The Big Green House and why we hated it

I lived in the Big Green House from the time I was born until I was about seven or eight years old, although my family had been connected to it long before that.

The house originally belonged to my grandparents. Eventually, they decided they wanted something smaller, preferably a house with only one floor, and the Big Green House was passed on to my parents.

I hated that house.

There were plenty of ordinary reasons to hate it. It was an old, large green house sitting just off a fairly busy road, and years of wear had started to catch up with it. There always seemed to be something wrong somewhere.

The roof wasn't in the best condition. Parts of the flooring were rough. At one point, there was a hole in the bathroom floor about the size of a bowling ball. A small plumbing leak apparently went unnoticed for so long that the damage eventually became impossible to ignore. The bathroom floor deteriorated, along with the kitchen ceiling directly beneath it, until part of it finally caved in.

It was the kind of old house where creaks, knocks, and strange sounds shouldn't have been surprising.

But those weren't the sounds that bothered us.

The Strange Things We Couldn't Explain

The physical condition of the house was frustrating, but it wasn't the real reason my family came to hate living there.

It was everything else.

There were noises throughout the house that none of us could explain. And although an old house with bad plumbing can make plenty of strange sounds, some of what we heard seemed different. These didn't sound like pipes knocking inside the walls or floorboards settling.

Sometimes it sounded like someone was actually moving around inside the house.

It was rare for everyone in my family to be gone at the same time, but one day we all happened to be out. My father decided to use the opportunity to try something.

He left an old tape recorder running inside the empty house.

The idea was simple: if the strange sounds were really happening when nobody was around, maybe the recorder would pick something up.

When we listened to the tape afterward, it didn't sound like an empty house.

Throughout the recording were sounds that seemed like things being moved or shuffled around. At one point, we could hear what sounded like drinking glasses clinking together in the kitchen.

Listening to it gave the impression that someone had entered the house after we left and simply spent the next hour and a half walking around as if they lived there.

But the strangest sound on the recording was the footsteps.

They were distinct, loud steps that reminded us of someone walking in high heels.

And they didn't remain in one part of the house.

The footsteps seemed to move freely from one area to another.

Whatever caused those sounds, none of us had an explanation for them.

The Reflection in the Television

There were visual experiences too.

Everyone occasionally catches movement out of the corner of their eye. You turn around, nothing is there, and you assume your eyes were playing tricks on you.

That is easy enough to dismiss.

It's harder to dismiss the feeling that someone is standing behind you, looking up, and seeing what appears to be a person's reflection in the dark screen of a television.

The television was turned off.

The reflection appeared to show someone standing behind me.

Watching me.

Experiences like that were part of what made living in the house so uncomfortable. Maybe there was an ordinary explanation for some of them. Maybe there wasn't.

At the time, all I knew was that the house scared me.

The Hand Through the Bathroom Door

One of the strangest stories from the Big Green House happened when I was only about three years old.

I don't personally remember it. I was far too young.

The story comes from my oldest sister, who was watching my younger brother and me that night.

My parents were visiting friends who lived just down the road, leaving the three of us alone in the house.

At some point, my sister decided to give my brother and me a quick bath before putting us to bed. She put us in the bathtub and began washing us.

Then she heard footsteps in the hallway outside the bathroom.

A short time later, the bathroom doorknob began to jiggle.

It sounded as if someone on the other side was trying to open the door.

My sister assumed our parents had come home.

"One minute," she called out. "I'll unlock it."

Then she turned toward the door.

That was when she saw a hand come through it.

According to her, the hand appeared through the door around the same height as the doorknob.

She panicked.

She quickly pulled my brother and me from the bathtub, dried us off, and got us dressed as fast as she could.

Then she opened the bathroom door and started checking the house.

No one was there.

Our parents hadn't returned.

As far as she could tell, the three of us were still alone.

Because I was only three, I can't claim any memory of seeing the hand myself. I only know the story as my sister later told it.

But it became another part of the history our family had with that house.

The Dreams

Some of the experiences followed us into our sleep.

I had recurring nightmares while living in the Big Green House.

For years, I thought they were simply my dreams.

It wasn't until much later in life that I discovered my father had experienced recurring dreams connected to the house as well.

