What was your first cryptid experience?

Mine would have to be the time I saw a mountain lion in Missouri. It was kind of scary seeing the huge cat.

Early teens was out tracking javelina with some friends and came across a huge black rattlesnake. Thick from head to tail. It coiled up and we started to mess with it being the punks we were. We threw a few rocks past it and one about 5 feet above the snake. It jumped straight up to about 4.5 foot mark trying to strike the rock. It came down and literally chased us as we ran off.

I don't mess with black rattlesnakes anymore....

You can read all about my experience here:

The Yowie Legend Lives On

and

My Yowie Encounter - Photographic Expedition

(saves me having to copy and paste).

I'm currently in the process of turning my experience into a short film, so when production is finished I'll be sure to give ATS presentation rights.

I was about ten years old and helping my father throw out some old couches at an "unregistered" dump in Northern Alabama. After we had unloaded the couches from the pickup, I noticed some movement down the hill from where we were. It moved from behind what looked like another couch (older couch, not the small things that pass for them these days). It was black and obviously a cat of some type. It was almost as long as the couch which I would say was around 6 feet long.

I felt really left out last night because I was like "Man, I don't really have any cryptid experiences aside from seeing a coelacanth model in a museum, and okapis in a zoo..."

BUT.

I lied. I can think of two. Once, when I was very little, my parents were giving away my sandbox to my neighbors because I didn't use it anymore. When we opened it up, there was a spider that was at least a foot in diameter. I don't think anyone got a picture and I don't remember what it looked like, but that's the first one.

The second is this past spring I noticed a very strange bird's nest outside my window. It was a pendulous cup shaped nest. I identified it as a red eyed video nest, but it was present much before they usually migrate up. It continued to grow for awhile but I was never around to see a bird there. But no eggs were ever laid in it, probably because it was right in front of my window and usually my cats will sit there, looking out.

I probably have other little things like that, if I think of them I'll post.

reply to post by ravenshadow13


Your experience has reminded me of one I had!

I was round a friends house after school one day, I must have been 15 or 16 so it wasn't more than 10 years ago. And outside on the back wall of his house was a gigantic spider. I live in the exciting UK were spiders are common, but no ones the size of a dinner plate!

This thing was just like a common house spider, but was literally about 7 or 8 inches in diameter, I know this because I was standing about 3 feet away and eating a sandwich on a plate at the time.

i haven't had one yet, but if i'm lucky, i may be having one soon! i don't want to say too much yet, and i'll start a new thread when i get more info, but i'll say this: people have been spotting ABCs in my area recently, black ones.

reply to post by Phlynx


I live way out in the sticks and I've seen a few animals that I can't identify, but that could just be because there are animals that I'm not familiar with around here. There has only been one time that I have seen an animal that isn't supposed to exist and I've not been the only one to see them around here.

I went outside one day and was getting into my vehicle when I looked up towards the woods behind my house, just in time to see a cat step out that looked like a small cougar. It was more of the size of a bob cat, although maybe a bit taller and had the coloring of a bob cat but had a VERY long tail. It stopped and looked at me. I yelled for my husband (now ex... not that that's important, but I had to put it in there, hehehe) he came out and I grabbed for my phone to snap a pic, just as it nonchalantly walked into the woods. It wasn't scared of me in the least. Didn't really care that I was there. I didn't get my pic. A few days later, my mother and my sister saw it walking up my back yard and not too long after that, a neighbor saw it and went to get his gun to shoot, but when he got back, it was gone. Thankfully! I just don't see the point in killing something just because it's there and it's different than what one is used to seeing, but that's a whole other thread.

I described this cat to several people and nobody knew what it was, but a few claimed to have seen them at one time or another. I got online and looked it up and was led to a crypto site where apparently people had being seeing these things here and there all over the state (I'm in Kentucky, btw), but since one hasn't been caught, it's an unidentified species. My uncle has a cabin in the woods, on top of a huge hill and it's pretty much surrounded by wildlife. He saw one of these cats there, just the other day. So, that's my story. Not as exciting as some, but there ya go.

