You know that scene in the movie Poltergeist in which the family dog is barking at a spot in the wall during the middle of the night? It’s a very poignant scene. The writers and directors use it to set the stage up so that the audience knows that there is something wrong with the house.

Well last night I went through something similar and it really unnerved me.

It was about 1:38 am and my girlfriend and I were sound asleep. The blinds were all closed, blocking the city lights and creating a very dark atmosphere. The only light was from our DVR’s blue LED glow. It illuminates our couch and rug in the living room just enough so that you don’t stub your little toe on the leg of the couch when clumsily walking around in the middle of the night.

Everything was dark, quiet and cozy. Then I hear this low sounding growl. At first I thought I was dreaming. I opened my eyes and didn’t hear it at that moment so I closed them again and tried to fall back to sleep. Then I hear it again. This time I sat up in bed and looked around. Illuminated by the blue LED glow, my dog was sitting there, staring at the entertainment center’s glass pane. I’ve caught her doing it once or twice before during the daytime. I know it’s not her reflection that she is growling at since she does not growl at any other reflection of herself throughout the place. Not even her own reflection in the mirror.

So I sat up and was looking at my dog. She’s sitting straight up, eyes focused on the glass pane and just growling. It was a low sounding guttural growl. She did not move nor pace around. So I get out of bed and walk over to her and ask her what’s the matter. As if I broke her concentration or something, she snaps out of it and looks up at me and walks over and sits by my feet. Again, staring at the glass pane and growling. So I tell her to get in her bed which is next to our bed. She hesitates at first, but after I repeat myself she follows me into the bedroom, except she doesn’t get in her bed. She lays in front of our bed (the the left side a little) and continues to stare into the dark living room and do that low sounding growl.

Now I know my dog fairly well. I know her quirks, her OCD issues and her ‘personality’. She only growls this way when she feels that there is a threat on her domain or her family. It’s her “I’m about to bite you, so back the fuck off” type of growl.

What was unnerving to me was that fact that she kept doing that growl and staring off into the living room. I myself didn’t “feel” anything weird in my place, just creeped out a little.

Although I read and write about the paranormal on a daily basis, I’ve never really felt that it was affecting my life in this manner at all. I hope I’m not “attracting” anything into my place.

In reality, I don’t know what it was that my dog was growling at. It could have been her own reflection. Or maybe a low humming from the DVR or something but the fact of the matter is that it was a defensive growl and bothered me enough to think about it all morning.

Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe all this paranormal blogging is taking a toll in my thinking….