gray wolf mount - is this what the witness saw? Doesn't sound like it!
 

I could not find any older reports describing a wolf-like biped with striped hindquarters, however. The stripes made me think of the thylacine,

 


a marsupial – not canine -- native to Australia but thought extinct since the last one died in a Hobart zoo in 1936, and also certain striped hyenas  but the witness insists the animal he saw was neither.

 
 

“Like I said before, this is something that happened years ago but was real and I have never forgotten it. I don't want to be creating any new issues, simply want to add an anecdote to your credible case histories. I support the work you are doing and I hope one day some of these mysteries can be solved.”

For more info on unknown upright creatures see Beastofbrayroad.com and my Books page

Visitors from (Some Sort of ) Space

“Contactees: a History of Alien-Human Interaction,” by Nick Redfern

George Adamski, a well-spoken peacenik several decades ahead of his time, claimed to have had a curious encounter with an alien named Orthon in 1952. Orthon told him to warn humankind against waging atomic war and then zoomed away to errands unknown.

This theme of benevolent visitors from outer space coming to warn humanity runs like a titanium thread over the last half century through reports by self-proclaimed contactees. Nick Redfern’s latest book in his series of UFO-related topics, “Contactees: a History of Alien-Human Interaction,”examines a wide range of alleged incidents that -- despite differences in alien appearances -- all seem to bring the same, rather narrowly focused message, which roughly boils down to: “Quit killing the planet, human idiots!”

Could all of these witnesses be suffering from some sort of delusional mass hysteria fomented over the years by the saucer scares of the late 40s, or is there something real beneath the hype?

Redfern carefully digests and lays out the similarities between seemingly diverse events, mining additional related subjects such as the theory that humanlike aliens have infiltrated world government, or that coded messages lurk in the geometry of crop circles.

The disturbing fact, according to Redfern, is that a common thread tends to lead to the same, surprising conclusion in the bulk of cases. We are not alone, he posits, but the “others” are not necessarily from Venus or the Pleiades. Where they do originate, and what it is that they want, I will leave to Redfern’s eloquent explanation. And even those who disagree will still be unsettled by the breadth of human-“alien” interaction revealed here. Something is going on, and it behooves human society to enquire along with Redfern exactly what that may be.

 

Last night I sat up late reading Brad Steiger’s Real Vampires, Night Stalkers and Creatures from the Darkside, intending to write the review before I went to bed. I did not write a word; I was much too scared. Now that it’s broad daylight, I’ll try again.

If you think vampires are just sexy-cool guys and gals hankering for loving, altruistic relationships with deserving mortals, shake out those romance laden brain cells and try again. The vamps revealed in Steiger’s book are anything but. Steiger spends 270 illustrated pages exploring not only the stereotypical Bram Stoker model of vampire, but casting a wider net to include any sort of blood-or-soul-sucking entity – human, alien or other – in his panorama of terrors.

Steiger uses real-life experiences reported by a bevy of witnesses to explore the idea that alien abductions, encounters with “black-eyed” youngsters, night time “shadow people” visitations, and even hellhound and chupacabras attacks might all share the same, uber-vampiric source: unknown multidimensional beings that do not have humanity’s best interests at heart. If, indeed, these beings have a heart.

Steiger even delves into the shadowy underworld of humans who drink blood in the belief they are true vampires, as well as the blacker topics of blood cults and cannibals like Jeffrey Dahmer.

I have to wonder if Stephenie Meyer would ever have written Twilight if she had read Steiger’s book first. I’m sure it would have at least given her pause. I highly recommend Real Vampires for anyone willing to take a look at the kind of night creatures that do not sparkle in the sun.