He'll Billy Horror Stories Presents

Eerie Encounters

I've lived in Metro Detroit my entire life,

spending my 50 years on this planet located somewhere between Detroit and Flint, Michigan.

As a teen, we moved to town over to a more rural neighborhood where our nearly three-acre

yard backed up to a state park.

Although we had neighbors on either side, it felt somewhat secluded and the summer night

air was awash with noisy crickets and frogs from the marsh behind our property.

In the mid-1980s, the local Detroit news stations were abuzz with an alleged panther siding.

It's not a typical animal for these parts, which again was less than 40 miles from Detroit.

They even showed pictures of a black cat on the news, which could have been a house cat for all I knew.

The area was swept up with panthermania, and it seemed that there was a new siding almost every day that summer.

We even had a professional football team called the Michigan Panthers about the time,

and I always wondered if there was some type of a connection.

Anyways, I was home on a Saturday night, which wasn't that uncommon for my 13-year-old self.

I spent the evening in my room playing Nintendo, which again was a common occurrence.

The windows were open because at this time we didn't have air conditioning.

Now what I'm about to describe to you has stuck with me vividly to this very day.

It was about 10 pm, and right outside my window, I heard a purr.

And when I say heard a purr, I actually felt the purr.

If you've ever been to the zoo and seen large cats, you know that when they vocalize, you can feel it.

There is so large that it moves the air, and this is what I felt.

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