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Catchers
In Buck Lake, Colorado, the resident dog catcher, Collins, is on the verge of retirement. But something strange lurks in the woods, about to ruin his plans....
After 30 years, Collins is ready to be done with small-town animal control. His replacement, Blair, is a Gen Z vet student who hates mansplaining; they don’t get along. But on the eve of his retirement, Collins gets a call that changes everything.
There’s been a report of a vicious wild dog on the loose. Collins and Blair head to a remote family farm to check it out. But instead of finding one wayward mutt, they’re attacked by an entire pack of bloodthirsty creatures. Are they animals? Aliens? Or something more sinister?
Collins and Blair have never seen eye to eye, but they’ll have to learn to work together if they want to survive the night. The future of Buck Lake depends on it.
Catchers is a small-town horror tale with all the charm of a classic ‘80s creature-feature, updated for the modern era. Billy Gardell (Bob Hearts Abishola) stars as Collins alongside Herizen Guardiola (American Gods) as Blair.
With hair-raising twists and a diverse cast of characters, Catchers has something to send shivers down every horror lover’s spine.
After 30 years, Collins is ready to be done with small-town animal control. His replacement, Blair, is a Gen Z vet student who hates mansplaining; they don’t get along. But on the eve of his retirement, Collins gets a call that changes everything.
There’s been a report of a vicious wild dog on the loose. Collins and Blair head to a remote family farm to check it out. But instead of finding one wayward mutt, they’re attacked by an entire pack of bloodthirsty creatures. Are they animals? Aliens? Or something more sinister?
Collins and Blair have never seen eye to eye, but they’ll have to learn to work together if they want to survive the night. The future of Buck Lake depends on it.
Catchers is a small-town horror tale with all the charm of a classic ‘80s creature-feature, updated for the modern era. Billy Gardell (Bob Hearts Abishola) stars as Collins alongside Herizen Guardiola (American Gods) as Blair.
With hair-raising twists and a diverse cast of characters, Catchers has something to send shivers down every horror lover’s spine.
3 pages, Audible Audio
First published October 27, 2022
23 people are currently reading
262 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 261 reviews
January 27, 2023
Immersive and fun listen!
Two animal controls in Buck Lake, Colorado receive a call about animals being attacked. Collins who is about to retire and Blair's first day on the job have to work together in the midst of complete disagreement about literally everything.
What creature are they up against? Armed with flashlights and dog-catching equipment, this is a very intense and fast pace horror/thriller! Fun stuff.
This book came out before Halloween, too bad I didn't see it then! Audible did another great production with the sound effects and the performers are fantastic.
🎧2h 20m
Two animal controls in Buck Lake, Colorado receive a call about animals being attacked. Collins who is about to retire and Blair's first day on the job have to work together in the midst of complete disagreement about literally everything.
What creature are they up against? Armed with flashlights and dog-catching equipment, this is a very intense and fast pace horror/thriller! Fun stuff.
This book came out before Halloween, too bad I didn't see it then! Audible did another great production with the sound effects and the performers are fantastic.
🎧2h 20m
March 13, 2023
What a silly short story! This is an audible original with the special effects sounds, which makes it a fun listen.
“The Catchers” is a horror tale reminiscent of Stephen King’s “Cujo”, only silly. Allegedly there is a large dog on the loose, killing livestock. The local dog catcher (only don’t call him that), Collins, is training his replacement, Blair who is a vet student. From the start their dialogue is amusing with generation jokes pitting the Gen Z’s versus Baby Boomers.
Once the action begins, with the two trying to find this huge dog, there is a question if it is a dog or a new species of mammals. What’s fun is the audio. While there is an audio skirmish of the fighting in what sounds like pack of rabid animals, one man says “I should have become an accountant”. I guess you need to hear it in the story for the humor affect.
At any rate, the reason to listen to this fun story is the pure entertainment of the audio sound effects. The banter is witty. The story is silly.