My sisters also had dreams involving the house. Their dreams weren't exactly the same as mine, but they shared enough similarities in tone and subject to make the connection difficult to ignore.

The house seemed capable of making people uncomfortable even when they were asleep.

And it wasn't only the immediate members of my family.

Everyone Who Stayed There Had a Story

Other relatives stayed with us at different points, and some of them had strange experiences of their own.

My cousin, who was in his early twenties at the time, stayed in the basement for a while.

He began having recurring nightmares while he lived there.

Another relative, my uncle, stayed with us for a short time after being discharged from the Army following Desert Storm.

He experienced strange things too.

He would sometimes wake during the night and see unusual lights moving around the house.

He also heard many of the unexplained noises the rest of us had become familiar with.

Over time, it seemed as though almost everyone who spent enough time in the Big Green House eventually came away with some kind of story.

Maybe every experience had an explanation.

We just never found one.

After We Left

Eventually, we moved away from the Big Green House.

You would think that would have been the end of it.

For the most part, it was.

My family didn't spend years obsessing over the house. If anything, it was something we were perfectly happy to leave behind. Life moved on, years passed, and the house became part of our family's past.

Then something strange happened.

Years after we had moved out—and after the house had largely faded from our everyday lives—several members of my family began dreaming about it again.

The timing was what made it so strange.

My brother was dreaming about the house.

Both of my sisters were dreaming about it.

My father was dreaming about it.

My mother was dreaming about it.

And I was dreaming about it.

The dreams were vivid enough that we started talking about the house again.

It almost felt as though something had dragged a memory that all of us had intentionally left buried back to the surface at the same time.

The feeling was strange enough that my oldest sister decided she wanted to see the house again.

She contacted a Realtor to find out whether there was any possibility of walking through it.

That was when we learned something none of us had known.

The Big Green House had recently been condemned.

It was marked for demolition.

Because of its condition, going inside wasn't an option.

Was It Just a Coincidence?

I don't know what happened in that house.

I can't tell you that it was haunted. I can't prove that any of the experiences my family had were paranormal.

Some of them may have had perfectly ordinary explanations that we simply never discovered.

Old houses make noises.

People have nightmares.

Reflections can play tricks on you.

Memories, especially childhood memories, aren't always perfect.

But some things remain harder for me to explain.

The sounds recorded inside an empty house.

The footsteps that seemed to move through the rooms.

The reflection in the television.

My sister's story about the bathroom door.

The experiences of relatives who stayed with us.

And years later, after we had barely thought about the place for a long time, so many members of my family suddenly dreaming about the Big Green House again—right around the time it was being condemned and prepared for demolition.

Was that nothing more than coincidence?

Maybe.

Or maybe, after all those years, the Big Green House had one last way of making sure we remembered it.

Either way, we did.

And I don't think any of us will ever completely forget it.

Recurring Dreams of the same terrifying creatures

When I was younger

When I was a kid I had these recurring dreams. They were very random. There was no pattern or reason for them. Sometimes my dreams would be rainbows and lollipops, other times I would have the same dream of these little creatures over and over.

The dream was always the same, at least at first. In our basement we had this little hole in the brick. It was very strange and out of place. It was like the basement had two walls, one inside the other with no space between them, but there was a perfect two foot square missing out of the first wall. No one in the family ever knew why this was like this. The house was originally owned by my grandparents and then passed on to my father when my grandparents decided to downgrade to a ranch style home to do away with all the stairs. No one ever had any explanation as to why this was like this.

Follow the bouncing ball

In my dream I would be playing with a little red ball in the kitchen. Off of the back of the kitchen was a back door. There was a standard doorway that led to steps. There were about 3 or 4 steps that went down to a landing. If you turned right on this landing you were at the back door of the house. If you kept going straight, obviously, you were in the basement.

The little red ball would always seem to have a mind of it's own. I would be bouncing it and doing my usual kid type things with it. Out of nowhere it would jump out of my hands on it's own. It would slowly bounce away from me. I do mean slowly. Like just fast enough that my little boy feet couldn't quite keep up with it. Every time I would grab at it, I would just miss it.

The ball would bounce this way, all the way over to the door that led to the basement. In my dreams this door was always open, but in real life this was not the case. My parents kept that door closed, and it had one of those latch style locks at the top that was out of reach for me and my siblings. This ensured that no one took a tumble down the steps.

