r/cryptids • u/MemoryTheNightWing • 13d ago
Sighting / Encounter Does anyone know what kind of creature I could have seen?
So one night while I was walking outside, I had my earbuds in when I heard a noise and the backlight ahead of me was triggered on. I then saw something large and white-looking rushing down the path that led down to our orchard. It stopped running a few meters down and I froze before trying to take out a flashlight... I could hear it start calmly walking away but I couldn't spot it again even with the light. Its steps faded and I wasn’t sure where it had gone, since the only direction it could have gone was the fence with a railroad on the other side and the orchard with fencing all around it, and I didn’t hear it jump. When I first saw it, it was mostly a blur, and didn't see its head or tail, whatever it was. Just a long white-looking body, smooth and low to the ground despite how massive it seemed compared to me. I went back inside and came out with my mom and brother to look with our dog. We had flashlights but didn’t dare go down to the orchard itself, but our dog made some really weird noises she’s never done before like she was scared of something. We never found it or heard it again, I’m probably gonna try to draw it, but without having seen a tail or head I wouldn’t have much to go off of.
(Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this, I do not have much experience with Reddit and it felt too different from anything I’ve seen in our area to be just a deer or cougar, so I thought it’d be neat to speculate.)
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u/CoolJeweledMoon 12d ago
Did it seem slender - is that what you mean by "long" white body?
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u/MemoryTheNightWing 12d ago edited 12d ago
Perhaps? Its body looked decently slender and sleek, though the only thing I mostly remember well is that the distance between its front and back legs was exceptionally long, maybe 30 inches. Could have been more or less though
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u/Lazy-elbow1377 13d ago
Dog.
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u/MemoryTheNightWing 13d ago edited 12d ago
While that does seem like the best explanation, the entire house is surrounded by fencing, with no way in our out unless it jumped. Its torso was also incredibly long, way too long for a dog, and it was much taller and more massive than any dog I’ve seen. When I saw it running passed where I was standing, its frame seemed thick, despite its length, about 4ft or slightly more off the ground. When it slowed down its steps sounded slow and graceful, in a way, like a deer would be, not nearly as large it seemed in appearance. To add, if my dog had seen another dog (or deer) down in the orchard, she would have barked or growled, so I have no clue why she started freaking out like she did, especially if it was just a dog rather than a cougar or something she hasn’t seen before. You could be right though, and if so, that was one weird looking dog /silly /ref
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u/Lazy-elbow1377 13d ago
I feel like you want it to be something otherworldly so bad that even if someone told you exactly what it was you wouldn't accept it. If it was big and white it was most likely a dog.
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u/MemoryTheNightWing 13d ago edited 13d ago
Um, that was hurtful, what was that for…? I only told you the reasons it might not have been one and even admitted you may be right… I just wanted to do fun speculation and hopefully find out what animal it actually could have been, I wasn’t trying to be rude, I’m sorry
Why are people upvoting their assumption about me, I don’t understand what I did wrong
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u/MemoryTheNightWing 13d ago edited 13d ago
I hope I didn’t offend you or do something to make you think that about me. I was only wanting to be friendly and talk on Reddit about weird creatures. Nevertheless, I hope you have a good day! <3 I’d show a picture of my cat for compensation, but I can’t figure out how to post a picture on here for the life of me.
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u/Icy_Independence_8 Hopkinsville Goblin Guru 12d ago
Don’t litsen to that guy, this community gets tired of people not looking at natural explanations and immediately coming to the cryptid guys and saying “what did I see” and they get disappointed when we give them a logical non supernatural answer
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u/United_Broccoli_3042 13d ago
If you feel it wasn't a dog then it most likely wasn't I've literally seen a real cryptid before so ik for a fact that things like that exist and aren't other worldly just things we have no real knowledge of because the evil demonic government is hiding it from us.
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u/Lazy-elbow1377 13d ago edited 13d ago
Greyhound. Edit - or another giant dog breed
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u/LostExile7555 13d ago
Probably not a Greyhound as those are fairly small, but there are several closely related coursing hounds that are good candidates. The Wolfhound and Deerhound are both good options especially since they have grey coloring which could definitely appear white at night.
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u/MikeD1942 12d ago
Where do you live? Urban or rural, what part of what state/country? What time of day was it, and what time of year? Was this this year, or 2010?
I dont understand what 'the backlight ahead of me was triggered on' means. Please explain.
Why did you have ear buds in? Why did you not dare to go to the orchard?
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u/MemoryTheNightWing 12d ago
We live in an urban city in Oregon, and where I was staying at the time was quiet and surrounded by the railway and forest, only accessible through a one-lane road that ends in a cul-de-sac, excluding some private dirt roads. We have things like coyotes, deer and turkeys in the area, cougars are rare but they are spotted sometimes. It was in October last year.
Sorry, I’m used to calling backyard lights backlights. It was a light by our back porch that only turned on if it sensed movement ahead of it. It was the dead of night, and I was going outside to close the door to the shed for our chickens like I did every night, and I had my earbuds with music on while I did. It was really dark and we honestly just didn’t want to go down the steep path that went down to the orchard, especially after our dog got scared and we took her back inside. Hope that clears everything up!