“The Catchers” is a horror tale reminiscent of Stephen King’s “Cujo”, only silly. Allegedly there is a large dog on the loose, killing livestock. The local dog catcher (only don’t call him that), Collins, is training his replacement, Blair who is a vet student. From the start their dialogue is amusing with generation jokes pitting the Gen Z’s versus Baby Boomers.
Once the action begins, with the two trying to find this huge dog, there is a question if it is a dog or a new species of mammals. What’s fun is the audio. While there is an audio skirmish of the fighting in what sounds like pack of rabid animals, one man says “I should have become an accountant”. I guess you need to hear it in the story for the humor affect.
At any rate, the reason to listen to this fun story is the pure entertainment of the audio sound effects. The banter is witty. The story is silly.
October 25, 2023
Catchers by Ben Rock and Bob DeRosa is an Audible Original Audiobook!
At Buck Lake, Colorado, Collins is the current dog catcher of thirty years, a Boomer and a bit on the condescending side towards the female gender. He's not looking forward to spending his last day before retirement training his replacement. Her name is Blair, a Zoomer and a vet student on break who detests mansplaining.
This pairing is not going well at all.
Collins and Blair respond to a call reporting a vicious wild canine on the attack at a family farm on the outskirts of town. What they find there isn't what they expect and isn't showing any signs of stopping...
Catchers is 2 hour and 20 minute audio that's a fast-pace take on an old Horror movie from the last century. It's has an updated feel to it, full of witty banter and jabs, scary creatures, and scared humans. A fun and entertaining listen with a full cast and plenty of sound effects.
Catchers is a great reason to spend a couple of hours walking alone, maybe in the dark, without a flashlight, and the battery on your phone is almost dead, and you forgot to bring your charger with you, and there aren't any plugs to use anyway, and you hear something behind you, and you're afraid to turn around because you know you'll see the whites of eyes and sharp teeth of something too close, and...
Well, anyway...enjoy your walk and listen to Catchers at your own risk, okay?!
3.75⭐rounded up!
At Buck Lake, Colorado, Collins is the current dog catcher of thirty years, a Boomer and a bit on the condescending side towards the female gender. He's not looking forward to spending his last day before retirement training his replacement. Her name is Blair, a Zoomer and a vet student on break who detests mansplaining.
This pairing is not going well at all.
Collins and Blair respond to a call reporting a vicious wild canine on the attack at a family farm on the outskirts of town. What they find there isn't what they expect and isn't showing any signs of stopping...
Catchers is 2 hour and 20 minute audio that's a fast-pace take on an old Horror movie from the last century. It's has an updated feel to it, full of witty banter and jabs, scary creatures, and scared humans. A fun and entertaining listen with a full cast and plenty of sound effects.
Catchers is a great reason to spend a couple of hours walking alone, maybe in the dark, without a flashlight, and the battery on your phone is almost dead, and you forgot to bring your charger with you, and there aren't any plugs to use anyway, and you hear something behind you, and you're afraid to turn around because you know you'll see the whites of eyes and sharp teeth of something too close, and...
Well, anyway...enjoy your walk and listen to Catchers at your own risk, okay?!
3.75⭐rounded up!
July 20, 2023
This is a full cast production with music and sound effects and I thought it was marvelous! The actors did a terrific job and the monsters were mysterious and fun. It got a little cheesy at times, but I was having such a good time it didn’t bother me.
I’m going to be needing a sequel, stat!
I’m going to be needing a sequel, stat!
February 10, 2023
I'm really starting to get into Audible Original's audio dramas. They're like movies for the ears, especially if you listen to them with headphones on. 'Catchers' is a classic Creature Feature. Lots of action, really scary monsters (even if you can only hear them) and humour that somehow raises the tension of the scenes while making the main characters more engaging.
'Catchers' is told partly as an interview with Blair, the young first-day-on-the-job Dog Catcher, strapped to the bed and being asked to give an explanation for widespread death and destruction to an investigator who does not believe in monsters, and partly as a sequence of live-action flashbacks showing how the death and destruction comes about.
