The Big Green House and why we hated it

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The Big Green House

I lived in that house from the time I was born until I was about 7 or 8 years old, but my family had lived there longer. The house was owned by my grandparents but after they decided to move into something that was smaller and only one floor, the house was passed on to my parents. I hated that house. I hated it for far too many reasons to count.

It was a big green house off of a pretty busy road. The house was just old. There were a lot of damages here and there that had flew under the radar for far too long. The roof was kind of weak. The floors were in kind of rough shape. At one point there was a hole in the bathroom floor about the size of a bowling ball. There was a small leak in the plumbing that went unnoticed for so long that the floor of the bathroom, and the ceiling of the kitchen, which was right below the bathroom, finally caved in.

Strange Happenings

There were a lot of reasons to hate living in that house, but none of those were the ones that actually made us all hate it. It was the strange things that happened. All the weird noises that couldn't be explained. Even with the bad plumbing, and parts of the house being in such bad shape, there is nothing that could explain these noises. These weren't bad pipes making weird noises.

It was a rare occasion that everyone was out of the house at once. One day, on just that occasion, my father decided to leave an old tape recorder on and see if we could hear anything out of the ordinary. The whole tape was filled with the sounds of stuff being shuffled around the house. We could hear glasses clinking together in the kitchen. It literally sounded like someone had just let themselves in and hung out for an hour and half like they lived there. That wasn't even the bizarre part. The craziest part of the whole tape was the foot steps. It was loud steps, like high heels, and it just moved freely through the house.

Catching a quick glimpse of something out of the corner of your eye, maybe just your eyes playing tricks on you, sure. Having that creepy feeling that you are being watched, only to look up and see a reflection in a TV screen of someone standing behind you, watching you? That's not your eyes playing tricks on you. The TV was off, by the way.

When I was about three years old, my oldest sister was watching me and my younger brother. My parents were just down the road at a friends house. My sister decided to give us a quick bath before putting us in bed. We were the only three home at the time. My sister had just put us into the bath tub and started to wash us up, when she heard footsteps in the hallway. Shortly after, the door knob to the bathroom started to jiggle, like someone was trying to get in. She assumed that my parents must be home, she yells "one minute, I'll unlock it". As she turns to the door, a hand comes through the door, right about where the knob is.My sister panics and gets us out of the tub, getting us dressed as quickly as possible. She rips the door open and starts checking the house. No one was home yet. It was still just the three of us there. (Obviously being only three years old at the time, I have no recollection of this happening personally.)

Some of the worst was the recurring nightmares. I found out way later in life that my Father was plagued by the same dreams. My sisters also had dreams of a similar nature, but not quite the same as mine.

Bad Company

Everyone who ever stayed in that house with us, had a bizarre story to tell the next morning. My cousin, who was in his early 20's at this time, stayed in the basement for a little while. He too had recurring nightmares while he stayed in that house. I had an uncle who stayed with us briefly after being discharged from the army after Desert Storm. He would wake up in the night and see strange lights moving around the house. He also heard a lot of the strange noises that I spoke of before.

Even after moving out of that house, it was like my family maintained this weird connection with the house. About two years ago, we all started to have weird dreams about that house. This house was long forgotten by us, and down right intentionally too. These dreams came out of nowhere. Myself, my brother, both sisters, father, and mother all started to have vivid dreams about this house, like it was calling us back. My oldest sister, being the soldier that she is decided to call a Realtor to see if we could walk through the house. The Realtor informed us that the house had just been condemned and marked for demolition, so walking through it was not an option.

Why after all this time, did we start to have all of these weird dreams about that house? Was it calling us back to save it from the demo crew? The whole situation with that house was just insane. 

Recurring Dreams of the same terrifying creatures

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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.

I Hear You Knocking: A Terrifying Encounter with the Michigan Dogman

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This account of an encounter with the Michigan Dogman was told to me personally, from someone that is very close to me. I have no reason to believe that they would fabricate this story, especially since that person has only told a few others, all of which are close to that person. All names have been changed to protect the identity of the people in the story. You can make up your own mind, but I assume this story to be true...

Maybee Road

Maybee road is a little dirt road that runs through Clarkston, Michigan. At the time that this incident took place, the area surrounding Maybee road was all heavily wooded. There were homes scattered here and there. The average distance between most neighbors on this road was about a quarter of a mile.

It was a quiet place overall. Nothing much ever went on in the area. It was mostly small families who, for the most part, kept to themselves. The area didn't see much traffic either. If you were down that way, it was because you lived there, or were close with someone who did.

There was a woman who lived on Maybee Road. We will call her Nancy. Nancy lived alone in a little single wide mobile home, on a small lot. She worked a lot, and was hardly ever at the home. Her neighbors, who were roughly a quarter of a mile away, owned a small farm type house. For about a mile stretch, these were the only two residences.

Nancy was in the process of moving closer to her family. One night, after arriving home from work, Nancy found that someone had broken in to her trailer and left everything in a state of ruin. All of her stuff was thrown about, her furniture was tipped over, and a lot of her clothing was shredded.