[edit on 8/3/2009 by gemineye]

Originally posted by gemineye
reply to post by Phlynx

 

I went outside one day and was getting into my vehicle when I looked up towards the woods behind my house, just in time to see a cat step out that looked like a small cougar. It was more of the size of a bob cat, although maybe a bit taller and had the coloring of a bob cat but had a VERY long tail. It stopped and looked at me.


[edit on 8/3/2009 by gemineye]

It sounds like your describing some kinf of lynx, which is in the family of the bobcat, and are generallly larger than the bobcat.

Iberian Lynx

Eurasian Lynx


You may want to look through this to find out what it is. It is a list of almost all the cat types.

Originally posted by Rockmotron
i haven't had one yet, but if i'm lucky, i may be having one soon! i don't want to say too much yet, and i'll start a new thread when i get more info, but i'll say this: people have been spotting ABCs in my area recently, black ones.

I don't want to sound very dumb, but what is an ABC?

Originally posted by Phlynx

Originally posted by Rockmotron
i haven't had one yet, but if i'm lucky, i may be having one soon! i don't want to say too much yet, and i'll start a new thread when i get more info, but i'll say this: people have been spotting ABCs in my area recently, black ones.

I don't want to sound very dumb, but what is an ABC?

"Alien Big Cat"

It's what we call them in the UK, as they're not native to our isles.

tO

Hmmm
How do I descibe this without sounding like a nutcase.
This is in southern MO. Ozarks area
It had to be a dog, coyote or something along those lines.
I grew up in the woods from coon hunting all night long to deer squirrell, and anything that conservation considered legal. Runnings traps in steams, and snares for larger game.
I have trapped many many coyotes, this dog thing had the outline much like a greyhound, sunken belly, big chest cavity, short hair except for it had tuffed ears, and an odd tail for its build, much longer than a dog of this size should have.
I have never seen anything like it since or before, and can't find anything that slightly resembles it on the net.
Unless it was a coyote with mange or a skin disease "mites" or something.
I have been at a loss wondering what this animal was for 15 years now.

I basically grew up in the Bushveld which gave me wonderful opportunities to experience the weird and wonderful of nature that can only be experienced in Africa. But of all my experiences the one that have me puzzled to this day happened in the city - in our house.

I was standing in the kitchen when I saw a little insect scurry across the floor. It happened so fast it took me a moment to realise what just happened. I didn't hink much of it, until it came scurrying back in the other direction and I had a better look at it. The speed it moved was astounding! It was similar to the King Cricket (Parktown Prawn) - but not quite. And they don't move as fast as that little critter did.

That was my only sighting of the little guy in all the years we lived in the house. A couple of years later I saw The Sandkings episode of The Outer Limits, and the moment I saw the fictional creatures it reminded me of the "insect" I saw years before. The similarities were astounding.

To this day that sighting has bugged me. So to speak.

reply to post by Phlynx


Thanks for the link, Phlynx! Ya know, after I first saw it, I thought that it may have been a lynx and that was one of the first things I looked up, but it looks different than that. However, I did find a cat on the link you gave me that looks EXACTLY like what I saw.

The African Golden Cat

Problem with that is, I'm in Kentucky, lol.

There are rumors of all kinds of crazy stuff here. My brother SWEARS he saw a hyena in the woods. Those aren't supposed to live around here either, hehe. I'm not sure what he saw because I didn't see it, but others have reported seeing the same.

Just wanted to edit to add that I have been looking up more photos of lynx, since obviously that would be more likely to live around here. I hadn't seen any photos of a lynx that really resembled the cat I saw, but I just found one that is VERY similar. The cat I saw was a bit more trim but this pic is very close to the one I saw that day! The one I saw I had very long tail that wasn't bushy at all, which is not very much like a lynx, but I'm sure there are some out there like that somewhere, lol. Thanks Phlynx! You may have helped solved the mystery... not very cryptic of that's the case.





[edit on 8/4/2009 by gemineye]

i live in central kentucky.

camping one night during the summer around 15 year's ago.

