This creature is: fictional, probably from folklore. All the water dogs discussed in this article are mythical.
A Miri Dog is a creature that haunts the folklore of Ireland. Said to dwell in lakes and rivers, these hounds swim as expertly as dolphins. They are rarely glimpsed by people. When they are seen, they appear horse-sized at a distance, but as approached they appear to shrink, until they are around the size of a Labrador. They have hands on their tails.
If a swimmer is struggling, Miri Dogs will come to them. If they are a good person, the water hounds will grab them with their hand-tails and pull them safely ashore. If they are bad, however, the dogs will push them under until they drown.
“Muir” means “sea” in Irish, so perhaps “Miri” stems from that, despite the Miri Dogs being associated with fresh water. Hand-tailed water-dwelling dogs could well be a garbled description of seals, which appear dog-like, and their hind flippers look rather like hands.
All this was related to me by my farther, who knows his folklore. I thought these dogs sounded very cool, so I drew one. I decided to research more about them and came across… nothing. Well, nothing called a Miri Dog at least.
I did find Ahuizotl though. Ahuizotl (who some may know as Daring Do’s nemesis in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) is a mythical creature from Aztec mythology. Its name means “spiny aquatic thing” or “water dog”, it dwells in and guards lakes, and has a dexterous hand on the end of its long tail. It was known for sometimes eating people, crying out like a human baby to lure its meal close.
Then there is the Nguruvilu (“fox snake”) from Mapuche religion in Chile, said to live in rivers, it looks like a fox but with a snake-like body, and a long tail armed with fingernails that is uses as a claw. They can cause the rivers they live in to become dangerous, but will leave if threatened by a machi (shaman) or good kalku (“sorcerer”).
I found out about the Enfield (also known as the Onchú) as well, which is a “water-dog” from Ireland. It is a heraldic beast with the head of a fox, eagle's talons, the chest of a greyhound, the body of a lion, and the hindquarters of a wolf. It is occasionally depicted as winged. Being a hybrid creature, the Enfield possesses the cunning of the fox, honour of the eagle and the fierceness of the wolf. They live in the sea and also in loughs (lakes). Some eat people. Apparently in 1014, one came out of sea and protected the body of Tadhg Mór Ua Ceallaigh, who had fallen in battle against the Danes at Clontarf, until it was recovered for proper burial. The descendants of Tadhg Mór Ua Ceallaigh are the O’Kellys of Uí Mháine (Hy-Many), and they use the Enfield on their coat of arms because of this.
Also said to be lurking in Irish lakes and rivers is the fierce, human-eating Dobhar-chú, a water dog also called ‘King Otter’. It is hound-like and otter-like, covered in white fur with black-tipped ears and a black cross on its back.
So we have water dogs with hands on their tails, water dogs in Ireland, but not hand-tailed Irish water dogs. And nothing called a “Miri Dog”.
So the Miri Dog itself… isn’t a thing?
Maybe. But it lurks in my imagination. Now it lurks in yours too.
External links:
Although the Miri Dog may not exist in real folklore, these are actual mythical creatures you can read about!
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