The ball would make it's way to the door. It then would bounce down the steps very slowly. It would literally hit every single step in perfect timing. It was like if it went slow enough, I would definitely keep chasing it. When it would reach the bottom of the steps, it would bounce straight up and down in the same spot until I was right behind it.

There was a dead wall at the bottom of the basement steps. When you hit the bottom all you could do is turn left. So that's what the ball did. As soon as it was almost in my reach, the ball would abruptly turn left and bounce a little further in to the basement. It would then turn left again and start heading right for the hole in the basement wall.

This is where things would get really creepy. Again, it would wait for me, bouncing straight up and down. Once I was in arms reach, it would dive directly in to the hole and out of my sight, which was strange seeing that this hole was literally the width of a brick deep.

I ain't Alice, and this ain't wonderland

I would scurry (as was increasingly popular in the 90's) over to this hole in the wall. As I got closer, the hole got bigger and deeper. My instincts told me "No, don't do it, this is really dumb", but at this point something was pulling me in like a tractor beam. I came to know what was in that hole (at least in my dreams) very well, but I still climbed right in to it every single time.

As I climbed in this tiny two square foot hole that was only 4 inches deep in real life, it became a large room probably 8 feet wide, with 12 foot ceilings. As I walked the floors and walls turned from dusty, dirty, depression era brick to stainless steel panels about 2 feet in width that seamlessly overlapped each other. This room was loooong. It was like facing two mirrors. This hallway always seemed infinitely long.

I continued to follow the little red ball. It still bounced slowly, teasing me, all the way up to that last fateful bounce. This bounce wasn't like the rest. This wasn't a bounce at all. It was a leap.

I would look up and see it. A throne. A big shiny throne with markings that to this day, I still don't know what they were or what they meant. The throne shined in a way that I've never seen before, even today. It was what sat there that was troublesome.

One of the most terrifying things that I've ever seen

The ball leaped right into it's hand. It was probably eight to ten feet tall. It had green fur, or maybe feathers, I don't really even know what it was to be honest with you. It had a jagged, unnatural look to it, whatever it was. By the time my eyes settled on it's face, I was far too scared to distinguish any recognizable features. This thing looked like the honey comb monster had a baby with the incredible hulk. You may have laughed at that statement, but I promise you, if you seen what I saw, it was far from laughable. It was down right terrifying. I still get chills thinking about it 20 plus years later.

It would just stare at me for a moment, rolling my little red ball in it's right hand. It held some kind of weird scepter in it's left. I would try to run, but my body was frozen in time. I would try to shut my eyes, but they didn't work any more. I would try to scream for help, but my voice no longer had the power to leave my mind and travel through my vocal cords. It was like total detachment from the real world. I couldn't do anything. I could only feel fear. Nothing else was an option.

As I would try to scream for help, this being would let out the most god awful laugh that you have ever heard. It would just laugh and laugh at my sad attempts to regain control of my physical self. The laugh only increased the terror levels of my brain.

Finally, the laughing would stop. As I stood there, locked in place, it would just maintain eye contact for a moment. It would then start to stand up. Every time this thing did this, it was like time rewound. I would see the stainless steel panels tear away from the floor revealing the dirty, dusty, depression era bricks again as this giant being got smaller and smaller. Just at the point when I would be exiting the hole in the wall that was getting smaller and smaller, everything would go black for a split second. I would then awake in my bed, crying, just as terrified as I was in the dream.

This nightmare was recurring for years, randomly. At one point it stopped completely for a while. It then picked up again, but it was different. It was the same type of creature but the dream was completely different.

Return to not-so-wonderland

For a long time those dreams had stopped. I don't know why I had them in the first place, or what would randomly trigger them, but without any real explanation they just ceased. At least for a while they did. The moment of silence was brief, maybe only a few months long. Without any notice or warning, the dreams started all over again. Only this time, this time they were different.

At the time, the house we lived in, the same house I spoke of earlier, was a fairly old house. It was built in the 20's. The house had the typical 20's style floor plan, with the living room being longer than it was wide. From the living room, if you were sitting on the couch, you were looking directly into through the dining room and into the kitchen.