All of the cast deliver good performances but the show was stolen by the chemistry between Collins, the I've-been-doing-this-for-thirty-thankless-years-and-I'm-outta-here grumpy guy on his last day on the job, played by Eddie Gardell and Blair, the Gen Z-doing-this-while-I'm-waiting-to-finish-vet-school woman who is taking over from him, played by Hertizen F. Guardiola. The two of them start off at each other's throats and end up covering each other's backs.
The sound effects are LOUD but they work. Some of the music I could have done without. I think this was originally put together as a set of podcasts. The good news is that the breaks have been edited out and there are no annoying Previously, on 'Catchers' bits to put up with but some of the gaps between sections are so long, I thought I'd lost my Bluetooth connection.
I had a lot of fun with this. I hope Audible Original will produce many more of them.
'Catchers' is told partly as an interview with Blair, the young first-day-on-the-job Dog Catcher, strapped to the bed and being asked to give an explanation for widespread death and destruction to an investigator who does not believe in monsters, and partly as a sequence of live-action flashbacks showing how the death and destruction comes about.
All of the cast deliver good performances but the show was stolen by the chemistry between Collins, the I've-been-doing-this-for-thirty-thankless-years-and-I'm-outta-here grumpy guy on his last day on the job, played by Eddie Gardell and Blair, the Gen Z-doing-this-while-I'm-waiting-to-finish-vet-school woman who is taking over from him, played by Hertizen F. Guardiola. The two of them start off at each other's throats and end up covering each other's backs.
The sound effects are LOUD but they work. Some of the music I could have done without. I think this was originally put together as a set of podcasts. The good news is that the breaks have been edited out and there are no annoying Previously, on 'Catchers' bits to put up with but some of the gaps between sections are so long, I thought I'd lost my Bluetooth connection.
I had a lot of fun with this. I hope Audible Original will produce many more of them.
December 13, 2024
Catchers
By Ben Rock
This is a short but fun horror. Yes, fun. A dog catcher, Collins, on his last shift before retirement and a gal on her first shift in training. Collins is a bitter old man who has been a dog catcher too long and just can't wait to go home. His new trainee asks a lot of questions and tries to do things right. This just irritates Collins. They go out on a wild dog call at a farm. A dog has been killing the livestock. What they find is more than any of them expected, and it certainly isn't a dog! Suspense and great sound effects make it like a fun B movie night!
By Ben Rock
This is a short but fun horror. Yes, fun. A dog catcher, Collins, on his last shift before retirement and a gal on her first shift in training. Collins is a bitter old man who has been a dog catcher too long and just can't wait to go home. His new trainee asks a lot of questions and tries to do things right. This just irritates Collins. They go out on a wild dog call at a farm. A dog has been killing the livestock. What they find is more than any of them expected, and it certainly isn't a dog! Suspense and great sound effects make it like a fun B movie night!
April 2, 2023
What a fun story. It was actually pretty gross because the sound quality was so good, making it all the more unique. I could easily see it becoming a movie!
February 10, 2025
“ I’m just a fucking dog catcher!”
This was a short, highly entertaining audio book. It would have been 5⭐️ but the end was too predictable and vanilla.
This was a short, highly entertaining audio book. It would have been 5⭐️ but the end was too predictable and vanilla.
December 9, 2022
➨ Audible+ Original
➨ Creature Feature
➨ Small-town Terror
➨ Full Dramatization w/Sound Effects
Well...that was intense. And Loud. Sometimes the sound effects took over the story but all in all it made for an interesting listen. My rating is purely based on the entertainment factor.
➨ Creature Feature
➨ Small-town Terror
➨ Full Dramatization w/Sound Effects
Well...that was intense. And Loud. Sometimes the sound effects took over the story but all in all it made for an interesting listen. My rating is purely based on the entertainment factor.
October 30, 2022
This is a story about a couple of dog catchers. The man is on his last day on the job before he retires and the woman is on her first day as she gets ready to replace the man. The two get a call that turns out not to be your typical wild animal problem. I was thinking they were going to run into a werewolf—dog catchers, torn up animals, things being not quite what they seem—it seemed a natural storyline. But it turns out that authors Rock and De Rosa had a lot more on their mind than a simple werewolf story.
