I'm from South Central Kentucky. When I was 12 years old we lived on a dairy farm across the gravel road from my cousin's house.

At the time I was raising some baby chicks that I kept on a high shelf and a tall shed

that paralleled the back of my cousin's house.

I kept them there to keep any animals from getting to them.

One night my cousin was over and we were watching TV

when I suddenly realized I had forgotten to feed my chicks.

My mom handed me a mostly empty box of Quaker oats, and my cousin, my little sister, who was

three years younger than us, and I went out to feed the chicks.

My cousin Stravley had just recently had a new load of white gravel poured on it

and the moon was full that night. We could see just fine without

the flashlight, but I took one with me anyway so I could see inside the shed.

The shed door was standing half open so we walked inside and I flipped on the

flashlight. The shelf where the chicks were on was six feet up. I had to use the ladder to reach them, but I wanted to make sure they were out of harm's way.

And as I swung the beam around to face the shelf, I got the shock of my life.

Standing there on its hind legs with its front paws on the shelf was a huge white dog-like animal.

But one of us screamed. I couldn't tell which one of us it was, but that prompted

the dog thing to drop down on all fours. My sister and my cousin took off running for the

house, but I was frozen in place.

This thing was hunched in its back and it started moving toward me with one of my baby chicks

still in its mouth.

Its face was covered in blood and it snarled showing me its teeth as it moved closer.

I could see its red eyes glaring at me and I knew it was going to pounce on me but still I couldn't move.

...