November interview.
We were scheduled to chat about her work helping the Vietnamese government negotiate with a troupe of batututs (commonly called “rock apes”) whose territory is needed for construction of a new power plant. The batututs’ language is apparently quite similar to that spoken by the yetis she helped resettle in eastern Tibet. Dr. Raptor was very excited about this, and I kept having to steer her back to the reason for her call, reminding her to save it for our interview or else to let me start recording.
I wish I’d started recording.
As it is, I have only my spotty memory of the plans she outlined next for me. Was she heading to Bhutan? Maybe she said Bangladesh. No, I think it was somewhere in the Himalayas. Or maybe the Urals?
What I’m completely sure of is that she planned to travel from Asia to northern California, where she would meet up with the infamous band of “Bigfeet” first encountered by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin. I don’t know if she ever made it there, because I don’t have any of the Bigfeet’s cell phone numbers or other contact info.
Which is what I told the Department of State agents who showed up earlier this month inquiring about the whereabouts of Dr. Raptor. They asked me a lot of questions about our friend Veronica, questions like “Which alias is she using?” and “What’s her relationship to the Cat People who live under Lancaster, California?” and “Did she leave any eggs, spores, or unusual rocks in your possession?”
Veronica, if you’re out there, please get in touch. (With me, not the State Department—the new guys working there are sketchy AF). I’m—all of us are—worried about you.
To all you Cryptid Corner fans: Please keep Dr. Raptor in your thoughts. We can only hope that she is safe and among friends.