Knocking in Polk County, Florida

I have not had a sighting of him yet but I do have a picture of a foot print and we have heard howls and knocks. I have been hesitant to contact you over the little stuff but tonight took the cake. It was about 6:30 PM and my husband and I were getting ready to grill some meatloaf. My husband asked me if I had put corn out for the deer and hog. I told him "no, why dont you go ahead and do it now". He went to the shed and as he came out we smelt the worst of smells. It was like something was dead like a swamp rat. He asked me do you smell that, I was like oh my God yes, it stinks really bad. He told me go get my gun. I ran in the house and got the 38 special that we keep. I brought the gun to him. I went in the house to get my shoes and by the time I came back out there were three large knocks or bangs on the side of the shed. He dropped the corn and turned toward the shed and trees and backed out of the area really fast. He said, "Steph, you know I dont scare eaily, but that scared me so bad it made my hair stand up on ends." Well we looked around and didnt see anything but we didnt go behind the shed because it is wooded against it. He left to go to the store and it wasnt even 5 minutes he was gone that my oldest son and I heard sounds over the tv set. I muted it and you could hear it plain as day. It sounded as if it was shuffling along in the gravel or something and breathing funny. Then eventually all you could hear were the branches breaking. I had been wondering why the hog and deer hadnt been coming in, would that be the case? My son, I and my dad prior to all of this had been sitting outside enjoying the cool night when we heard noises. We quit talking and listened. It was faint howls and knocks. This lasted from about 8 to 11 Pm. Also, there have been a few other incidents of smells and sights here. My dad was staying here for a few months and he went to walk his dog like any other night. Well Zeus wouldnt go, so he dragged him. No sooner he got around back of the camper trailer he said he saw him. He said Zeus bout ripped his arm off trying to get back into the trailer. Another time my 2-year-old was playing just off of the steps. I was inside sitting in my chair so that I could see him. When all of a sudden he screamed at the top of his lungs and about killed hisself trying to run up the steps and get into the house. On the way up all he kept screaming is monster. He knows the difference a deer and a hog, after all he sees them all the time. To this day you cannot get him to go off the porch by hisself and he afraid of the fence line. You see we have about 7 acres of swamp behind us that we own. Our whole neighborhood has a lot of swamp and lakes. I want to venture into the swamp with someone to see if I can find anything. I know he's out here it is just a matter of time. I have spoken to one of my neighbors about any strange sitings and she said she has had one, but she dont talk about it because everyone thought that she was crazy. She told me about it. She said she had gone outside just after dark to go to the nieghbors house at the time and there he was standing across the neighbor's driveway across the street. She said as fast as she saw it, it was gone.