Fearful that who ever had broken in to her trailer and destroyed all of her belongings might come back, she asked her friend John to watch the house over night, as she would be getting a truck to move all of her belongings the next morning. John agreed to stay in the house over night while Nancy was out.

House Party

John decided to invite his brother Joe, and two of their friends Bill and Bob. There was no power running to the trailer at this point. All of the utilities had been disconnected and transfered to Nancy's new home. Naturally, they decided to bring a battery powered radio and a ton of beer. The plan was to party through the night and in to the morning. But that is not at all how the night went.

They arrived at the house just before dusk. The sun was already almost down for the night. The men decided to get the radio set up and start distributing the beer as quickly as possible, before there wasn't any light left (I'm sure they had flash lights, but I can't honestly remember).

I hear you knockin' but you can't come in...

The men settled in and prepared for a dark, dark night. Several hours of light drinking and goofing off have passed at this point. A familiar song comes on the radio. "I hear you knocking but you can't come in" starts to play and John, being funny, goes to the door. He jokingly opens the door as he sings along. What was on the other side of the door was probably the last thing that he expected to see.

John had come face to face with the single most terrifying thing that he had ever encountered. He stared in to the eyes of what looked almost like a Doberman pincher. This was no dog, though. It stood on two legs, and was slightly taller than John. John is 6 foot 3 inches tall. As John described it to me, it was like seeing a dogs head on a gorillas body. He would later discover that what he came face to face with, is the creature known as the Michigan Dogman.

The Michigan Dogman took a step forward like it was going to push right past him and in to the house. John panicked, slamming the door in the creatures face. As the door slammed shut the beast let out an ungodly howl that no one in that house will ever forget. It was a combination of primal beast, metal scrapping, and sheer pain. The person that told me this story (John) was unable to come up with anything to accurately describe the sound that he heard emanate from this beast as he stated that he had never heard anything even remotely close to this before, or since.

But wait... There's More!

The group of men were all severely shaken by what they just witnessed. They all cowered together in the center of the room for a good half an hour, maybe longer, trying to decide what to do. Finally, it was suggested that someone move to the window nearest the door and peak out to see if the beast was still out there.

After several moments of arguing amongst themselves, John finally knew that if he didn't do it, no one would. He slowly crept towards the window. He made his way to the window, and after slowly pulling the corner of the curtain back, he sees that the beast is no longer standing at the door step. He pulls the curtain back further to investigate the rest of the property, and what he sees is much more disturbing.

The Michigan Dogman that was on the steps, was not the only one there. There were several of them frolicking about the yard. There were two of them chasing each other around on all fours, seemingly playing, much like dogs would. There was another lying on it's back swatting up at the neighbors sheets that they had laid across their clothesline.

Nancy's neighbor bred and raised collie puppies. Another of the beasts sat in the neighbors dog pen playing with the puppies. It gently pawed at them, and shoved them away. It looked like a relatively harmless play date, until one of the puppies got a little too aggressive. The Michigan Dogman grabbed the dog from under it's belly with one hand, throwing it over it's head and behind it, for a distance great enough that no one in the house could tell where it landed.

As the men got more and more riled up watching these things out in the yard, the noise coming from the house must of alerted the beast. One of them abruptly turned to look at the window were all of the men were now standing, peering out at the creatures. In a panic, the men dropped the curtain and swiftly retreated back to the center of the room. The sudden silence was unsettling.

The men quietly scoured the trailer with there eyes, moving them from window to window, hoping to get a glimpse of anything that would give them an idea of where these creatures were. The disturbing silence was soon interrupted by several large thuds against the side of the mobile home. 

Under Attack

The silence that had fallen on the property was abruptly interrupted. Several large booms vibrated the structure of the trailer. The men stood there in awe, unsure of what the sound was. They were faced with yet another dilemma. Do we stay here and remain silent and hope that these things will just leave? Do we move back to a window and try to see what is going on? Do we make a mad break for it, and hope that they can't catch us?

They settled on trying to see outside again. They approached the window once more. As they peered out the window, the beasts began an all out attack on the trailer. The house became the recipient of a barrage of stones, coming from every direction. This went on for several minutes, while the men once again chose to kneel in the center of the room, shielding their face to protect them in the event of one of the windows being shattered by the flying stones.

Without a moments notice, the rocks stop hitting the house. Just as quickly as the rocks had stopped, the trailer began to rock side to side. John jumped to his feet and ran to the window opposite the one he peaked out of earlier. Ripping the curtains back, he came to a grim realization. The creatures had refined their tactics. They had split into two groups, one group on each side of the trailer. They were taking turns pushing the trailer.

The trailer rocked in each direction, one after another, each time tipping just a bit higher than the time before. The men were under the assumption that at any minute, the trailer was going to tip over. The only question was, which way is it going to tip? Seemingly out of nowhere the trailer stopped rocking. The men sat silently for several minutes, just listening, waiting for the next wave of attack.

