Eerie Visitor

On Thursday, April 8, 2004, at approximately 1:30 a.m., due to caffeine-overload, I was the only one awake,out of our family of six(two adults-four children).

We live on a blacktop road approximately five to six miles from any town,and although we do have a few neighbors,they are not suffocatingly close. Our home is a 104-year-old farmhouse with a paranormal history of its own( a murder committed on this site long ago,ghostly footsteps in the back hall late at night,strange specters appearing at the foot of my daughters' beds,etc.) however,that fact has nothing to do with my experience on this particular morning.

We own two very spoiled female collies, who are as different in personality as any two people you know. The oldest, named Twilight is a tricolor attention sponge who accepts and loves EVERYONE, no matter who they are. She is five. The younger (two years old) sable collie named Sunlight is her exact opposite in almost every way. She is very suspicious of strangers (has been known to nip a few ankles) and when faced in her "guard-dog mode" is a menace that I believe the devil himself would think twice before crossing. Despite this, she is a very family-oriented dog, absolutely loves all children and is quite intelligent.

Now, these dogs sleep in the house with the family at night and on this night (morning), I heard Sunlight having an absolute conniption out in the side yard, snarling and barking at someone/something that I thought must have been just an inebriated neighbor walking down the road. So I walked into the kitchen and hung my head out the door to keep from awakening my husband and children and called to Sunlight who was running through our front ditch. She was so focused that she didn't hear me. It wasn't until the third time I called her name that three things happened...
1. Sunlight heard my voice
2. I noticed WHAT she was chasing and
3. IT NOTICED ME!
My eyes didn't want to believe what they saw but this is the best description I can give:

It was ENORMOUS--my husband is 6'4" and it was far taller , blacker than the night, scrambling along on the backtop on all fours. Its feet or nails(?) were making a sort of clacking noise on the pavement. It was not a moose, a bear, a horse, a deer, a buffalo, or any known animal I have ever seen! The closest thing I can compare it to would be a HUGE gorilla. The third time I called to Sunlight, this creature turned its head toward me and emitted a very horrendous, screeching sort of shriek, which I immediately interpreted as a threat to my life. At this point, all I could think of was getting the dog into the house and locking the door, and since Sunlight was more than willing to oblige, racing into the kitchen at top speed, I accomplished this in a few seconds.

She was bristled up, hackles raised and she leaned into my leg for comfort with worry in her eyes. I assured her that she was a good girl for chasing that thing out of here and as I was beginning to calm down I got that feeling that you get when you know you just experienced something supernatural and that when you tell people about it they'll either think you made it all up or tag you as a nut case.

I never had any qualms or fears before about going out in the dark to feed my horses or do night time chores but I now know that we can never be sure about what lurks out there in this world in the dark when few people are awake to witness the unexplainable creatures few of us ever have the displeasure of seeing creeping through the shadows in the wee hours of early morning...