They build the tension expertly, starting with a small, apparently routine problem and building to a point where things are out of control. They don’t even have a gun to defend themselves and they are creating makeshift weapons as they try to find someplace where these creatures that are like no animal they have ever seen try to eat them. There are bites—remember my werewolf theory? And there are deaths. And there’s a whole lot of action as things get worse and worse and worse.
And all the while, each chapter starts with the newbie being interrogated under mysterious conditions by a man who clearly doesn’t believe anything she’s saying. We believe it—after all, we are “seeing” all the stuff she’s reporting on going down. But the effect of these interrogation scenes is the growing certainty that things are going to be even worse once the heroine actually escapes the pack of monsters trying to eat her.
This is a great, fast-moving, story with excellent voice acting and sound effects. And the ending is absolutely wonderful.
They build the tension expertly, starting with a small, apparently routine problem and building to a point where things are out of control. They don’t even have a gun to defend themselves and they are creating makeshift weapons as they try to find someplace where these creatures that are like no animal they have ever seen try to eat them. There are bites—remember my werewolf theory? And there are deaths. And there’s a whole lot of action as things get worse and worse and worse.
And all the while, each chapter starts with the newbie being interrogated under mysterious conditions by a man who clearly doesn’t believe anything she’s saying. We believe it—after all, we are “seeing” all the stuff she’s reporting on going down. But the effect of these interrogation scenes is the growing certainty that things are going to be even worse once the heroine actually escapes the pack of monsters trying to eat her.
This is a great, fast-moving, story with excellent voice acting and sound effects. And the ending is absolutely wonderful.
November 14, 2022
This was a fun listen!
January 7, 2023
This was a two hour action packed and nail biting ride. Produced by an entire cast I felt like I was in a theater listening to this, but without a screen. This felt like a crossover of tremors and A quiet place but with smell. The monster were terrifying and I loved the sounds they used for them. Throughly enjoyed the horror that came packed in this production. A- because that ending!! I want more!
November 25, 2023
Light easy listen. Very tv esque horror like audio show. I liked it.
May 1, 2023
Found myself chuckling a couple times and the actors were really good. Felt the ending was a little rushed, but overall was an entertaining experience.
3.25
3.25
February 4, 2023
This short story is about dog catchers stumbling upon a terrible horror accidentally unleashed by scientists inside a mountain - not necessarily an original idea.
I actually recently read The Forgotten Island: A Horror Novel by David Sodergren that had a similar plot. That book is amazing, I highly recommend it.
But for Catchers, I didn't mind that it was similar because I enjoy this theme, and the podcast style writing was pretty dang good.
It's an audible original, designed to share the story like a classic pulp crime fiction, where the "criminal" is in custody at the hospital, retelling her experience to a special agent, so it goes back and forth in perspectives.
Stranger Things vibes with the background music and the story progression.
I will totally listen to this again after some time goes by. It was just a fun, different, interesting experience.
Great for listening at the gym! RUN!
I actually recently read The Forgotten Island: A Horror Novel by David Sodergren that had a similar plot. That book is amazing, I highly recommend it.
But for Catchers, I didn't mind that it was similar because I enjoy this theme, and the podcast style writing was pretty dang good.
It's an audible original, designed to share the story like a classic pulp crime fiction, where the "criminal" is in custody at the hospital, retelling her experience to a special agent, so it goes back and forth in perspectives.
Stranger Things vibes with the background music and the story progression.
I will totally listen to this again after some time goes by. It was just a fun, different, interesting experience.
Great for listening at the gym! RUN!
August 9, 2023
A full cast performance, originally done as a podcast. The story is about a small-town dog catcher and his last day on the job. He is training his replacement, and they encounter creatures of unknown origin. This is fun and creepy, and I loved the ending. The sound effects are great. I was listening with headphones while I walked my dog and started looking around because it sounded like someone was talking in the real world. I enjoy the Audible Originals. I listened to a bunch of stories from the Alien universe last year and loved them.
September 10, 2025
fun short listen.
October 30, 2022
A well-written horror creature feature with great, fully realized characters.