Again, the dreams were recurring, randomly. They were always exactly the same, to the smallest detail. I was a little older now, by at least two or three years. I wasn't much in to little red bouncing balls any more. My tastes in playtime had progressed. At this point I was really in to art and drawing. I spent a lot of time sketching and what not.

My dreams always started with me sitting on this couch drawing, which is something that I did often. My oldest sister would always be sitting with me, just watching me draw. At some point my sister would say that she needed to use the bathroom. Our only bathroom was in the upstairs of the house, where all of the rest of my family was. I could always hear them in the dream, upstairs in my parents room playing with my parents, watching movies and stuff. Now, with my sister being upstairs, I was left all alone on the main floor of the house.

Out of the frying pan...

This is when the noises would begin. I would hear banging. Every time was exactly the same. Just a bunch of banging. I would always look up and glance around the house. Nothing would ever be out of place, so I would just go back to drawing. The banging would start again, but this time it was louder, closer. Again, nothing would be out of place so I would just go back to drawing.

Now, the banging would intensify, but there were also other strange noises as well. It would sound like metal scraping, with the added effect of something sliding across the floor. It was at this point that I would look up in time to see our stove shaking slightly. It was like something was moving it, but there was nothing visible that could be moving it.

...and into the fire

I would watch it for a few seconds while that familiar terror slowly filled me. I would see that familiar creature make it's way from behind the stove. It would slowly edge it's way out from between the wall and stove. This one was different. It wasn't the huge, green, scepter wielding abomination from previous nightmares. This one was smaller. It couldn't have been more than 3 feet tall, and was a pale brown color, maybe more like a tan.

The biggest difference in this dream compared to ones from the past was that this being never acknowledged that I was there. It was like it couldn't even see me. The overwhelming fear was the same nonetheless. I would try to move, but I couldn't. No working voice box either, the ol' cords failed me once again. I would try so hard to scream, but all I could get out was a gust of meaningless air.

I don't know what this thing did, to be completely honest with you. It was like it foraged the main floor, looking for something. If it was looking for something, I couldn't tell you what it was, or if it ever found it. It just moved about in a weird, staggered, unnatural way. It did this for a few minutes before slowly making it's way back to the stove. The creature would slowly wiggle it's way back between the stove and wall, nudging it's way behind it. As it disappeared behind the stove, the machine would slowly start edging it's way backwards, accompanied by the same scraping and sliding sounds.

Just as the stove slid back into it's original orientation, my sister would hit the bottom of the steps, finding me a nervous wreck. As she would ask me what was wrong, I would wake up in bed in the same state as I would from the other dreams.

Finally, Quiet

When I was about 7 or 8 years old, we finally moved out of that house. It wasn't a planned move. Apparently, my parents had been behind on the property taxes for some time, but no one knew that. One day this haggard old woman shows up at our door. She holds up a piece of paper for my dad to see. My dad gets angry and slams the door in her face.

I found out later in life that the piece of paper the woman was holding up was a "quit claims deed". She paid the back taxes on the house, and in exchange, she was awarded the deed to our house. She gave us thirty days to move out before she took possession of the house.

I was finally free from all the nightmares. Once we moved, all the way up till now, I have never had another dream about those creatures.

Several years passed. I was about fourteen years old. My parents were in the process of buying a new house. While we waited for all of the paper work to go through so that we could move in, we were staying with my uncle.

A bombshell

While staying at my uncles house, this story got even more bizarre. I don't know how the whole topic got brought up, but everyone started to openly talk about all of the strange, and honestly insane things, that had happened in that old house. I wasn't the only one that was plagued with recurring nightmares that couldn't be explained. Both of my sisters shared similar dreams that involved them free falling through the house and into that basement. I'll cover that another time though.

It was my fathers nightmares that startled me the most, and you'll see why shortly. He told me the story like this:

A familiar feeling

The dreams were always the same, every last detail. He would be in his room asleep. He would wake up in his dream. There would be a lot of loud banging and weird scraping noises coming from downstairs.

Being the man of the house, he wouldn't wake anyone else. He would just jump out of bed and go to investigate. Creeping out of his room, he would slowly make his way to the steps. With every step the noises intensified. There were definitely people in our house, he would think at this point.