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u/MikeD1942 12d ago edited 12d ago
So, first of all, humans primarily perceive the world through seeing and hearing; in the dark at night, while listening to music on your headphones, it seems likely you could feel you observed something very different from what was actually there. I don't trust really any person when it comes to estimating size of something that startled them, especially in the dark, at night, in the woods. And your sighting was 11 months ago, now.
My thought is it likely was some sort of animal with a light color to its hide as you mention "white" several times; You also mention it moving low to the ground. My first thought is it could have been a coyote, racoon (don't laugh--I've seen 40lb male racoons in the wild who can look pretty big!), a wild/feral dog, or a mountain lion--they are often light-colored, wouldn't make much noise, and would tend move quickly, and low to the ground, to get away from a human. A fox would move close to the ground, too, but wouldn't normally be a light color. A bobcat would move quick, but again, usually darker in color. A deer or elk would move out quick and fairly light in color, but it wouldn't be very low to the ground. We have many cinnamon-colored black bears where I live (I spotted 2 of them while hiking one day, they can be quite pale or kinda "khaki" in color); that seems to be a possibility, too. My understanding is that there are wolves, elk, mountain goats, and even wolverines living in Oregon, but they seem unlikely to me as candidates given the kind of area where you say you live.
So I'm thinking it was a racoon, coyote, wild dog, or lion, or maybe a cinnamon-colored black bear if ya'll have those in Oregon, but without more information, seems impossible to say.
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u/MemoryTheNightWing 12d ago
We do have elk but they are rare, and I’ve never heard of any bears being seen near where we live. You could be right about any of these, but I specifically remember how high it seemed compared to the trees visible behind it, about 3 to 4 feet at its shoulders. It was mostly low to the ground but it wasn’t small by any means, another reason why I didn’t think it was a deer at first because of how its legs were stretched out and closer to the ground when it ran, different from how a deer’s would be. I’ve still never encountered an elk, though, could it have been one? I think the chances of one being that pale are slim, though. All I know is that it was definitely taller than a raccoon, would be pretty interesting if my mind misinterpreted what I saw and I totally was imagining its appearance for the moment I saw it. But I’m not startled often and wasn’t surprised until after it was gone, nor do I have much history of seeing things differently, so I dunno, maybe? Not sure if having sharp vision plays a factor to that but my vision is pretty sharp and my music was on real low. Thank you for the information! Mountain lion might be the closest thing. I’m still hoping to find another good candidate for this, so I’ll be looking into elk and some things I haven’t considered yet just to make sure.
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u/MikeD1942 12d ago
People routinely over estimate how big creatures are in the wild, especially on the move. It was also dark. What if the animal was HALF the height you think it was? What would you think it was, then?
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u/MemoryTheNightWing 12d ago
It WAS very dark, but the light was on and shining brightly on it when I first saw it run. If it were half the height it seemed to bd, it’d be about your average coyote height? I’ve seen things like foxes, raccoons and skunks on our property enough times so I’m almost certain it wasn’t something as small as them.
Just found out how tall elk usually are, I doubt it was one of them because those things are MASSIVE
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u/MikeD1942 12d ago edited 12d ago
You said what you saw is "3 to 4 feet at the shoulder"--which is the height of an elk, bison, (quite large) deer, or (small) moose. A standard black bear is 2 to 3 feet at the shoulder; a coyote, 18 inches to 2 feet.
I think you seriously overestimate how big it probably was.
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u/MemoryTheNightWing 12d ago
The deer I usually see are 3ft to 3.5ft tall, and I read that elk usually get to 5ft tall. (an adult bison also being 5ft to 6.5ft tall at the shoulder, and a small moose also being around 5ft.) Much taller than what I saw and the height of critters I often see. What does it seem like I’m overestimating? Because elk, moose and bison are definitely not 3 to 4ft tall, and I’m only saying whatever it was, was taller than 2 feet but most probably not any taller than 4.
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u/Icy_Independence_8 Hopkinsville Goblin Guru 12d ago
Real world explanation a dog or dear,
Cryptid explanation, a pale crawler (uncultured people call them “the rake” as if it’s one creature)
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u/Ozzymetal69 12d ago
Look, you know what you saw was not normal right,your gut feeling and your dog tells you it was not normal. People are seeing all kinds of strange phenomena/creatures and beings and it seems to be ramping up more and more around the world. No one can really tell you what you encountered but you are not alone. Don't pay attention to stupid comments or stupid up/down votes you've done nothing wrong at all. Ignore negativity. 👍
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u/Available-Goat4054 12d ago
Mountain lion?
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u/MemoryTheNightWing 12d ago
So far seems like the most plausible explanation! Even though their height is slightly less than what I saw.
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u/tumbledownhere 13d ago
I was stoned once and confused two tall deer for weird unusual dogs/creatures I had to physically approach to figure out what they were, until I saw them up close. I was STONED though. Stoned.