November 1, 2022
This was very entertaining and a Perfect short read for Halloween. Like listening to a horror movie. Even better that it's a Audible Original included with my audible membership. Really good.
August 31, 2023
3.5/5
Audiobook Notes: Short, full-cast audio production complete with sound effects and music! Two Animal Control Officers get sent on a call to catch some dogs. What they find are....definitely not dogs. The plot is easy and uncomplicated and the production and performances are fantastic. I chose to listen to this because I had a 2-hour drive ahead of me so the length was perfect. I would call it horror-lite.
Would be a perfect fall or Halloween listen!
Title: Catchers by Ben Rock & Bob DeRosa
Narrators: Billy Gardell, Herizen Guardiola, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Nicki Micheaux, and David Patrick Kelly
Length: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Publisher: Audible Originals
Audiobook Notes: Short, full-cast audio production complete with sound effects and music! Two Animal Control Officers get sent on a call to catch some dogs. What they find are....definitely not dogs. The plot is easy and uncomplicated and the production and performances are fantastic. I chose to listen to this because I had a 2-hour drive ahead of me so the length was perfect. I would call it horror-lite.
Would be a perfect fall or Halloween listen!
Title: Catchers by Ben Rock & Bob DeRosa
Narrators: Billy Gardell, Herizen Guardiola, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Nicki Micheaux, and David Patrick Kelly
Length: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Publisher: Audible Originals
May 6, 2023
I almost didn't give this one a chance, solely because of this one line in the description referring to the female lead: "a Gen Z vet student who hates mansplaining." You got me cringing before I even started listening. But it was a fun ride anyway. There's a full cast instead of a single narrator, which definitely gave me podcast vibes, not not in a bad way, given the performances were pretty good.
February 22, 2023
It was a crazy book. It felt a little like cheap/shallow horror experience rather than a mystery suspense novel, so it wasn’t what I had been expecting. If Halloween is coming up, this is a great read. It’s pretty fast paced and short. Excellent audio production and sound effects. You can easily picture it in your mind as you read it. It’s like watching a movie without the visual element, which made it less scary. I didn’t watch it all in one sitting, so maybe that influenced my experience with it.
Conservative snowflakes are outraged by this book having a Hispanic female lead and a gay couple. This book barely counts as progressive. Show me the Black Panthers abolishing the police and jail system then you can whine about a radical agenda.
Would I recommend it? Yes. Go on, give it a listen. The older dog catcher was hilarious. It’s entertaining/gripping. Go for it.
Would I re-listen to it in the future? No.
Conservative snowflakes are outraged by this book having a Hispanic female lead and a gay couple. This book barely counts as progressive. Show me the Black Panthers abolishing the police and jail system then you can whine about a radical agenda.
Would I recommend it? Yes. Go on, give it a listen. The older dog catcher was hilarious. It’s entertaining/gripping. Go for it.
Would I re-listen to it in the future? No.
April 8, 2023
Finally an Audible original short that is well done, the story is fantastically done, the voice actors are great, the narrative is well done. For a short story the characters are well fleshed out. Highly recommend!
October 30, 2022
Reflections and lessons learned:
“No sign of the critter, but there is blood on the front end..”
🐺 🩸… or is it…? Great short for a catalogue freebie!
“No sign of the critter, but there is blood on the front end..”
🐺 🩸… or is it…? Great short for a catalogue freebie!
June 22, 2023
An Audible Original fun listen. Laughed while listening and loved all the sound effects!
Read
January 29, 2024no rating since it's so short! but honestly this was so good and fun what a twisty things
September 29, 2024
This was really fun! The audio effects made it a really immersive listen, and I was hooked from the jump!
January 5, 2025
This was a fun listen. Full cast, perfect for those fans of point horror and goosebumps.
January 23, 2025
This was so good! What a fun production. The voice acting and sound effects were fantastic. Very entertaining and silly but also spooky. Had a blast 10 more please.
September 5, 2025
I absolutely loved this short story! the audio was like listening to a movie and really made you feel like you were watching it in your mind. Pretty impressed with this audible orginal!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 261 reviews