As he took the first step down the staircase, it would get quiet. He would take another step. Now both of his feet were on the stairs. On the third step down, the entire staircase would turn into smooth metal, the walls and ceiling included. There were no more stairs. It was now more like a tube slide. He would end up on his back, sliding through this metallic room.

At the bottom, he would land flat on his back. Looking up, he would see several of these small creatures, the same creatures that I had experienced in my nightmares. He would be lying flat on his back, on what he said seemed like an operating table. There was a light overhead, and in the glow of it all he could see was these creatures standing over him, laughing at him maniacally as the terror filled his body.

After a while, everything would just go black. Pure blackness. He would then wake up in a sheer state of panic.

How do two people, living in the same house, have nightmares about the same thing, if that thing isn't real or has never been spoke of? I never told my father about the dreams that I had, not as a child or after he told me about his, at least not to my recollection.

Michigan Dogman Encounter: Terror on Maybee Road

Some Michigan Dogman stories come from books, folklore, or anonymous reports passed around online.

This one came directly from someone close to me.

The man I'll call John personally told me what happened to him and three other men one night near Clarkston, Michigan. I've changed the names of everyone involved to protect their privacy.

I cannot independently prove what they encountered that night. John, however, has never given me any reason to believe he invented the story, and he has reportedly shared it with very few people.

Whether the creature was really the Michigan Dogman is something you'll have to decide for yourself.

A Quiet Road Near Clarkston, Michigan

The encounter happened in the late 1970s on Maybee Road near Clarkston, Michigan.

At the time, the area was much more rural than it is today. Woods surrounded long stretches of the road, homes were scattered apart, and there wasn't much traffic.

A woman I'll call Nancy lived alone in a small single-wide mobile home there. Nearby was another house where the residents raised collie puppies.

Nancy was preparing to move when she came home one evening and discovered that someone—or something—had broken into her trailer.

Her belongings had been thrown around, furniture was overturned, and some of her clothing had been shredded.

Worried that whoever had done it might return, she asked her friend John to stay at the trailer overnight. A moving truck was supposed to arrive the following morning.

John agreed.

He also invited his brother Joe and two friends, Bill and Bob.

A Night Without Electricity

The utilities had already been transferred to Nancy's new home, leaving the trailer without electricity.

The four men brought a battery-powered radio, beer, and planned to spend the night hanging out until morning.

They arrived shortly before dark.

For the first several hours, nothing unusual happened.

Then a song came over the radio containing the line "I hear you knocking but you can't come in."

John decided to joke along with it.

He walked to the door, opened it while singing—

—and found something standing on the other side.

Something Was Standing at the Door

John was approximately 6-foot-3.

According to him, the creature standing outside was slightly taller.

He described its head as resembling a Doberman Pinscher, but its body was massive and humanoid. The comparison he eventually gave me was simple:

It looked like a dog's head on a gorilla's body.

And it was standing upright on two legs.

John froze.

Then the creature stepped forward as though it intended to enter the trailer.

John slammed the door.

Immediately, the creature released a howl unlike anything the men had ever heard.

John struggled to describe the sound years later. To him, it seemed like a mixture of an animal's scream, scraping metal, and something in intense pain.

The four men backed away from the door.

Whatever they had just seen, none of them wanted to open it again.

There Was More Than One

For roughly half an hour, the men remained near the center of the trailer trying to decide what to do.

Eventually, John worked up the nerve to approach a window.

He slowly pulled back the curtain.

The creature was no longer standing at the door.

But it hadn't left.

And it wasn't alone.

According to John, several similar creatures were moving around outside.

Two appeared to chase one another around the yard on all fours. Another was lying on its back and pawing at sheets hanging from the neighbor's clothesline.

Then the men noticed one near the collie puppies next door.

At first, the creature appeared almost playful. It pawed at the puppies and pushed them away.

Then one puppy apparently became too aggressive.

John said the creature grabbed it beneath the body with one hand and threw it over its head. The puppy disappeared into the darkness.

The men became increasingly agitated as they watched.

Then one of the creatures looked directly toward their window.

Everyone immediately dropped the curtain.

The property went silent.

Rocks Began Hitting the Trailer

The silence didn't last.

Heavy impacts suddenly struck the side of the mobile home.

