When Kathleen Lee is asked about the scariest incident of her life, she casts her memory back to the 1960's when she was a cute twelve-year-old girl with fire-red hair that fell to her waist. The Ontario mother of six remembers how her mother struggled to raise five kids alone. The year she started junior high school, Kathleen, her sister, and her three brothers moved with their mother to a drafty farmhouse in the middle of six acres of land in Whonnock, British Columbia. It was a rental house, said Kathleen. It once belonged to a Japanese family and they lost it when they were sent to an interntainment camp during the war. The kids found old faded Japanese newspapers in the attic. Kathleen felt sad for the family she knew had once loved the home. The long drivewaythat led to the secluded two-story house was lined with Japanese cherry and plum trees and the overgrown land still harbored beautiful oriental shrubbery, long ago planted by loving hands. Sometimes Kathleen and her siblings were a little spooked on the isolated property, especially when the kids at school whispered about the nearby institute for the criminally insane. It scared us, she admitted. We worried someone would escape. One dreary February afternoon the family was surprised to find a visitor at their door. It was a beautiful white dog, said Kathleen. He was so beautiful that even my mother was impressed and she is not a dog person. The husky-like dog had a thick fluffy coat. Her fur was pure white. Oddly so. Most white dogs, Kathleen points out, have a little yellow or beige tones mixed into their fur. But the Carnegies' visitor had startling snow white fur. The dog watched the children with inquisitive, friendly eyes. My brother tried to touch her, but she backed away, said Kathleen. The The curious canine seemed to want to join the family, yet she shied away when anyone came near. The Carnegie kids put food and water out for the dog, hoping their mother would let them keep her. She had a collar with a tag hanging from it, but they could never get close enough to her to read it. Meanwhile, their dog, Scampy, a medium sized mixed breed, stayed in the backyard. This was a little peculiar, as Scampy normally raced around the house, his tail wagging, eager to greet visitors---dogs and people alike. That night Kathleen watched television until she fell asleep on the living room sofa. It was 2 A.M. when she woke with a start to an odd mixture of noises. The static of the TV was drowned out by the keening howl of Scampy. Kathleen sat up quickly. I thought something was wrong with Scampy, she said. Then she realized that the white dog, still on the front porch, was also making noise---a low throaty growl. Puzzled, Kathleen got up. The moon was full and filled the room with a cold white light. Kathleen glanced at the front door and froze. There, silhouetted against the door's window, was a tall figure. The bright moonlight behind him blotted out his features. For a second, she wondered if she were looking at her own shadow. I moved my head, but he didnt move, she said. Cold terror filled her belly and her feet seemed stuck to the floor. I could see the outline of his shoulders, neck, and jaw, but he was so big that he was taller than the door. I could not see the top of his head. I knew he could see me. I was so frightened it seemed like my heart stopped. I could not even scream. I just couldn't believe that this was happening to me. We were locked there, with him watching me. He was menacing. I knew whatever was on his mind couldn't be good. Suddenly the white dog's growl turned into a ferocious roar. Kathleen could not see the dog, yet she knew the animal lunged at the intruder. I saw the man's head move from the window. Kathleen ran to her mother's room and watched from the window as the white dog chased the stranger up the long driveway. It was too dark to see the man. Only the dog was visible, glowing white in the moonlight as she raced away. I went looking for the dog the next morning, said Kathleen. But the animal had vanished as quickly as it appeared. She stood on the porch, wondering what had become of the mysterious creature. Then her eyes fell on the dishes they had set out for the dog. They were still filled to the brim, said Kathleen. The food and water had not been touched. I showed my mother, Kathleen remembered. When she saw the food hadn't been touched, she said, That dog was sent by God to protect us. The dog, they decided, had to either be an angel or a ghost. They checked with all the neighbors and no one else had seen or heard of the pure white dog. Scampy refused to come around to the front of the house for several days, said Kathleen. My brother Gary tried to drag him, but he wouldn't budge. Was the white dog an ethereal being? The fact that she did not touch food or water for the twelve hours she had sat on the porch was strange. And why did no one in the community know anything about such an usual looking dog? Wouldn't someone else have noticed the animal? Scampy's behavior, too, pointed to the possibility that the white dog may have been from another plane. Why wouldn't the friendly Scampy interact with the dog? The menacing intruder was another puzzling element. Was it possible, that he, too, was a ghost? Or was he a patient, escaped or discharged from the criminally institution? If his presence was ghostly, could it have anything to do with the Japanese family who was removed from their home? Was the white dog a ghost of a pet of the Japanese family who suffered the injustice of internment? Perhaps she had come back to make sure another family would not lose anything precious. Source Ghosts Among Us By Leslie Rule

Copy and Paste, Copy and Paste.

Come on ... put some life into it. It looks like you're bored with what you're typing.

