When I was 13 I went on a road trip with my grandparents to visit my great-grandfather who lived alone in Mankato, MN. He had a small house on two acres of land at the edge of town, where he lived with his two dogs (I can't remember their names) and a huge scruffy cat. He was 94 then, but, even so, he was still very sharp and witty, and he was in very good physical shape for a man of his years.

One day, my grandparents decided to take him into town to visit some old friends. They made arrangements to stay over night and left me alone to house sit - actually, I volunteered to stay because, at my age back then, I found the whole trip boring.

That afternoon a strong wind kicked up and by evening it was rattling the house. As I was sitting in the living room listening to my great-grandfather's collection of old 78s, I heard a loud crash come from behind the house. I looked everywhere for a flashlight, but couldn't find one. So, I grabbed a hammer from the tool box and walked out the back door.

I had to strain my eyes to see in the darkness; the only source of light was from the street lamp on the far side of the house. As I stood in the wind looking around the yard I began to hear thumping and scratching noises. The noises seemed to be coming from behind two storage sheds that were about 30 ft from the house. I told myself over and over, "It's only the wind...," and started off towards the sheds.

As I turned the corner between the two sheds I literally felt my heart skip a beat. There, stood a creature about ten feet tall with an enormous head and a huge grinning mouth with long pointed teeth. As far as I could make out in the darkness, it's body was covered in scales, and at the end of it's huge arms were long, jagged claws. The 'thing' just stood there staring at me. I was totally freaked out. For those few seconds I couldn't get my legs to move. Then it happened; the monster started to slowly raise it's arms towards me. That's when my legs kick in, and I started to run back to the house as fast as I could.

When I reached the back door I did something that, to this day, still confounds me; I stopped and turned back to see if the thing was coming after me. I actually stood there in the dark and watched to see if the creature was going to come rushing from behind the sheds. After waiting about two minutes - with the hammer still in my hand - I started walking back to the sheds. As I got to the edge of the first shed, I tightened my grip on the hammer, and stepped around the corner.

The creature was still there, standing in the darkness. I stood there shivering, waiting for the thing to lunge at me.

But, the monster never moved. As my eyes became adjust to the darkness, I started to make out cords and straps, and something that appeared like cloth flapping in the wind. There was no monster. It was only a tarp that was loosely wrapped around a ladder with garden tools leaning against it. I don't know what caused the initial crashing sound, but I assumed that it was simply something that the wind had caused to fall over.

This is exactly how this incident happened. Had I not gone back to the shed that night, I would still believe I had seen some kind of creature, even if I had seen the tarp the next day.

I'm a skeptic, not a debunker. I wish cryptids and ghosts are real. I've seen UFOs, but they're just that: unidentified flying objects. I couldn't tell you if they were secret military craft or alien spaceships.

And, no offense to anyone, but I also wish that people would pay closer attention and investigate further when faced with something unknown.

once when i was twelve, my parents left to go out to eat for their anneversary. i was left all alone, and when i was watching tv, there was a scratching on the window. i ignored five minutes until it happened again. a little scared i got a baseball bat (in case it was a robber) and headed outside. i saw a large tree scratching against the window. i almost laughed, but then the moon broke throught the clouds and shined on down. the tree had horrible, mishapen black eyesockets, which gleamed with blood sitting inside of them, along with a broad, evil grinning mouth. shocked beyond words, i watched as the tree slowly reached towards me, but as i was about to run it pulled back. upon closer examination, the eye sockets and mouth were just holes, and the blood was sap. the branches moved due to the wind, and it turned from the scariest to the funniest situation of my life. how's that for a happy ending?

now that would be a happy ending. "a mutant tree attacked me and i burned it with my own two hands and a blowtorch"

LOL. Those are kind of funny if you think about them.

No they're not. I peed my shorts

sure, some things are not real. i agree with that. i am not a person who is scared to look into weird things but i also know when i see something that defies explanation. some things in this world are unexplainable, thus the reason this forum is so popular. for every idiot who posts a blatantly fake story, there is someone credible posting their story too. some pictures ive seen here are not faked and show strange things. i see a lot of fakes but its the ones that i know aren't faked that are so intriguing. what caused those angels to show up in all those cameras? i don't even know if i believe in angels, but something unexplained happened that day.

you can be a skeptic. i am. seems funny for someone who has seen a bigfoot, a ghost and a UFO to be a skeptic. i just don't want to believe what i saw. i even doubt my own senses! i want to prove something unexplained to be fake. i would love to prove the UFO i saw was a top secret government project but it would have to be pretty damn amazing to do the things i saw. you just have to trust me and realize i have nothing to gain from making it up. im not writing books and selling them, in fact, all that telling my sighting to people here can do is bring embarrassment if someone i know finds it.

