A Reader Request: Black, Furry, Scurrying Creatures
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on January 21st, 2006
I live in Northern Wisconsin, and usually we don’t have weird stuff happening around by us. Well, okay, so I’ve heard and seen a few weird things, such as hearing about a black panther strolling around the fields near my home, and having a friend see a long, black furred, hairy arm reaching out from behind a tree when she was walking. But that’s not the point of this e-mail. I was wondering if perhaps you could shed any light on some strange creatures my friend and I saw starting about 4 summers back, and continuing for the next year and a half or so.
Everytime we saw these creatures, it would be while driving between our homes, usually after the sun set. We would see something in our headlights, on the side of the road, and it would either dart across the road or back into the bushes before we were able to stop or observe it closely. I remember them to be black, round, and furry like kittens. They would be all sorts of sizes, from very very small (little bigger than a mouse) to big as a kitten. They moved very quickly, and must move close to the ground because neither my friend nor I ever observed any feet. We never saw any eyes, ears, or tail on these creatures either. It was like a black ball of fur scurrying around. In my friends words she says, “I remember driving with you and those little things were darting in front of the car. They were black and fuzzy like kittens, only they ran super fast and low to the ground.”
If there are any other accounts of creatures like these, or if you perhaps can give suggestions to what these things were, I’d be happy to hear any and all of them! Thanks!!
Lessien
Can anyone help Lessien? Have any other Cryptomundo readers seen something similar? If so, weigh in here in the comments section.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Chupacabra!!!
Check out the book “Weird Wisconsin.” I was flipping through it several days at a bookstore. From what I remember, there is a little story of rat-like animals indigenous to South America (I think) that appeared in Wisconsin in a food crate (again I think).
Not likely.
These are probably some kind of small mammal, and the mouse sized ones are most likely the young of these small, fast, short legged animals.
Primates?
Tribbles! lol, hmm maybe a Bailey’s pocket mouse or an Oldfield mouse, Silky Pocket mice are nocturnal and extremely fast all of these are very round with short tails and legs, but that doesnt explain the eyeless quality you explained, and as big as a kitten, perhaps rabbits? im still goin with tribbles…
*L* Tribbles are as close as anyone’s come yet to explaining what these things were! My friend and I have been trying to figure out what these things were for the past 2 years, but we haven’t found anything that comes close to what we saw. All I know is they were the strangest thing I’ve ever seen up here. Thanks for the feedback so far guys!
Lessien
yep, tribble attack, I hate when it happens, you can be overcome by the cuteness and get fuzzed to death.
WHAT IS A TRIBBLE? I still say it may be a primate, or a mammal with small eyes.
A tribble was from some sci-fi show, Star Trek or something of the like. It was just a ball of fur that flew around. I think that this creature is a mammal of some type also, but no clues to it’s identity besides black hair and moves really really fast.
Lessien
Wow, someone with an interest in Cryptozoology but no interest in sci-fi? I actually find that encouraging! No slam to sci-fi geeks intended, since I certainly am one. Since the question was asked, Tribbles were from the original Star Trek series, just balls of fur that squeeked, but they moved rather slow.
While we’re on the subject of strange sightings, this jogged my memory to an event that happened when I was in 7th-8th grade. I was living in Absecon, New Jersey, which at the time was a quite wooded area (Now pretty much condos and townhouses). We lived at the top of a sloping hill that had a road running down it. One evening I was at the top of the hill looking down the road when 2 dark-furred, 4-legged animals came walking slowly out of the woods from one side of the road, disappearing in the marsh reeds on the other. It was quite a distance, but I could tell that they had long snouts and long bushy tails which they held high. They also seemed big, almost dog-sized. Any ideas?
Mynames-
Wolves?
I actually am quite interested in Sci-Fi, but find many of the movies very unrealistic, so much so that they almost murder the Science part, leaving only Fiction. (did any of you see a Sci-Fi Channel movie about “pterodactyls”?
I’d like to think such execrable movies help to inspire the young folk of the possibilities that are out there, at least enough to learn more about the science behind it. I know that’s the way it was with me…heck, I’ll still watch a 60’s dinosaur movie like “Valley of the Gwangi” anyday.
As for my incident, I suppose I should have said large cat/small dog size…definitely no wolves, although that’d be a find enough. Wolves were extirpated from this region a long time ago. of course, so were Puma, supposedly, but people still see them around here.
My best guess on what I saw would be big possums, or exceptionally large skunks, although the region they were seen in might suggest Beaver or Muskrat (they’d be absolutely gigantic muskrat, if that were so). I’ve observed all of these animals either before or since, and none of them quite seem to fit my memory just right. Of course, it’s been a long time (Saw them sometime between 1983-86), and memory can always play tricks on you.