When the men cautiously looked outside again, they believed they could see what was happening.

Rocks were hitting the trailer from multiple directions.

For several minutes, stones reportedly battered the walls while the men crouched in the middle of the room, worried that a window might shatter.

Then the rocks stopped.

Almost immediately, something else began.

The trailer started rocking.

John rushed to another window.

According to him, creatures were positioned on opposite sides of the mobile home and appeared to be pushing it back and forth.

Each push seemed stronger than the last.

The four men became convinced the trailer was going to overturn.

Then, just as suddenly as it began, everything stopped.

Waiting for Sunrise

Nobody moved.

They waited in silence, expecting another attack.

Instead, after roughly ten or fifteen minutes, John noticed faint morning light coming through the windows.

He checked outside.

Nothing was there.

The men looked from several different windows before finally deciding they had to leave.

John cautiously opened the front door.

That's when he noticed something they hadn't seen the night before.

A nail protruded several inches from the wooden door—the same nail Nancy had apparently used to hang a Christmas wreath.

Caught on it was what John described as a patch of fur and something that looked like blood.

The men concluded that when John slammed the door, the nail may have struck the creature and caused the strange howl they heard.

They weren't interested in investigating further.

They ran to their station wagon and left.

Questions They Couldn't Answer

John told me this story in the late 1990s, roughly two decades after the encounter.

By then, I had begun hearing other stories about creatures people identified as Dogmen.

Some accounts contained details that reminded me of John's story, including strange behavior around homes and trailers.

But several questions remained.

What destroyed Nancy's trailer before the men arrived?

Why didn't the creatures simply enter the home?

Why throw rocks?

Why rock the trailer?

And why did everything suddenly stop near sunrise?

There was also the question of the missing puppy.

According to John, it was found several days later in the wooded area behind the neighbor's property. It was dead and had suffered severe abdominal injuries.

None of that proves what the men encountered.

But the story wasn't over.

John Went Back

After some time had passed, John decided he wanted to return to the area.

His reasoning was simple: four men could tell people what they had seen, but without evidence, few would believe them.

He wanted a photograph.

Most of the men refused to return.

Joe eventually agreed, and Joe's girlfriend accompanied them. According to John, she had not been present during the first incident.

The three drove slowly along Maybee Road, searching the tree line.

They passed the property where the first encounter had occurred but saw nothing unusual.

Eventually they turned around and drove back.

Then they heard a howl.

Something Hit the Car

The car was moving very slowly when something suddenly struck the trunk.

John said a large creature had emerged from the woods behind them and slammed its hands—or fists—onto the back of the vehicle.

The impact was strong enough that the rear of the car scraped against the dirt road.

Joe hit the accelerator.

The creature followed.

According to John, it chased the car for somewhere between half a mile and three-quarters of a mile, managing to remain close behind before suddenly turning away and disappearing into the woods.

Nobody managed to take a photograph.

They were too busy trying to get away.

Damage to the Car

After reaching John's home, they inspected the vehicle.

The trunk was badly damaged and reportedly could no longer be opened. The tires had also taken damage, while dirt and mud covered the underside of the rear of the car where it had scraped against the road.

Whatever had hit the vehicle had hit it hard.

For John, that was the final encounter.

He never got the photographic evidence he had gone looking for.

And according to him, most of the people involved have little interest in discussing what happened.

What Did They See on Maybee Road?

I can't prove that John and the others encountered the Michigan Dogman.

I wasn't there.

There are also no photographs, preserved physical evidence, or other material that would allow the story to be independently verified decades later.

What remains is the account John told me: four men inside a powerless mobile home, a massive canine-looking creature standing upright outside the door, several similar creatures surrounding the property, and a second encounter involving something chasing their car.

Maybe there is a conventional explanation.

Maybe memories changed over the years.

Or maybe something genuinely strange happened on Maybee Road that night.

John believes he knows what he saw.

The question is whether you believe him.

Have You Seen the Michigan Dogman?

Have you ever had a Michigan Dogman encounter or seen something you couldn't explain in the woods of Michigan?

Send your story to FrightFuel. Your encounter could be featured in a future article.

And if you've had an encounter around Clarkston, Oakland County, or elsewhere in southeast Michigan, I'd especially like to hear about it.