I woke up because my cousin was hearing something outside rustling around.

I pop my head out of the tent and shine a light.

it was a bear...
We have no bear's in central Kentucky i have ever seen or heard of.

But he was small about the size of a big dog and golden colored.

If it wasn't a cryptid i got no idea what it was.
Because there is no bears here...
I did find one old man roughly 80 tell me there use to be miniature honey bear's around here.
But i have never found a honey tree either so if so wtf did they eat lol

But it was small and golden colored and in a area where there is no bear's recorded living.

I still look around at night when camping now.

reply to post by gemineye


I live in Kentucky also.

about when i was 13 20+ year's ago in kings mountain.
I went out to start my car around 5 am..yes i drove a car at 13 lol

Well i opened my car door and a giant cat was under my car.
It yelled and i swear i thought a banshee got me..it was pitch dark.
it sounded just like a dang woman getting killed at my feet.
I dang near pissed myself.
Didnt start the car i ran back in the house.
I was huge my coon dog ran after it and it was taller than my coon hound that was full grown.

and i know of no such cat here that size.
But i know by god there was one under my car lol

My first was this one:Bigfoot sighting

I've had a couple of others over the years prior to this one, but they could have been anything. They were wierd, but that doesn't neccessarily mean cryptid's were involved.

Originally posted by TheOmen

Originally posted by Phlynx

Originally posted by Rockmotron
i haven't had one yet, but if i'm lucky, i may be having one soon! i don't want to say too much yet, and i'll start a new thread when i get more info, but i'll say this: people have been spotting ABCs in my area recently, black ones.

I don't want to sound very dumb, but what is an ABC?

"Alien Big Cat"

It's what we call them in the UK, as they're not native to our isles.

tO

indeed, though i must admit that i, wrongly, appropriated your term for my uses as a catchall for strange cats in general. plus i'm in the US, so you have my apologies

reply to post by TheAmused


Wow, we're even in the same part of Kentucky! Central here as well. I saw a bear in my back yard... the same place I saw the cat! But it was a black bear and it had even been on the news that bears had been released in the area, by the government, so even though it was a surprise that I actually saw one of them, I figured it was just one of the released ones. There was one that was hit by a car on I75 not too long after that.

I would have been way more excited if I'd seen one like you saw!

Just wanted to add that it's nice to know there is someone else in my part of the state that posts on here. Nearly everybody else I know around here (meaning Central Ky) doesn't get into this stuff at all. Nice to know there's more of us. Oh, and you remind me a lot of my brother-in-law. He's a coon huntin maniac! hehehe

Oh, and even though I'm a girl, I too drove a car at 13, lmao! And I was 13 exactly 20 years ago. Too funny!



[edit on 8/4/2009 by gemineye]

Originally posted by gemineye
reply to post by Phlynx

 

Thanks for the link, Phlynx! Ya know, after I first saw it, I thought that it may have been a lynx and that was one of the first things I looked up, but it looks different than that. However, I did find a cat on the link you gave me that looks EXACTLY like what I saw.

The African Golden Cat

Problem with that is, I'm in Kentucky, lol.

There are rumors of all kinds of crazy stuff here. My brother SWEARS he saw a hyena in the woods. Those aren't supposed to live around here either, hehe. I'm not sure what he saw because I didn't see it, but others have reported seeing the same.

Just wanted to edit to add that I have been looking up more photos of lynx, since obviously that would be more likely to live around here. I hadn't seen any photos of a lynx that really resembled the cat I saw, but I just found one that is VERY similar. The cat I saw was a bit more trim but this pic is very close to the one I saw that day! The one I saw I had very long tail that wasn't bushy at all, which is not very much like a lynx, but I'm sure there are some out there like that somewhere, lol. Thanks Phlynx! You may have helped solved the mystery... not very cryptic of that's the case.

[edit on 8/4/2009 by gemineye]

It's still, in my opinion, a cryptid, if you find one not native to the area. If you look at the last picture on your links, it looks like the tail is somewhat tucked in between the cats legs. I'm glad I could help find out what it was, because I was confused too!