After ten to fifteen minutes of silence, the men realized that the sun was starting to poke it's head out. There was a faint light coming through the window. John once again ran to the window. He looked out the window. There was nothing out there. He quickly ran to the window on the opposite wall. Nothing on that side either. He investigated the property from every angle that he could see. After a few moments of reconnaissance, the men decided to take their chances and get the hell out of there.

As John slowly cracked the door open, he noticed what caused the Michigan Dogman to howl when he first slammed the door. There was a nail hanging about three inches out of the wooden door. It was used around Christmas time when Nancy hung her wreath. From the nail hung a patch of fur, and what looked like blood. The nail must have hit the monster as the door slammed shut. At least that is what everyone involved would later conclude.

John opened the door a little further and seen that there was no one, or no thing, in sight, and made a break for the station wagon that they had arrived in. One after another they filed out of the house as quickly as possible. They made a mad dash for the station wagon, never looking back. They got in the car and peeled out. Luckily, they all made it home safely.

More questions than answers

This incident happened in the late 70's. It wasn't until the late 90's that this story was told to me by John. It wasn't until several years later that I began to find other stories of a similar nature. There are tons of cases of Michigan Dogman sightings and encounters, mostly in Michigan and Wisconsin, with a few scattered around the lower parts of Canada that touch both Michigan and Wisconsin. There are quite a few of them that have similar traits as this story, with the stone throwing, the rocking of the trailer, and then the abrupt end to the madness.

There are a lot of questions here that can't be answered. Was it the Michigan Dogman that originally sacked the trailer and shredded Nancy's clothes? If so, why didn't they attempt to enter the trailer while the men were in there? Why would they choose to throw rocks and rock the mobile home? Was this some kind of game to them? Were they intentionally terrorizing these men, just for the fun of it? What finally made them leave?

One thing that I should note, is that the dog that was thrown was, in fact, found a few days later. It was found in a wooded area behind Nancy's neighbors home, directly behind where the Michigan Dogman had been playing with the pups. The puppy was found on it's back, lifeless, with large tears in it's abdomen and it's organs lying next to it, barely still attached.

Why would we ever go back there?

That was the general consensus when John asked all of his friends that were there that night, if they would make another trip out there with him. He didn't want to stop there and hang out. I mean, why would anybody want to do that after how things went the first time. Besides, the trailer was already being occupied by someone else at this point, so they wouldn't be hanging out there.

His goal was to bring a camera with him and try to get photographic evidence of the creature that they had seen. He knew that even with four people all seeing the same thing, what they saw was very unbelievable, and therefore, no one would believe him. He knew that if he got solid, concrete evidence of this creature, no one could tell him that they were making it up.

The only person that would agree to come with him was his brother Joe. Joe also brought along his girlfriend at the time, who knew nothing about the original incident. The three of them headed out in Joe's car (not the station wagon).

Back down the rabbit hole

They drove slowly down Maybee road for several miles. They passed the original site of the nightmare that they experienced and kept driving. Several miles up the road they decided it would be faster to turn around and make a pass back down Maybee road to get home, opposed to turning off where they were. They turned the car around and headed back the way they came.

Once again they passed the site of the original incident. They drove slowly passed it, staring up on to the property to see if they could see anything out of the ordinary. Nothing seemed out of place so they kept driving. It was just a few moments later that they would have their next and final encounter with the Michigan Dogman.

They drove slowly, very slowly. John sat on one side of the car (I believe he said the passenger side). Joe's girlfriend took the other side. Each scanned the tree line of the woods down Maybee road looking for movement. Just about a half a mile from the trailer, they heard a loud howl. They all scrambled to see where the noise was coming from. It wasn't easy to see anything in the pitch black night, especially when surrounded by nothing but trees.

Shortly after the howl something hit the trunk of the car. They were only traveling probably around five miles an hour. The creature came out of the woods directly behind them. It slammed it's large fists down on the trunk, making the entire back end of the car scrape the dirt road from the impact.

Joe punched the gas and got the car going as fast as he could without losing control on the loose dirt. This creature chased them for half to three quarters of a mile, tailing right behind them, nearly maintaining the same speed as them before it broke left and disappeared back in to the trees.

Aftermath

Upon arriving back at Johns residence, they inspected the car. The trunk was badly damaged and couldn't be opened. The tires were in rough shape from the impact. The under carriage of the whole back end of the car was caked in dirt and mud where it scraped the road.

Needless to say, between the pitch blackness and the urgency of the situation, no one was able to snap the picture that they went looking to get. No one involved in this incident will speak about it to this day other than John and he has only told myself, and maybe two other people about what happened.

Have you had an experience with the Michigan Dogman? If you have, please send me your story so that I can feature it here on Fright Fuel. 

What do you think about the Michigan Dogman? Is it fact or fiction? If it is real, is it some kind of mythical beast, or maybe just an undiscovered species of wild animal? Let me know what you think in the comments below.