Eerie Shrieks in the Night

Eerie Shrieks in the Night  

Blood-curdling screams in the middle of the night blasted me out of a sound sleep.  The shrieks went on and on.  What was it?  A dog being tortured?  Domestic violence?  Supernatural creatures such as Banshees?  Or could it be the influence of the book on my bedside table?  Although I adore horror stories, perhaps reading Michel Parry’s The Hounds Of Hell right before falling asleep wasn’t the best idea.

The shrieks had slowly subsided, then vanished.  I would have thought it my imagination  --  overactive due to my reading material.  Or possibly the effect of the recent horrifying current news stories of Dr. Dog Killer and #BeagleGate.  Except my son heard the sounds too.

Both of us, by now wide awake, speculated on the cause of the sounds.  Someone being murdered?  Wild animals?  Years ago an eccentric neighbor raised peacocks and they make horrible noises too.  Josh, much braver than I, grabbed a flashlight and ventured outside to investigate but found nothing.

The next morning we walked around our huge backyard to search for we knew not what.  Extra-terrestrials?  Or Satanic rituals?  Mutilated animals?  Discarded corpses in our woods?  But again – nothing.

That night it started again.  About the same time  -- incredible yowling.  Someone or something was terrified.  Or in extreme pain.  What could I do help?  How could I even figure out what was going on?  But this time it lasted only briefly and seemed to me to be on a much lower key.

This morning, thinking about the mysterious occurrences, I had a sudden epiphany!!  Someone in the neighborhood must have adopted a brand new puppy.  I knew it was quite common for pets to undergo a crisis when adjusting to their new environments.  Imagine the upheaval.  Old enough now to be weaned from mother’s milk but still living in the warm companionship of litter-mates, tussling, exploring together.  New sights, new sounds, new people.  

The little pup enjoys the attention from the new people and when they take him home with them, he happily prowls around, sniffing, playing. Night comes and he’s exhausted so he falls asleep in his new bed.  When he wakens, oh, the terror.  Where am I, he wonders?  Where’s Mommy?  Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, he wails repeatedly in puppy talk.  I don’t know where I am and I want my Mommyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. This kind of behavior can last several days until puppy finally fits in with his new family.

And sure enough, later, on our usual walk around the block, we saw some people outside playing with a puppy.  They apologized for the noise but we all agreed he was a cute little tyke.  We spent several happy minutes watching the precious little baby – er, I mean puppy  --  as he frolicked in the newly fallen autumn leaves.