there is an older man at my work who came to me one day and told me something in confidence so weird that i almost thought he could be crazy. we were talking about picture taking. he told me that there was one time in his life he wished he had a camera but didn't. he claims that as he walked down a road alone there came a dog, a pig, a lamb, and a goat walking in a line together. he said it looked like they were talking to each other and as their mouths were moving he heard them saying things in human speech. he swore to me that it really happened and said if he had taken a picture or a video people might believe him. he has worked that job for like 30 years and is very well educated. ive known him personally for 7 years now and he is a perfectly nice and normal fellow, not at all prone to things like this. he is an engineer. what did he have to gain by telling me that odd story? nothing. all he could gain is humiliation if i laughed at him but the look in his eyes told me that he was very serious. now, i have never seen anything like that, but i believe him. the reason i believe him is because there is no motive for him to lie about it. the man is 60+ years old and a pillar of the community. why lie about something ridiculous that could make people ridicule him? i think he told me about it because he trusts me. i trust him too.

no, never. not even possible. thought never crossed my marble... (cough) brain. he just told me that he was not hallucinating. he told me he saw it and knew people would think he was crazy, that's why he wished he had a camera. some things in life you just have to accept on faith. even if he did take a picture of it, many people would still not believe it. even if it was on video, people would say its fake. look at the WTC disaster... even with all the witnesses, there are still people who claim planes never crashed into the buildings. i am just beginning to find that some people refuse to accept any form of proof these days. a story is not enough, even when its a very compelling one. if aliens landed on Earth today, i doubt people would believe it even if it was broadcast live on the news. people would still cry conspiracy. to me, the most valuable proof is from a person you have known for a long time and can judge their character. i know this man and i know he is not lying. its a strange story to be sure, but i have to accept it because i respect him and his judgement. if he tells me he saw this, i believe he really did.

I felt like writing a dissertation on the adage, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof," but I believe it would be pointless.

I was not being sarcastic when I wrote, "you have the right to believe anything you want to believe." If you choose to believe something in blind faith, that is your prerogative to do so.

Who knows ... maybe the guy really did see four animals walking in a straight line talking to each other in human language.

let's not start an argument now, or i'll get uranium to intervene. (he's actually pretty good at settling disputes, i e-mail him everytime)

if you say so bluesky. i think bizzaro's just in a bad mood, and that he'll get over it in time.

that's not exactly what i was looking for, but good enough.

when I was 12 I was up in my room and I heard a queer sound coming from the basemant, so I got my pellet gun and flashlight and went down, I heard scratching from the dor to the spare bedroom, I aimed, and fired, I ended up shooting the carpet, so I reloaded, and went for a closer look, It was just my cat, scratching at the door because he was locked in, good thing I missed eh?

[QUOTE]And, no offense to anyone, but I also wish that people would pay closer attention and investigate further when faced with something unknown.

I was home all alone a couple of weeks or so ago, I heard footsteps up stairs soft and they kinda sounded heavy. I checked the doors downstairs to see if they were locked- they were, I went upstairs and did the same thing. No one was home except me. The alarm was on. So explain that. I did try to investagate, and I heard it second time, I went back upstairs it was only me and the cats.

What do you think of that?

Happy Holidays:

once when iwas twelve i was out in my yard practicing arcery when i herd a noise in the woods. i turned and looked. it was a bigfoot it lookeed at me and snarled like it was gonna eat me alive. i stood for a second then fired my bow at it. i missed but just barly, the bigfoot yelled some lewd languuage and took of its mask. it was just the neighbors kid in a siut . he was lucky that i shot hastely because he wouldn't be alive because if i take my time i don't miss

If I were a beast, Minnesota would be the last place I would want to live. Sounds like this beast is running low on migratory instincts.

my sentiments exactly man in the mud boots

*Snerks*
It reminds me of this story from back home... (Adirondacks in NY.. yes I know about Champ ;P)

ANYWAYS! hehe

Apparently we have what is known as the Adirondack tree climbing deers.

Now a bit of forstory... We fear city hunters. And this is why...

There was this guy from the city on a hunting trip and while he was out looking for deer he saw something move in the trees. Now, being the great hunter that he was, he took am and shot at the thing. Ofcourse his am was true and the poor creature was felled.

Turned out, he shot and killed another hunter, a local hunter who was up on his tree platform. Ofcourse he was arrested, and when the cops asked him why he did such a thing, he honestly said he thought it was a deer.



Needless to say, we fear city hunters. Locals lose more dogs and cows to them because they don't stop to look at what they're aiming at.

Ok, I shouldn't say all hunters from the city, but it's that "few bad apples" thing...

Aaah so wolves still do exist in the Isles?

Nice! Last I heard they, like the bear, were hunted out.

what in seven hells are you talking about?!?!......