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A Werewolf In Wiltshire

D

_Danforth_

Junior Acolyte
Joined
Mar 2, 2005
Messages
86
Facebook's "on this day" feature reminds me of a strange experience I had nine years ago...

I lived in a small village in Wiltshire, called Purton. It was a bright and sunny day (a Sunday, a quick Google reveals) and I was out for a walk. Probably going to the local shop; there were several routes of varying length and sometimes I'd take one of the longer ones for variety. This one was along a path with houses on both sides, the right-hand side having a shallow wall with a long drop down to some large back gardens. It was warm and quiet, the only sounds were my footsteps and bees in the bushes. Nice day.

I suddenly felt like I was being watched. Or maybe it was a flicker of movement in the corner of my vision that caught my attention. Whatever it was, I looked down and to the right as I walked. There was a small, scruffy-looking girl watching me from between two trees in one of the gardens below. I didn't look for long but I registered messy, ash-blonde hair, and no clothes. No biggie, I had two tiny kids at home and sometimes it was a No Clothes Day for them :) And you can brush your kid's hair for twenty minutes, turn away for seconds, and they've decided to rub yoghurt into it or something. I returned my attention to the path.

Then I heard a weird noise.

The memory can play tricks, but I do remember telling my wife it was a ripping noise. It came from the same garden.

I looked down and to the right again.

The girl was nowhere to be seen... but a small, scruffy-looking dog with messy ash-blonde fur was watching me!

All this took a matter of seconds. I didn't stop to investigate but carried on with my errand, but the more I thought about it the weirder it seemed. There are simple rational explanations - I did look away and back, after all. So it was probably a girl and her pet.

Probably. :twisted:
 
For the OP.


What was the sound? How loud was it? Was it in your head or outside your head?
 
Since I've developed tinnitus I've come to realise how difficult it is to tell whether a noise is real or 'in the head' Though I've come to assume it's inside if it is weird and unexpected. Otherwise there is lots of stuff going on in my house that would be spooky.
 
I live in a house that other people are convinced is 'haunted'. What it actually is, is very old, very draughty, very damp and with more wildlife living in it than legal occupiers. I've been in it 25 years, I've pretty much got a handle on its noises, smells, sudden cold patches, etc.
 
Naughty_Felid said:
For the OP.


What was the sound? How loud was it? Was it in your head or outside your head?
Click to expand...

Hard to say with the time gap (also @Cochise makes a good point about it being hard to distinguish at the best of times. I guess the sound was directional, which caused me to look again at the girl. But at this point it's just a guess.

@catseye the tent zip noise is certainly a possible. Just the kind of thing a kid might be larking about with on the first warm day of the year.

I think the reason it stuck with me is that the environment was the opposite of stereotypical Fortean encounters. It was a warm sunny day, it was bright and clear, I wasn't sleep deprived...
 
Well, if nothing else, it's a charming spin on the pet and the owner looking alike! :)

Maybe the parents of the girl got the dog because it had the same tousled locks. People can be pretty whimsical sometimes.

It's certainly most likely the girl paused briefly to look at the stranger passing by, darted off (into a tent behind one of the trees, maybe?) then the dog bounced up to see what the fuss was about just before you turned round. Can't help but be taken with the idea of a Mamoru Hosoda film brought to life, though!
 
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