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The Growl

 

I swear everything I'm writing here is 100% true and in one case I have another witness who would back all of this up. This took place in a small town near Boston, Massachusetts. It takes place in my mother's house, which is about 30 years old. We were the first owners. The land was an apple orchard before it was developed for housing, and before that was just woods. Many bad and stressful things have happened in the house, however.

In the winter of 2013/2014 I was at home with my mother. I walked into the bathroom and as I entered, I heard a low growl behind me. (NOTE - we do not own a dog.) I screamed, and my mother came running. I told her what I'd heard, and we hunted around for an explanation. We found a vacuum extension and she suggested it might have tipped over, dragging against the wall and creating the growling sound. I had my doubts, but for the sake of my sanity I agreed and forgot all about it.

About six months later, my fiancรฉ and I went hiking. We got lost in the woods and were picked up by a really nice woman. She was a devout Catholic (her car was FILLED with religious stuff, I think she had a job at a church), and when she brought us back to our car she handed me a statue of child Jesus with a lamb. She said she had picked it up at a yard sale and felt that I was supposed to have it. I'm not religious, but I was touched by her kindness so I brought the statue home with me. I set it in the bay window of the kitchen.

The next day, around dinner time, my mom and I were in the kitchen talking. We were having a pleasant, normal conversation, just typical how-was-your-day stuff. As we were standing there talking we both heard a loud, menacing growl distinctly coming from the air between us. It sounded like an angry dog. We hunted for an explanation, but after much unsuccessful cabinet-wiggling and water-running, we were both thoroughly spooked. (Again, we don't own a dog, and she lives a ways off the road so we weren't hearing somebody else's dog. The only thing I can think of is it might be water pipes. If somebody has any ideas or non-paranormal explanations I'd love to hear them, because frankly this memory terrifies me and I'd really like a normal explanation for it.)

My mom said the statue had been creeping her out and told me to get rid of it. She was afraid maybe it was responsible for the sound somehow, so I put it outside. I wanted to blame the statue, too. My sister, who is a resolute skeptic, was laughing at us the whole time.

Later, my sister (the same one who had been laughing at us when we were freaked out) approached me and said that after her trip to Ireland, she brought home a small pane glass window image of the Virgin Mary and hung it up in her room. She confessed she'd started having bad nightmares and the sight of it creeped her out, so she put it away, and the nightmares stopped. My sister suggested that maybe instead of some growling spirit being attached to the statue, maybe the statue had pissed off something that was already in the house. That made me think of the growl I'd heard that winter.

Again, I promise that this is all true. My mother and I are both mentally stable. We don't drink or do drugs, and we are not religious or particularly interested in the paranormal, nor do we jump to paranormal explanations for things, but creepy stuff happens in her house that has driven me to be open to the paranormal. Thank you very much for reading!

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Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, JessieB, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

Macknorton (5 stories) (646 posts)
+1
9 years ago (2016-01-24)
Hi Jessie - you're welcome!

Yeah, my feelings are there are people in life who enjoy bullying and scaring others; it makes them feel powerful and important. Bullies single out those who are afraid as they are easy targets.
My theory is these bullies (lowlifes) pass over and are still the same, and have the same needs to harm others for their personal satisfaction. It must be easier to frighten us than other spirits, so they do that.

Stand up to bullying from the spirit world everyone! Even if the bullies are dead, it's still NOT ok! ๐Ÿ˜†

The dirty plastic flowers are intriguing! That's either a poor attempt at genuine affection, I mean it must be quite difficult to either materialise physical objects or move them, so if someone's going to all that trouble, at least make them nice! ๐Ÿ˜Š

Or...it's a sick kind of joke. I think the latter personally...

Regards

Mack
JessieB (1 stories) (2 posts)
+1
9 years ago (2016-01-24)
Hi Mack,

Thanks so much for your reply! My fiance likes to say that the simplest solution is usually the answer (Occam's razor I think?) I try to never assume anything that happens is paranormal and always look for an explanation. This was so frightening I'm going to assume it was an owl, which is totally plausible, and next time I visit them maybe I can actually get some sleep!