It's a pretty good story. But it's really hard to read. If you don't know where the paragraphs are supposed to go just skip a line (hit the enter button) every now and then. Just that, would make it a little easier to read.

This story reminds me of the black lab that stayed with us through Hurricane Elaina when we lived in Gulfport MS.
She showed up when it started raining and we let her in. She just sat at the sliding glass door watching the storm. She wouldn't eat or drink and when the hurricane was over some 8-10 hours later she left.

Six months later she came back, had puppies under the shed and promptly died, leaving us with 10 puppies to bottle feed.
Dogs are just weird.

It's kinda big, yeah.

Okay I'm not reading that until there's line breaks.

*pouts*

It hurts my eyes w/o them.

Once again, to be a smart alec:

Mavis has the nicest teeth I think I've ever seen.

not to be mean or anything coldethyl but if you have a hard time reading my posts then dont read them at all because i'm definatly not going to add paragraphs just because a few people have a hard time reading the stories i post on here!

i agree with you on this one b/c the post was not about typing it was about a white dog we should not be talking about our typing skills

You're right. Why be polite and add a few spaces to cut and paste?

You're attitude is duly noted my friend! And since you're picking just my post to quote, I might remind you that I was not the only one who said it was difficult to read.

But hey! Never mind! If thine eye offends and all!



Well, good you're attitude is noted too!



Now where's my book?

Yeh, you definitely need paragraphs.

what i was saying if we get topic to much then the mediators come along and shut down the thread thats so can we please stay on topic and have you had some take cheap shots at you b/c you cant spell or you use of punctuation sucks it's not fun to be the one being talk at like that think about that the next time please everyone cuz it dose not feel good

Is this supposed to be true, or is it just a made up ghost story? o.O

The mods won't shut down a topic because people ask someone to make it more readable. I've been around long enough to know that.

I didn't take any cheap shots at his punctuation or grammar because the story was copied and pasted and because the story was written quite well actually.

It's just hard to read written in a block like that.

That's all I and several other people were saying. And no offense, but I'll think about Johnny Depp next time because it seems to be doing about as good.

isn't this like the secound thread that i have seen you do this in. im just say that maybe it should not be all about breaks in paragraph as much as should about the topic there is nothing wrong with that is there

AAAAaaaahhhhh! I'll think about Johnny Depp too! I love to think about Johnny Depp! I'll think about him right after I say this,

Wolves, noone is saying that your stories aren't good or that we don't appreciate them. We do. Good stories!!!
They are just very hard to read the way you are posting them. Coldethyl is not the only one to say this, not by a long shot.(I said it too!)
So I would love for you to continue posting your stories, because I like them, but I'd appreciate a skipped line every now and then, so that I don't have to follow along with my mouse or a pencil or whatever.

It just makes it much easier to read if there are breaks in it every now and then. Of course, you could just keep posting them the way you are and chances are a lot of people will just skip reading it and miss what you are saying, or instead of commenting on your stories, you'll just have thread after thread of this squabble. Do you have any more stories? I'm enjoying the ones you've posted so far. Very interesting!

Hey you know what gets threads closed? Trolling and picking fights. Is that what you're trying to do? Because if it is, I'll run circles around you.

Because you seem to be trying to pick one with me after I've explained and been backed up by more than one person.

Let me know.

Okay, let's drop the matter and get on with the topic at hand please.

Wolves, the suggestion, although a bit snarky (not everyone 'gets' your type of humor, Ethyl, especially newbies) should have atleast made you aware of how difficult a solid block of text is to read. I don't mind admitting that at my age I find my eyesite isn't what it used to be, so some sort of spacing and a little consideration for us 'old folk' would be greatly appreciated. Of course, don't let my 'moderator' status influence you in anyway, I'm just making a polite request.

MM

in no way am i trying to pick a fight with im sorry if it seemed like i was thats not who i am

same problem as with the sofa one, you need paragraphs, it is very important, it also ensures that people dont reply and complain about there being no paragraphs like me

I dont care about paragraphs or spelling. Its the story I judge, not the poster..JN

ok now what was the story about agian j/k

so is this story really true or just a really good story

I don't know, I didn't read it.

Speaking of Punctuation




I said it. And I dooooooo agree with you .... good stories ... just difficult to read.



No1 is judging the poster JN ... just commenting on how he's posting. To me that's different ... But the main point is here is that you don't want people just blowing by it because it's unable to be read .... they're good.

Looking foward to the next one.



Gene

i dont have anything to say about that whole thing with punctuationim not even going to get started

OKAY!!!! we can stop crying about the punctuation and stuff about how it should be put in paragraphs.

that dog was probably a guardian or soemthing whatever it was it was a good thing

Mavis also photoshopped them , nice story, i cant never tell wether to take it literally or not though, why try and jazz it up so much shouldnt it do that alone? i dunno, it is well written though good work, i guess i shall believe it.

ps i didnt even remember the other comment i made till i read it now, i dissagree with my other comment now