There have been other, harder to explain things that have happened. The most frightening occasion for me was when a bouquet of really filthy plastic roses appeared beside my bed while I was sleeping. I just have no idea how they got there or where they came from at all, and I can't stand that they appeared while I was asleep less than a foot away. That was the moment that I really became open to the paranormal. I still get chills when I think about it.

For what it's worth, with only one exception everything that happened has felt engineered to grab attention and scare us. I love that you said if it's a ghost it's pathetic. I'll try to think of it that way!

Thanks!
Macknorton (5 stories) (646 posts)
+1
9 years ago (2016-01-23)
Hi Jessie, thanks for sharing. Very interesting.

I particularly loved the way your Mother looked for a non-paranormal explanation for the noise, instead of shrieking and fleeing or calling a priest etc etc. Very sensible grounded woman. I imagine her scientific approach may have helped keep you calm?

Tweed, I also love owls (but don't know much about them), so I think that information is excellent as a possible explanation.

The fact that there's been some other unexplainable (but not necessarily spiritual) activity in your house suggests the other possibilities which are probably obvious (but I'll list them anyway in case they aren't ๐Ÿ˜Š)

There could be a low level entity / ghost / spirit in your house who enjoys to occasionally terrorize people. Pathetic if you ask me, but these attention-seeking lowlifes exist in life and carry on their idiotic ways in death. Great.

Residual noises? Unlikely, but a possibility? These are sounds from the past, not connected to an intelligence but are "recorded" and occasionally they are heard / seen by folk in the right (or wrong) circumstances.

Anyway, thanks for sharing and I hope things settle down in your house. Stay strong and fear not!

Mack
JessieB (1 stories) (2 posts)
+3
9 years ago (2016-01-22)
Hi everyone,

Thanks very much for the replies!

Tweed - OWLS! I love it! I was actually completely unaware that they growled. The house is near a woodsy area, and it's entirely possible there was an owl nearby. Thank you very much for this. That seems like a likely explanation of what we heard.

Marie - I've had many experiences in that house, to the point that it's made me afraid of staying there overnight and open to possibly believing in the paranormal. The growl was one of the most dramatic, but not at all an isolated event. I'll put up accounts of the other stuff. Most notably, we've had objects move on their own (move across a room, appear out of nowhere, and witnessed moving apparently spontaneously), and have ongoing problems with strange noises, smells, alarms randomly going off, and general weird stuff happening. We've had electricians and plumbers at the house many times, and this hasn't helped. It's not an old house, either.

Deming - Hello fellow Massachusetts person! I just googled the Bridgewater triangle, and while I am not terribly far from it, the house is not within that area (I'm more north-east.)

Thank you
Tweed (36 stories) (2529 posts)
+5
9 years ago (2016-01-22)
Hi Jessie,

Well, you and everyone will probably laugh, but I have one 'normal' explanation for your growler based on years of experience (make that obsession). It's even more far fetched than a demon, and you most likely won't believe it. You ready?...Get ready to 'lol'...Owls...Yep, demonic, growly, heavy metal enthusiast owls.

I've been owl obsessed since forever, got owl boxes in the yard (for barn owls). However they also favour inside the roof and just about any quiet shelter they can call home. They come and go throughout the year and when they're in the roof they sometimes give a disproving growl. It's not bird like in any way and, if you've never heard it before, you'll think it's a nasty ghost beside you. Apart from the odd growl they're very quiet and you wouldn't know they're there.
They have a large variety of sounds (all non bird like), ranging from clicks to croaks, whispers and hisses, deep growls and even a very loud threat call that sounds like a large wild cat.

Yep, crazy. But it's another possibility to consider to hopefully rule out a disapproving ghostly presence.
Haunting_Marie13 (1 stories) (15 posts)
 
9 years ago (2016-01-21)
That's really interesting. What else has happened in the house? You should write more about these encounters. Your sister seems pretty smart, because I probably wouldn't of thought of that.
deming (2 posts)
 
9 years ago (2016-01-21)
Hello Jessie, I am also live in Massachusetts. I am assuming that you used "near Boston" as a point of reference seeing as how this website caters to people from around the globe. I'm wondering if your place of residence is within the Bridgewater Triangle. This area covers several towns in the Hockomock Swamp, and is a paranormal hotspot. This includes stories of ghosts, ufos and cryptozoology. Hope this helps.

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